What type of PayPal Account should I opt for?
Thread poster: sonia meher
sonia meher
sonia meher  Identity Verified
Local time: 13:17
English to Hindi
Dec 13, 2007

Hello Everyone!
I am a freelancer, translating for the language pair of English-Hindi. I have been active on proz.com as a free member for quite some time but now I wish to upgrade my membership to a paid one. Would anyone suggest me the easy way to pay for this membership? Please note that I do not possess a credit card presently so can I open a paypal account without a credit card?
Also, please let me know as to what type of a Paypal account would suit me best- a personal account o
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Hello Everyone!
I am a freelancer, translating for the language pair of English-Hindi. I have been active on proz.com as a free member for quite some time but now I wish to upgrade my membership to a paid one. Would anyone suggest me the easy way to pay for this membership? Please note that I do not possess a credit card presently so can I open a paypal account without a credit card?
Also, please let me know as to what type of a Paypal account would suit me best- a personal account or a premier one or a business account for that matter?
PS: I wish to accept payments in future through the same paypal account.
Any help would be warmly appreciated!
Thanks in Advance
Sonia Meher
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zsuzsa369 (X)
zsuzsa369 (X)
Local time: 07:47
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Credit Cards vs Debit Cards Dec 13, 2007

You don't necessarily need a credit card to use PayPal. However, you do need a bank account with a DEBIT card to fund your payments and also to be able to withdraw money.

Personal PayPal accounts are only suitable for making payments. (There are all sorts of restrictions on what type of payments you can receive with a personal account and it is not really practical in the long run.) If you wish to receive regular payments, you need a Premier or Business PayPal account. There's
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You don't necessarily need a credit card to use PayPal. However, you do need a bank account with a DEBIT card to fund your payments and also to be able to withdraw money.

Personal PayPal accounts are only suitable for making payments. (There are all sorts of restrictions on what type of payments you can receive with a personal account and it is not really practical in the long run.) If you wish to receive regular payments, you need a Premier or Business PayPal account. There's not much difference between these two, apart from the fact that Business PayPal accounts are registered in your company's name if you have one.

Also, be aware that PayPal take a chunk out of each payment you receive PLUS a comission for any currency conversions. You can check the current rates on their website. Normally, there are no fees for sending money.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Zsuzsa
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Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 09:47
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
Well... Dec 13, 2007

As far as I remember, the free membership requires, that payments to your account are made by credit card. If your customer does not want to use a credit card, you cannot withdraw the money. I had to upgrade to business. As far as I remember, I made a small payment in order to establish my existence. I did not use a credit card then.
Regards
Heinrich


 
Renée van Bijsterveld
Renée van Bijsterveld  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 08:47
Member (2007)
English to Dutch
+ ...
Payment via bank account Dec 13, 2007

Hi Sonia,
By now you can use Paypal without a credit card.
Please check:
https://www.paypal.com/helpcenter/main.jsp, option What can I do with Paypal
Best,
Renée


 
sonia meher
sonia meher  Identity Verified
Local time: 13:17
English to Hindi
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks for educating me on Paypal issue. Dec 14, 2007

Hi everyone!
Thanks to all of u for educating me on the paypal issue. This information is really helpful. I would keep it in mind while going for a paypal account and a paid membership.
Hope to join you all very soon as a full member of this site.
Regards,
Sonia Meher


 
ATIL KAYHAN
ATIL KAYHAN  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 10:47
Member (2007)
Turkish to English
+ ...
Go for PayPal Personal Account Dec 16, 2007

I would say get a PayPal Personal Account because that is the only one PalPal does not charge you for incoming payments. The other two PayPal accounts (Premier and Business) will charge you for any incoming payment.

The only major drawback of the Personal Account is that you cannot accept credit card payments from others. PayPal uses this fact very cleverly to make you switch to a Premier Account at the first opportunity they get. If someone tries to send you a payment via his/he
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I would say get a PayPal Personal Account because that is the only one PalPal does not charge you for incoming payments. The other two PayPal accounts (Premier and Business) will charge you for any incoming payment.

The only major drawback of the Personal Account is that you cannot accept credit card payments from others. PayPal uses this fact very cleverly to make you switch to a Premier Account at the first opportunity they get. If someone tries to send you a payment via his/her credit card, PayPal will send you a message automatically to either switch to a Premier Account to be able to receive the payment, or reject this payment altogether. After all, they make a lot more money with Premier Accounts than with Personal Accounts. This also happens to be the reason I involuntarily switched to Premier Account sometime in the past. However, I find PayPal fees to be so high that I definitely suggest that you get a Personal Account and try to hold on to it as long as you possibly can.

I hope this information helps.
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lbone
lbone  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 15:47
Member (2006)
English to Chinese
+ ...
a buiness account and a personal account Dec 17, 2007

I think a business account may help you get money in time.

I have two accounts, one business and one personal. The business account was blocked by PayPal for no reason; the personal account survived. Some agencies do not want to pay you in methods other than PayPal, so I got 3 delayed payment (they paid by credit card but personal account does not accept credit card payment) in the past 30 days.

You can apply for a personal account and a business account. You can give y
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I think a business account may help you get money in time.

I have two accounts, one business and one personal. The business account was blocked by PayPal for no reason; the personal account survived. Some agencies do not want to pay you in methods other than PayPal, so I got 3 delayed payment (they paid by credit card but personal account does not accept credit card payment) in the past 30 days.

You can apply for a personal account and a business account. You can give your PayPal personal account to those who pay with the fund in their PayPal account, and your business account to those who insist on paying you by credit cards.

[Edited at 2007-12-17 05:51]
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Caroline Moreno
Caroline Moreno  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 00:47
Chinese to English
+ ...
How do you switch back to a personal account? Jan 7, 2008

So, I discovered the drawbacks of a business account after I received some payments and am now considering switching back to a personal account. Is this possible? How can I do it? I searched for awhile and didn't find any way to switch back. I've found that Paypal isn't the most user-friendly. Thanks in advance!

Caroline Moreno


 
zsuzsa369 (X)
zsuzsa369 (X)
Local time: 07:47
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Personal accounts are practically useless Jan 7, 2008

Caroline Moreno wrote:

So, I discovered the drawbacks of a business account after I received some payments and am now considering switching back to a personal account. Is this possible? How can I do it? I searched for awhile and didn't find any way to switch back. I've found that Paypal isn't the most user-friendly. Thanks in advance!

Caroline Moreno


I would advise you against downgrading to a personal account for the reason that you won't be able to receive payments unless your clients use their PayPal balances or direct debits from their bank accounts to fund them. If you ever get a credit/debit card payment, which is the majority of the payments I would have thought, you won't be able to accept it.

On the other hand, there's no reason why you can't have a separate personal account set up as well. All you need to do is register a new PayPal account with a DIFFERENT email and bank account number. I'm using two accounts myself, so I know it's possible.

I know PayPal charges quite a lot but so do most banks. If you get a cheque or a bank transfer in a foreign currency, your bank charges may even be higher than PayPal. Plus, there's the convenience of PayPal to consider. It's easy for you and it's easy for your clients. If you start setting conditions to your clients, like what forms of payments you can or can't accept, they may think it's too much hassle and go somewhere else.

Anyway, that's been my experience with PayPal. But why don't you try it? Set up a personal PayPal account and see if you can accept any payments that way. If it's not possible for you to set up an additional PayPal account (eg. you don't have another bank account to register) you can downgrade your business account by requesting it through the 'Contact Us' link on the PayPal website, but be prepared that you may have to reject some payments as a result of this. Chances are, you'll find yourself having to upgrade again.


 
Caroline Moreno
Caroline Moreno  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 00:47
Chinese to English
+ ...
Thanks! Jan 11, 2008

Zsuzsa,

You bring up some good points. I think for now I will keep the business account and see how it goes. I like the convenience of Paypal but sometimes it's nice to just get hardcopy checks (as long as they actually ARE in the mail). I haven't incurred any fees so far this way since the checks were from US banks.

Thanks again for your thoughtful response!


 
Alyona Douglas
Alyona Douglas  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 03:47
English to Russian
Bank account Jan 16, 2008

I have 2 Paypal accounts - personal and premier.
Some time ago I received a payment of USD 425.00 to my personal account from abroad and PayPal charged me USD 21.00!! as a fee for a cross-border transaction - 2% + 3.9% + USD 0.30.
It was a very negative surprise and I decided to use PayPal only for payments within U.S.

I found a bank that charges only USD 10.00 for any incoming amount (irrespective of the Payer's country) and opened an account there. I am really happy w
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I have 2 Paypal accounts - personal and premier.
Some time ago I received a payment of USD 425.00 to my personal account from abroad and PayPal charged me USD 21.00!! as a fee for a cross-border transaction - 2% + 3.9% + USD 0.30.
It was a very negative surprise and I decided to use PayPal only for payments within U.S.

I found a bank that charges only USD 10.00 for any incoming amount (irrespective of the Payer's country) and opened an account there. I am really happy with it and can recommend it to everybody (I guess, it's a local Californian bank) - First Federal Bank of California.

[Edited at 2008-01-16 00:49]
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Milton Guo
Milton Guo  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 15:47
English to Chinese
+ ...
Useful info Jan 27, 2008

Thank you all for the useful information above as I am searching for them, too

Paypal is a good tool but it charges a bit more and put so many restrictions. Anyway it's good for international payment.

While in CHina, we have a very nice similar tool called Alipay created by alibaba.com.....you can virtually transfer money online through it without any bank fee..


 


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