I have a Donate button on my website. For that matter, I've created dozens of donation buttons for misc. websites over the years. If users attempt to donate with a credit card, the button prompts them to create a PayPal account. No money can be accepted until a PayPal account is created. After going through the nine circles of hell to find the customer service number, I finally got through to an actual person. But then of course I was transferred and had to wait to talk to another person. While very nice and pleasant to speak to, she explained that PayPal's "security features" are working to protect the cardholder's account information from theft by trying to verify the number put into the field. If it can't find the number in the PayPal system, it will prompt the user to create a PayPal account. I asked to have turned off but she stated, quite pleasantly, that this "feature" cannot be disabled. I explained that this "feature" isn't helping anyone but PayPal gain more users and was a barrier to us receiving donations. We've had reports of three donors telling us they tried to give money but all stopped when they were prompted to create a PayPal account. Regardless of the intent, they didn't want to provide more personal info or setup PayPal. They were just trying to give money. Has anyone found a way around this? If this can't be fixed, we'll be forced to use a different system. I think Venmo will accommodate this or maybe working with our bank directly might work. In any case, it looks like my PayPal days are numbered. eBay has now gone to direct payments, contacting anyone at PayPal for support is ridiculously difficult and when you do they explain member mechanisms as security features.
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