PayPal Payments Standard no longer accepts card payments by default

numberseven
Contributor
Contributor

I wonder if anyone can confirm what PayPal customer support told me yesterday in that the Payments Standard account no  longer offers the payee from an e-commerce website checkout the ability (or even the option) to accept payment without a PayPal account. He told me that the Pro account is now the only option that accespts card payments and that the Standard option is account only. When I questioned why PayPal are still offering non-account card payment options as part of teh Standard account, he iformed me that the website was "out of date" and the information was no longer correct. Astounding! Smiley Indifferent

 

When I informed him that this is false advertising in effect, he agreed and said there was nothing he could do as "the powers that be have made the decision to change the specification". When I asked why it had changed, he said that "you can still use a [debit / credit] card but the user's card details, useage/spend amount, geographical location and even IP address would all be accessed by the payments processor and if they didn't meet the minimum criteria the card would be declined! When I pointed out to him that the pay by card option had disappeared, his reply was "yes that could be a challenge, couldn't it. But may I say that sometimes it shows and others it doesn't..." Wow! Smiley Mad

Useless customer servce. Subsequently, we got nowhere.

 

Has anyone else experienced this issue with Payments Standard and if so does anyone have resolve?

 

Your input is appreciated.

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7 REPLIES 7

snowshoe
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

Yikes ..... That's a new statement, sorry have not heard that.

 

The Credit Card Option seems to be alive an well for Payments Standard from what we know.

 

There can be various reasons the option may not be available, below is how the process is designed to work:

 

Things to know Payments Standard's Credit Card Option or PayPal Account Optional as referred to in the User Guides: 

 First, your Item Button Code require no special coding.   It's related to how your Account is setup. 

 *  Account must be either Premier or Business.   Personal Accounts do not have this option. 
 *  PayPal Account Optional is turned on - this enables non PayPal Members to pay by Credit Card. 
 *  The email address you use to log into your PayPal Account must be verified. 
 *  The "business" variable value in your button code must be a verified email address or your Business ID. 
 *  Bank Account linked and verified - so you can withdraw or transfer funds. 
 *  Credit Card linked and verified. 



 To enable the PayPal Account Optional feature: 
 Go to your Account Profile. 
 Select:  My Selling Tools 
 Under:  Selling Online 
 Locate:  Website Preferences 
 Click on:   Update 
 Locate:  PayPal Account Optional 
 Click:   On 
 Click:   Save 

 When the "account optional" feature is turned on, customers don't need a PayPal account.   They use an alternate checkout and have the option to sign up for a PayPal account afterward.   Customers with PayPal accounts still log in to their PayPal accounts to check out. 

 This feature is available for Buy Now buttons, Donations, shopping carts and invoices. 

 Please note that if both the "auto return" and "account optional" features are turned on, customers who don't log in to PayPal can choose to go back to your website after checkout, but are not returned automatically. 



 Next, there are specific reasons the Credit Card Option may not be available to your customers. 

 *  You are using Express Checkout.   Express Checkout requires a PayPal Account 
 *  You are using the wrong email address or an unverified email address. 
 *  The country you reside in.   Not all countries have all the PayPal features available. 
 *  The country your customers reside in.   Not all countries have all PayPal features available. 
 *  The IP address of your hosted site is on a blocked list. 

 


 Last, you have your PayPal Account setup properly but, still don't see the Credit Card Option or only see a small link to the Credit Card Option. 

 It's all about the cookies.   The PayPal Screens are designed to be displayed in a specific way and what you see is based on the cookies and/or your PayPal Account configuration. 

 PayPal relies on the use of cookies to track what's in your cart and retain other info about you and therefore the screen that is displayed may not be the screen you expect to see.   If you are a new customer visiting PayPal for the first time, the Credit Card Option will be clearly displayed. 

 If this is your second or third visit to PayPal and your previous cookie has not expired, PayPal now views you as a returning customer.   You will get a screen with a small link to the Credit Card Option.   Although this is not as obvious to the customer, the Credit Card Option is still available.   For example, the cookie that holds the cart info will retain that info for up to 21 days.   The only way it will change is if you remove the items selected from the cart or delete the cookie. 

 If you are testing your web pages, creating new code or making changes, etc., simply delete your web browser's cookies, temp files and history, then close your web browser, reopen it and try your web pages again.   When you view the PayPal Screens, you will now get the screen with the Credit Card Option because PayPal views you as a new visitor. 

 Other reasons for deleting cookies.   Let's say you changed your business email address or business graphic logo.   If you don't delete the cookies, temp files and history before you test, you will still see the old information. 



Additional Notes: 

 PayPal accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express debit and credit cards. 

 Card types that are currently not compatible with PayPal Merchant Services are:   Procurement and private label credit cards (such as a department store credit card).   Debit cards requiring a numeric password and pin-pad for entry. 


And One Last Item: 

 With PayPal's Payments Standard, PayPal advertises that you do not have to have a PayPal Account to make a purchase.   This statement is quite true however, there is one small bit of very important information that is not mentioned in any of the available documentation. 

 Example Scenario: 
 You have returning customers or have clients that pay you for services or rent on a regular basis.   After your customer or client pays you 3 to 4 times using the same credit card, PayPal will interrupt the transactions and require the customer or client to open a PayPal Account or ask the customer or client to use a totally different credit card.   Although the customer or client's credit card is good, they will be unable to complete the transaction until they either open a PayPal Account or use a another credit card. 

 PayPal's mission it to sign up new business or accounts and by tracking the number of times a credit card is used is one method designed to help accomplish that goal.   Opening a PayPal Account may be OK with some of your customers or clients but, perhaps not all.   Just something to be aware of. 

 Payments Standard is great concept because you pay only for the services you use but, there are some limitations as this is one of them. 

 For folks who really just want their customers or clients to pay with a credit card with no limitations as described above, then the product to use is Payments Pro.   Pro is different as it does have a monthly fee, plus transaction fees and there are specific PCI security requirements to consider. 

 

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numberseven
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks Snowshoe, fantastic repy. Alas, having checked everything you detailed we still have no option to purchase via debit or credit card. We are UK based and I have not seen this issue previously which is why I trawled through the help pages and susequently contacted PayPal.  Everything you detailed does indeed ring true but doesn't work for us... oh well, back to the drawing board on this one.  Cheers.

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snowshoe
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

Sorry, I can't think of anything else at this point, if you checked everything in the previous post and can't find anything wrong, I'm a bit stumped.

 

Assuming you have a verified UK Account (has to be Premier or Business), and the credit card option is enabled in your account, and you're "not" using Express Checkout, it should be there.  One thought, is your site hosted in the UK?

 

Can you provide a link to your site so we can take a look at the PayPal Checkout page?

 

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numberseven
Contributor
Contributor

Certainly. The link is http://www.beathe-ec-cigarettes.co.uk. It's an opencart store so you may have to put a test order through it using Guest Checkout.

 

Any input is very much appreciated Smiley Happy

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snowshoe
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

Thanks, can't seem to get the link working.

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numberseven
Contributor
Contributor

oops... sorry, typed it wrong! Man Embarassed

 

Should be:

 

http://www.breathe-ec-cigarettes.co.uk

 

Thank you....

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snowshoe
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

Thanks, went thru the process, yep .... no credit card option.  I'm guessing that the cause is something simple.  Perhaps having another set of eyes go over your PayPal Profile settings would be helpful.  In addition, I would also check with the Opencart community and/or any support that is available, there may be a setting within your cart that needs tweaked

 

http://forum.opencart.com/

 

http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=support/support.

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