PayPal, owned by eBay, is one of the oldest online payment solutions. While anyone can get an account for free, it also includes merchant accounts to give you the ability to process payments online. Services are available to customers in well over 100 countries, making it the ideal solution for those with a global business.



Merchant Services

PayPal's merchant services include the following:

Website Payments Standard: This simple solution includes easy HTML you can install on your website. Choose a buy now, add to cart, donate, or buy gift certificate button. It is already integrated into all third-party shopping cart systems, or you can get a shopping cart directly from the site if you don't have one. Their Virtual Terminal feature allows you to accept payments via phone, fax, mail or in-person. Also supports recurring or subscription payments. This option also allows you to automatically calculate sales tax and shipping, as well as print out postage. When you're done for the month, download your data to your accounting software such as Quick Books.

Website Payments Pro: All the features of standard, plus a built in shipping center to allow you to print packing slips, Express Checkout for those who already have a PayPal account, risk protection, and more.

Email Payments: You don't even need a website to use this feature. Send an email payment request to anyone with an email address in 190 countries and they can pay you directly through email. You can generate QuickBooks or Outlook invoices to send to your client. Fast processing and includes the shipping center feature as well as many others.

Payflow Gateway: There are two versions to this option. With the Pro option you can let customers make payments without ever leaving your site. Powerful reports and management tools included with PayPal manager. You must have a merchant account to use this option.

Express Checkout: This can be used with other options. Basically, if a customer already has an account with PayPal, they can check out quickly and easily. Customer's without one can sign up or use another payment option.

International Sales: This is not a service per se, but an area of the site to help you learn more about selling internationally.

Keep in mind though, that PayPal does not allow you to sell leads, it is against their terms of service. Also, PayPal has been known to shut down accounts selling business and multi-level programs without warning, and as a rule release the funds 6 months or later.

How to Sign Up

To open a Premier or Business account with PayPal is easy. Simply go to the website and enter your information. Opening an account and withdrawing money into a US bank account is free. Adding funds if you want to shop are also free. For all other transactions, the fee is 1.9% to 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. Transactions can be from a PayPal Balance, Instant Transfer, eCheck, Credit Card, Debit Card, or Buyer Credit.

You will need to call about opening a merchant account. Some of the services, such as Virtual Terminal and Website Payments Pro, have monthly fees depending on the package you are using. Payflow Gateway has a one-time set up and a monthly fee.

If you are looking for a global solution that will allow your company to reach almost 200 countries, look no further.