Paypal problem

[lindajames]

Hi,

I have been told by many people that you do not have to go through the 4 Digit PayPal membership process if you do not have a PayPal account. Apparantly some people say that my customers can just put in their credit card details in the payment page and thats it! but i cant seem to find out how this can be done, every way i have tried seems to use the membership process, and therefore customers that dont have a paypal account have to wait upto 4 days just to get their paypal account activated so that they can pay for my product.

Alot of people say that since i am only selling my products for £3 the paypal membership is not nessasary, can anyone please help me out on this as its driving me crazy.

i would really appreciate any suggestions.

Cheers
Linda

[dmorison]

I've heard this before from other webmasters but I can't understand where the problem comes from.

I used PayPal in the early days of my current site (about 12-15 months ago) and never experienced this.

Users are directed to paypal. If they already have an paypal account the can login, if not, they provide their personal details and credit card number to

a) get your own PayPal account

and

b) make an immediate payment to the merchant.

You are using a verified business account are you? There's no way PayPal could push PayPal as a way to receive payments at your website if this problem really was the case...

[Jenstar]

I have heard from others trying to order via PayPal that they will have to wait 4 days to get their account set up through PayPal before they can pay me.

I think what the delay is that new users need to contact their credit card company to get the three digit verification code (PayPal will do a charge to their credit card for $0.01 and the company name will say PayPal then a combination of three digits). New users have to then input these three numbers from their credit card statement to then get their PayPal account activated. PayPal advises new users to wait a few days before contacting their credit card company, or wait until their online credit card statement is updated.

[lindajames]

Yes Jenstar,

Thats exactly the point, that is just so annoying and this way i will definately loose alot of customers.

Can anyone please tell me how this can be solved? as alot people do say its possible.

Cheers
Linda

[dmorison]

Linda -

Can you confirm that the email address you attempt to receive the payment at is a "Verified Business Account" at PayPal?

Mine is/was, and I certainly never came across this problem...

If it isn't, that may explain it!

Hope this helps;

[Jenstar]

Hmmm.. that is an interesting idea. They recently came up with "Canadian - Verified" (before I was always an "International - Unverified", even though I had been a registered user for years and they had my credit card # on file). I haven't heard anyone having this problem since the change, but that could also be just a coincidence ;)

[lindajames]

Hey dmorison,

Where do i find out if i am "Verified Business Account" from?

When i login to my paypal account it says the status as:
"U.K. - Verified (New)"

If the status is meant to be "Verified Business Account" then how do i get that? and will this sort the problem with the 4 digit thing?

Your help would be very much appreciated.

Cheers
Linda

[Jenstar]

Log into your account and click profile. Then click on "Add Business Information" to add your company information and turn it into a business account (if that option is available to UK users).

[lindajames]

I did that, and its saved my business details, but it still says: U.K. - Verified (New) as the status

[dmorison]

That should be it.

When I login (blimey, it's been a long time!) I see:

"U.K. Business Account Overview"

at the top of the page.

The text below just says "U.K. - Verified" like yours.

Give it a go and see if your users still have a problem...

[lindajames]

hey dmorison,

yes it does say "U.K. Business Account Overview" at the top

but when i click on the buy now button, it takes me to the payment page, and it says Outside U.S.A? Click Here, then once that is clicked then it takes me to the page where i can put a UK credit card number in. However, in the Outside U.S.A payment page, it says:

If you have a Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover card: PayPal has a $1.95 Membership Fee that will be charged to your credit card when you click Continue below. We will refund this fee to your PayPal account after your successfully enter your Member Number.

If you have a Switch or Solo card: Your card will receive two small charges of less than £1.00 each when you click Continue below. We will refund these charges after your complete your PayPal Membership.

Whereas, if i go to U.S.A Payment page, that information is not there, so it seems like US based customers dont have to go through that process.

I really appreciate your help

cheers
linda

[dmorison]

Yep - that's it, you should find people can make payment immediately; although outside the US they have that pain of having the charge + refund.

At least they refund it these days. Back when I started up they didn't refund the "set-up" charge...

Don't be put-off considering the alternatives to PayPal.

I only used them to get off the ground and then moved to WorldPay after a couple of months. I just had to get my business bank account sorted out etc.

[Jenstar]

I wonder if it could be partly a non-US user issue, not just whether the seller's account is set up as a business account or not. The last customer I had this happen with was located in Canada.

[Fighting Falcon]

Hi

Whenever someone signs up they are automatically given a few hundred dollar spending limit with PayPal.This limit can be later removed by carrying out a dummy transaction for a small amount which then makes the new account "verified" and lifts the initial spend limit. I believe the initial spend limit is around USD 500 which is quite often enough for most online transactions and would therefore not require the verification process before a purchase can be made. This might be the reason why you are getting mixed messages from different people. :)

Some amount of signup hassle can be removed if you use a shopping cart system which pre-populates the signup forms for people who do not have an account with paypal.

I hope this if of some help.

Cheers
Fighting_Falcon

[Jenstar]

the initial spend limit is around USD 500

That is an interesting point, Fighting_Falcon. The transaction I was referring to was for just about that amount. And that is a likely reason why everyone seems to have different stories on the subject.

The plot thickens....

[pbreit]

A small percentage of non-US users won't be able to make a credit card payment immediately.

[Robski]

Hmm I am currently experiencing this same thing with a US customer. In the beginning I didn't even know what he was talking about. Really all I can do is just refer him to Paypal and maybe they will be able to resolve the issue. Although it looks like I will be losing the sale since most customers have no patience for that sort of thing. I have to agree with a previous post which states to use Paypal to get your business off the ground and then change to a more "professional" setup. This is something which I am currently working on myself as I am experiencing a very large amount of incomplete orders because of Paypal.

[scoob]

I setup a friend's site once with paypal.
The first customer through the "virtual" door tried to
make a purchase and was told about the 4 digit bit
which could take as long as getting her next statement...

Some folks have said that paypal fixed it and here it is
again. Bottom line for me is: I can't trust them with my
(or my client's) business.

I went to 2checkout.com, payed $50 and had a setup similar
to paypal (with a 5.5% discount rate...) that worked very
very well for us and the now happy customers. That higher
discount rate is a bit annoying but when your sales volume
is low it's not that big a deal. For $100 items, you may
want to start looking into a real merchant's account when
you consistently hit $1500-$2000/month sales.

Then there's payquake with another solution that can grow
with your business. But for this one, you need to host your
own shopping cart (compatible with authorize.net).

Hope this helps!
- Scoob

[musicales]

I run two sites with PayPal. One caters for mainly US customers and has no problems at all. Then I set up one in the UK and every second customer complains because either

1)They can't see the outside the US link, so they try to enter a postcode in the ZIP column and it doesn't match

2)They get asked to wait for their next statement to read back a four digit number.

I've tried a dummy payment from the UK and I can never replicate the problem with the 4 digit number, so I', also really curious what the problem is. I'm left with no alternative but to find another system to accept payments - I'm just losing too many customers!

Scoob- do you know if authorize.net is available outside the US?

[scoob]

Sorry, I don't know if they are available outside the us.
Try contacting them and then let us know what you find.

But logically, authorize.net is a payment gateway which
works with the global credit card authorization network.
This means that they should be able to authorize payments
from around the world as the credit card network works
around the world.

Typically, the problem seems to be with the merchant
account rather than the gateway (but I'm not 100% sure).
I would look at european merchant accounts and see if
any provides authorize.net as a gateway.

Otherwise, you can get a US merchant account and have
the funds wire transfered overseas. Please share your
findings as this is of interest for many.

Cheers!
- Scoob

[musicales]

scoob - do you know if they would allow me to integrate a custom shopping cart (in ASP) with their package?
I couldn't find any info on this on their site.
Thanks

[scoob]

Look under www.authorizenet.com/support

They publish an API and you can register with them
to be a "certified" authorize.net compatible cart.
This (I think) is free and you will have access
to a test suite AND they will keep you informed of
changes in the API.

- Scoob