Getting the best out of PayPal

PayPal is undoubtedly one of the biggest and the most common systems used for online payments. Although there are some payment gateways from prominent players like Google and Amazon, PayPal continues to rule this space despite its high transaction fees. PayPal also lacks proper customer service and most of the tech forums will have a hate thread for PayPal with constant updates and complaints. There are also many anti paypal sites and a search for the keywords ‘Paypal Sucks’ fires up close to 200k results.

The sheer advantage of PayPal is the huge user base and also the ease of sending and receiving money. It also helps merchants to set up shopping carts,subscriptions and buy now buttons very easily. Lets look at how to get the best out of PayPal.

There are three types of accounts which can be created in PayPal.
1. Personal Account – As the name implies it is for personal usage. It has limited features and with a personal account a user can receive only 5 credit card funded payments per year.
2. Premier Account – This account provides merchant services and unlimited credit card transactions. This is well suited for freelancers who don’t have a company registered as a premier account will be under an individual’s name.
3. Business Account- Has all the features of the premier account and the account will be in the name of a registered business.

Up till now there was no charge for money sent and received through personal accounts but recently Paypal sneakily made some changes in the fee structure and it annoyed many users. The ‘gross amount’ received was displayed in the account dashboard and many people failed to notice the fact that Paypal silently swallowed some part of their money.

Here are some of the good practices for using Paypal and getting the best out of it.

1.Verify your account

The first and the foremost thing to do after opening a paypal account is to get it verified. This will remove a lot of limitations for sending/receiving and withdrawing money from the account. Verified accounts also increases the credibility factor to a great extent. Many online merchants make it a mandatory requirement if you want to pay using Paypal. It is very simple to verify your paypal account and all you need is a valid credit card. The Verification FAQ on the paypal gives a clear picture.

2. Have Two Accounts

Paypal allows all users to have two accounts legally (one personal and one premier/business). Keep all your personal transactions on the personal account and this will make things a lot easier. Whenever you are receiving a personal payment make sure you ask the sender to select the “Personal” option. This will ensure that both the parties involved in the personal transaction don’t incur any fees.

It should also be noted that receiving personal payments for business transactions in order to avoid the fees is against the terms and conditions and it might lead to account suspension.

3. Use Mass Pay

Mass Pay is one of the awesome features provided by Paypal for sending payments. This feature is really helpful for companies making bulk payments to their clients/customers (Eg: Ad networks making monthly payments to their publishers). Masspay has a $1 or 2% fee (whichever is lesser) and this will help you to save a lot. You can check out how to make a Paypal Masspay.

The Masspay feature works only with premier and business accounts.

4. Connect on twitter
Customer service is one thing where Paypal lacks a lot but it looks like things have improved a lot in the recent times. The @AskPaypal account on Twitter provides good customer service. You can also check out the other official Twitter handles of Paypal and connect with them.