which PP account for me?

[joehark]

I am totally coinfused by PP's various accounts - and i think that PP is deliberately causing that confusion by engaing in carefully worded deception. They say I can send an invoice to anyone with an email address and get paid even if they do not have a PP account.

The mis-leading thing about that is, as I ithnk i understand the way they have parsed the meaning of that sentence, I can SEND the invoice asking for payment to my Standard PP account, but when that person tries to pay, they cannot do that unless they FIRST OPEN a PP account.

The real policy for my Standard PP account is I can bill them and they do not have to have a PP account to RECEIVE my bill, but they will still have to open a PP account before they can pay using a CC card.

So, first question, please confirm if that is the fact of it.

Secondly, which PP account will allow me to get paid by someone who has ONLY a credit card, but not a PP account - and will not be required to open a PP acount before using their CC to pay me?

[Lucky7_Deals]

First off, yes, you understood their procedure correctly. You can bill to someone who doesn't have a PP account, but they will have to then sign up for a PP account to actually pay it.

As for your second question, the only way to accept credit card payments without PP, is to have a merchant account (which you can establish from outside of  PP altogether). You can then set up a private website where buyers can use their credit cards to purchase from you directly just like they do at any website that accepts credit/debit cards as online payments.

[joehark]

Thank you for the response. I must say it is annoying to have to play word games with a company that is supposed to be protecting my money, but that subject is for another thread.

Please help me understand what PP offers? I have a premium business account and use PP Standard. Isn't there a PP plan that will act just like a Merchant Account from any card processing company that allows a card holder to simply pay me without having to sign up at PP for an account of their own?  

If not, what is the point of those other types of PP accounts where you have to pay a monthly fee?

[Lucky7_Deals]

Okay, it seems that you're asking about PayPal's Website Payment Standard/Pro services. These services are relatively new and yes, they are designed for merchants who have their own websites and would like to accept payments from customers via credit or debit cards, but don't have a PayPal account. Basically the difference between the Website Payment Standard (WPS) and the Website Payment Pro (WPP) service is that the Pro service gives you added functionality such as offline credit card processing among other features. Here are a couple of links from the official PayPal merchant site that compares and explains both of these services in detail:

https://merchant.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=merchant/accept_credit_cards

https://merchant.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=merchant/compare_wp_products

The WPS service doesn't require a monthly fee, but the WPP service does require a $30/month fee. You can also call a sales agent at 1-888-879-8704 and speak to them in detail about each service. But both will allow your customers to pay without having or signing up for a PayPal account.