PayPal Requiring My Customers to Have Account

Shopping Cart Used to Allow Paying with Credit Card Instead

[eclancy]

Question:
My customer does not have a PayPal account. Can my customer still send a payment?

PayPal's Answer:
"Yes. Business and Premier account holders can accept payments from a non-PayPal member. With the PayPal Account Optional feature, your customers who are new to PayPal will no longer be required to create a PayPal Account to pay a Money Request/Invoice or to complete a purchase. The customer will go through an alternate checkout, and will have the option to sign up with PayPal afterward.

This feature is available for Buy Now, Donations, and Shopping Cart buttons, but is not available for Subscription buttons.

Note: This feature is only available to the off-market at this time."

My question again:
What is the "off-market" and why is the option for paying with a credit card no longer on the checkout screen?

The Checkout screen used to allow for customers who don't have a PayPal account and want to pay with a credit card, it was an option on the checkout screen.

Does anyone know if this is no longer available for the Standard Shopping cart?

I'm also asking PayPal this and will post any answers I get from them back here, but they are notorious for taking weeks to response to help questions.

[FalseDawn]

As it says, you need a business or premier account.

"To turn the feature off, simply go to the Profile subtab, click on Website Payment Preferences under the Selling Preferences column, and check the yes/no box under PayPal Account Optional."

No idea what off-market means.

[eclancy]

Thanks, I do have the "PayPal Account Option" turned "On".

I called them and finally got through. They said that the link to using credit cards is currently not there, but that they are working to put it back online.(This goes for everyone, not just me)

So I got a confirmation from them that there is no link on the checkout screen that allows someone to use the shopping cart with a credit card.

Hopefully they'll change it soon because my customers can't make a purchase unless they have a PayPal account.

[pp_rb]

The term "off-market" probably means "off-eBay". That is, if you have Buy Now or Shopping Cart buttons on your own website, buyers who use those may have access to the Account Optional checkout, but anyone using PayPal to pay for eBay purchases must have an account.

The Account Optional checkout does appear to be working. when you click on a Buy Now button, you may see one of two screens:

1. For new users, there is a screen with two options side-by-side. These say "Have a PayPal Account?" and "Don't Have a PayPal Account?", with credit card logos displayed in the "Don't Have" section. Clicking on the Secure Checkout button will take you to the Shipping or Billing page of the Account Optional checkout.

2. For users who have previously logged in, there is a screen that shows a login section, but it also has a "click here" button for users without accounts. If Account Optional checkout is available for the purchase, clicking that "click here" button will take you to the Shipping or Billing page of the Account Optional checkout.

If you see screen #2 (Login) and the "click here" button takes you to a signup page requiring a password, that means that Account Optional checkout is not available for that purchase. This can be due to a number of factors, including the merchant's account status (it must be a Premier or Business account), location (this feature is not available for merchants in Germany), and Profile settings.

[eclancy]

Thanks pp_rb, but I'm referring to the PayPal shopping cart, for anyone who has their own web site and using PayPal Shopping Standard Shopping Cart. These aren't the "buy now" button, that is something different.

I checked this morning Nov-14-05 and the option to pay with a credit card if you are not a PayPal member, is still not there.

The only options are:
to login using your PayPal account or to sign up for a PayPal account.

When we started using PayPal for our shopping cart the checkout screen would allow shoppers to checkout with a credit card, now that option is not there.

Yikes! and during this busy, time for mail order.

Let's hope they get it fixed. If any of you use a PayPal shopping cart on your web site, take a look at your checkout screen on the payment page. Let me know if you have the option to use a credit card. Much appreciated.

[markbaa]

Hi eclancy

Well, this confirms that I'm not crazy. I was setting up a shop a month or two ago, saw paypal had a "pay by CC without signing in" function and thought, great, I'll do that.

A week or two later when I implemented it, it was gone. Ripped my hair out trying to work out how to get it back. Eventually gave up and went with 2CO, who are ok, not brilliant - but don't require sign in.

So, that function has been missing at least a month. Don't hold your breath...

Mark

[sleepyBill]

I had the same issue - the option to pay using credit cards seemed to have gone... but it is still there if you delete the PayPal cookie from your test machine. If PayPal detect the cookie (indicating that you have used PayPal before) then you don't see the credit card option, you just see your email address in the login box. This probably mainly effects people who are testing their sites on machines that have coincidently been used by someone who has a PayPal account. So my advice would be to delete the cookie and try again.

[pp_rb]

The text on the PayPal Login page has been corrected. It no longer indicates that the customer would need to sign up for an account. (The Account Optional checkout was not disabled, but the text on that page was incorrect. It has been fixed.)

[gemini181]

So the standard Paypal shopping cart (for upgraded merchant/ business) accounts does currently accept credit cards? or no?

[pp_rb]

It does. The Account Optional checkout is enabled by default for both Buy Now and PayPal Shopping Cart purchases from Premier and Business accounts worldwide (excluding Germany). However, it is currently not supported for Subscriptions.

If you are testing your Shopping Cart checkout and see a login page that says "If you do not currently have a PayPal account, click here" - click the button and it should take you to the Shipping or Billing page of the Account Optional checkout. If it takes you to a Signup page instead, you need to enable Account Optional. Make sure you are using a Premier or Business account, log in to your Account, click on Profile, and click on Website Payment Preferences. Toward the bottom of the page, there is a section for "PayPal Account Optional". Make sure that this is set to "On" and click "Save".

If you want to see how your checkout will look to customers who have not logged in to PayPal before, try it out in a different browser or on a computer where you have not previously logged in to PayPal. (The first page they see after clicking "Secure Checkout" in the shopping cart will be different, and then the rest of the Account Optional checkout is the same.)