PayPal no longer requiring account set up!

[pbreit]

PayPal rolled out a much-requested feature. Buyers are no longer required to set up a PayPal account when paying.

[JeremyL]

That probably means that this type of transaction cannot be done for non US paypal accounts. Have you guys checked to see if it is availible to pay your account with yet?

[sun818]

> this type of transaction cannot be done for non US paypal accounts

One would suspect that is where the least cardholder verification can occur and possibly why this feature may be limited to USA buyers and sellers.

[Brett_Tabke]

This is excellent. There are many checks in place to prevent fraud. Afterall it *is* paypal - hands down the most secure payment processor on the net today. Read a bit deeper into the new features.

[JeremyL]

Read a bit deeper into the new features.

Where is the announcement with all the info anyway, I can't find it.

[CernyM]

Indeed. If this becomes at all well accepted, I'll dump my merchant account and its gazillion different fees for different permutations of the same thing.

Having to pay for declined transactions, fraudulent credit card attempts, surcharges for corporate cards, monthly gateway fees, statement fees, and all that mess gets old quick.

[Leweq22]

So can anyone confirm wether UK or non-US paypal users have to sign up to pay for products. I was thinking of using WorldPay because I didn't want to limit who can purchase my item but if I can use PayPal in the UK to accept credit Cards without my customers having to join then I might as well use them!

[anallawalla]

Any non-US merchants see this option?

Where do you see "Profile"? Do you have to "become" a PayPal merchant before you see it?

[amznVibe]

PayPal has also recently added USPS integration into their shipping options.
(UPS had already been offered for a year or two)

I'd link to it but everything I try to format here gets delinked or deformated shortly afterwards, sorry.

[PayPalDave]

in response to question on PayPal acct no longer required:
[paypal.com...]
(note: need to be logged-in to PayPal to view this page; may also be dependent on geography)

in response to question about other new features:
[paypal.com...]

finally, in response to concerns about fraud for the new "account-optional" flow, PayPal performs similar fraud-prevention techniques for these transactions as it does for normal 1st-time user transactions.

regards & hope you enjoy the new features...

[IanCP]

Some comment has been made about non-US accounts.

Now I haven't bothered to log-in and check but it seems odd there has not been an email announcement about it.

I suspect initially it is purely for US Merchants only with later extension elsewhere after successfully trialling in the USA.

Then again no one in the US has reported any official announcement either.

[Clark]

As the merchant, what kind of information do you get when paid, other than the payment? Both for vetted and unvetted pp customers? If I ship an expensive item to a paypaller, how do I know that the name and address has any meaning?

They can use someone else's account, let me drop the item to their temporary address, then when the "real" buyer wakes up, they're gone and there's a huge chargeback.

[canuck]

PayPalDave, any word if/when the accountless payment system will be available for Canadian and other non-US sellers?

Definitely some nice additions that were rolled out...

- canuck

[sun818]

Paypal, I think, is still best used for micro transactions. If you have a large transaction in place, I suggest utilizing additional anti-fraud checks in additional to Paypal.

[Brett_Tabke]

Thanks Dave. Are there any guidelines or specific instructions on how to transition sites from the old model? I feel that PayPal is an established brand that people have their preconcieved notion that "requires existing account". Any recommended verbage to counter that?

[ken_b]

I read on another board that the "account-optional" feature did not apply to ebay.

Not sure if that's true or not, but since Paypal is an ebay company it seems odd if it is true.

[PayPalDave]

hi canuck -

currently the account-signup-optional feature is available to US sellers and their customers, for Buy Now, Donation, and Shopping Cart transactions. currently it does not apply to eBay transactions, Subscriptions, or Send Money / Request Money transaction -- however we are considering those in the future as well.

we are also looking into extending this availability to non-US merchants in the near future, however i don't have a confirmed release date as yet. sorry about that, but i believe we hope to get it out to other folks as soon as possible.

the other features announced (auto return, color customization, partial refunds) should be available to all geographies.

---

note: information provided to the seller is the same as before, based on the user's billing & shipping addresses. depending on the seller's choice of payment settings, they can choose whether to ship to addresses different from that on the credit card or not.

---

Brett: the "PayPal Account Optional" feature can be toggled on or off from your profile setting, under the "Selling Preferences" / "Website Payment Preferences" area at the bottom of the page, below the "Auto Return" setting.

hope this helps,

[edited by: PayPalDave at 8:14 pm (utc) on Feb. 15, 2004]

[sun818]

Yes, Damon @ Paypal said eBay purchases must be paid using a Paypal account. As a seller, I would not let that stop me from sending a customized link to have buyers pay outside of eBay for an eBay transaction.

PayPalDave, two questions:

1) Can we tell from incoming Paypal payment e-mails whether a buyer is registered with Paypal or not?

2) If we have the refund a purchase from a Paypal optional buyer, will the refund appear on the credit card the buyer used? (How many days does it take to appear?)

[PayPalDave]

>>1) Can we tell from incoming Paypal payment e-mails whether a buyer is registered with Paypal or not?

yes, i believe so. i don't have a copy of a new buyer email in front of me to compare (sorry i'm at home over the long weekend), but i believe a transaction id # in yellow is highlighted for both buyer and seller if the user didn't signup. should also be other identifying info. apologies i don't have all the details in front of me at the moment.

>>2) If we have the refund a purchase from a Paypal optional buyer, will the refund appear on the credit card the buyer used? (How many days does it take to appear?)

good question, sorry i don't know the answer to that one. i do know that the refund does go back on to the credit card, not into a PayPal account.

one note: i believe our new partial refund feature won't work for a non-account buyer, since it requires a PayPal account to accept. full refunds are enabled for all buyers however.

[sun818]

> i believe a transaction id # in yellow is highlighted

For those of use who prefer plain text e-mail, I hope there is a way for us to distinguish between payment from Paypal and non-Paypal account holders ("other identifying info"). This is important so we can accurately communicate to our buyers in case we need to provide refunds.

[PayPalDave]

good point, i'll check that out...

[Andy_Reid]

I'm holding my breath up here in Canada. This is a feature that we've been looking for - for a long time.

[PayPalDave]

additional note on account vs non-account transactions -- the receipt email should say "receipt id" instead of "transaction id".

i'm checking on this with product (sorry, i'm home over the long weekend... doing some board monitoring from here ;)

Andy -- don't believe this is available for Canada merchants just yet, but we do hope to make it available for non-US merchants very soon. don't quote me, but likely Canada would be first on that list...

[needleme]

I realize Paypal gives you an opportunity to sign on with them after your purchase, but if you still don't want a Paypal account, can you continue to purchase from the same vendor without being required to sign up anyway?

Also, what are all the credit card types Paypal accepts? VISA, Mastercard, etc.

Do I need to change anything on my end to have this feature for my site? I use the shopping cart.

Thanks! I can't wait to give my customers this information!

Vicki H

[PayPalDave]

Vicki -

you may want to visit our site to see more about the questions you ask above. try:
www.paypal.com/merchtab

and also check out the Merchant Tools Guide noted at the bottom of the page.

re: the PayPal Account Optional setting, i believe the answer is yes a non-account buyer can make multiple purchases.

[sun818]

Buyer would need to provide credit card details each time s/he makes a purchase.

[BallochBD]

The sooner this rolls out in the UK the better as far as I am concerned. I would think that many of the major Internet merchant account providers will be "interested" to hear about this. Does this mean that an entire ecommerce website could be built on PayPal without the user having a merchant account? For example, is there any restriction to the number of items that can be included in a catalogue?

[PayPalPB]

To clear up any confusion: PayPal continues to perform the same significant fraud screening on payments performed with the new process. PayPal will continue to run addresses through AVS and indicate to the merchant if a shipping address is confirmed or unconfirmed.

Rolling this out to non-US users is a top priority. The International team was very busy with paypal.de and ELMI.

[jwcooper]

It's about time!

[gramski]

Hopefully it won't be too long before paypal sellers in Australia can use these new features. Once they've done that there's just one more thing that paypal need to do - accept $AUD.

Seeing there's some paypal members posting here now could you let us know if $AUD is coming any time soon?

[King of Bling]

"Paypal, I think, is still best used for micro transactions." sun818

>> I am in the process of setting up a retail site as we speak. What constitutes 'micro transaction'? Our maximum oders will be leass than $250USD.

Thanks!