Paypal for Website

[tratallen]

Hi

I belong to a small animal club in Britain. I have been researching adding a Paypal option to our website as it is desirable for attracting new members to our club. I have spoken to Paypal via phone and am advised that we would need to use a business account for this, it is free but a 3.4% cut of each transaction goes to Paypal. Great! 

Previous to my research, I was advised by another club member that we can not add paypal due to needing a merchant's account and incurred monthly charges. This is converse to what Paypal are telling me.

My question is this: as we are a club, not a business as such, could the charges he was talking about be linked to the BANK ACCOUNT that would have to be used? ie, to use the FREE Paypal business account, do we need to use a  special business bank account that would charge us for use, or can we use just a normal account in the name of the club for the business Paypal account?

Thank You

[PayPal_Jessica]

Hi Tratallen,

Thanks for posting in the forum and apologies for the delay. Since you want to set up an account fro a club, selecting the Business type would be the best option since it will allow you to have access for multiple authorized members. With a Business account, you would need to add a bank that is in the name of the club. There are not monthly charges for having a Business account, fees are only applied when you receive payments. You can find more information about fees in this link

Thanks,

Jessica 

[berty100]

A word of warning; if you need your club to have the money that people pay you in a reasonable timeframe in order to survive, then don't use paypal, as it could easily cause you to go bankrupt.

Paypal puts holds on new accounts, so you'll be lucky if a given payment from one of your customers/buyers ends up transferrable to your bank account within a few weeks.

If money that people send you being held-back for many weeks (that's AFTER you've already provided your service/products to them) isn't a problem, then sure, go ahead and use paypal.

But if you need the money that people send you in a reasonable timeframe, then steer clear of paypal at all costs as they'll use your "new account" status to hold onto your money for as long as possible so that they can earn interest from it.

Just have a look at the "holds" forum topic, and you'll get a more accurate picture of what paypal really do to sellers.