PayPal Web Payment Standard: force the creation of a PayPal account now?

Question

You had a small small user button with several options that I was POSTing for PayPal (and getting POSTed back through IPN) several years ago, working fine. Payments have been disabled for several years, but now my client wants to renew their subscription with their new campaign.

I switched back to the host / trading account names in the sandbox, made a transaction with a Visa test card, and everything was fine.

Switching it to the current host / trading account, another test with a real visa went, but noticed that not only was the PayPal real site completely updated / changed, now they seem to force you to create a PayPal account: there’s an ad in the sandbox with a link that says “go ahead,” which will lead you to your credit card / billing information (this is identical to how the Live PayPal website looked a few years ago).

NOTE. Seller account has changed; I'm not sure if this is important or not, and / or if there are any settings I need to change.

Question: Is this now with PayPal? I can't seem to find official information that says yes / no. Besides Express, is there any other IPN method that will work here or is it a political thing in PayPal? I would not want to rewrite my working / verified code, but this will not work with my client.

Answer 1

Yahel's answer is incorrect: I called PayPal and they explained that in order to accept payments not related to PayPal, the following conditions must be met:

• The business email address must be verified. You can check by going to profile> Email.

• PayPal account Additionally needs to be verified:

  • Go to www.paypal.com.au and log in to your account.
  • Click "Profile" in the upper right corner of the page (next to the "Exit" button)
  • Click Profile & Settings
  • Click "My tools for sale."
  • Click "Refresh" next to the "Website" settings.
  • Select 'On' in the “PayPal Account Optional” section at the bottom of the page.
  • Click "Save."

Answer 2

Yes PayPal forces users to create an account for a long time. Before that, you could use a credit card up to 10 times, and then it would force you to create an account anyway.

The reason you see the old branding in your sandbox is probably because you are the old sandbox on the old paypal server.

The last thing I tried, there was no policy around this new policy.

But djechelon is right, they have excellent customer service, give them a call.

Answer 3

PayPal forces people to create accounts, even if they want to make only one payment. I was also puzzled by this situation: I chose the payment option without a PayPal account, but still I had to provide all the personal data sufficient for PayPal to create an account for me against my wishes. Very sneaky PayPal! Then I found this page and it explained a lot.

Answer 4

This is the message I received in my PayPal account:

PayPal Account More

When this feature is enabled, your customers will pass an optimized test. This feature is available for the Buy Now, Donations, and Cart buttons, but not for the Subscribe buttons.

Therefore, you cannot provide regular “Subscribe” to non-PayPal customers. I believe you should pay $ 19.99 per month for an "Extended Subscription" for this.

Answer 5

PayPal has a purchase limit of $ 3,000 for "guests."

I ran into this problem and @gravyface ran into setting up your account settings. However, my customers still had problems paying without a PayPal account.

I called PayPal and it turned out that they have a 3,000 (cumulative) purchase limit for “guests”. My customer invoice was $ 7,000, so even though my settings were set to make the PayPal account optional, it still wouldn't work.

Hope this helps others.

In JP