We are using the adaptive payment API to setup a payment between 2 of our users. The receiver user has a paypal account, the source (the one who pays) doesn't. We don't use any chained or parallel payments just simple tranffer from A to B.
We'd like to allow the source to pay with credit/debit card. The problem is that in some cases its allowed, and in some it isn't.
We found this document about the subject but it looks outdated, since in the limitations section it says:
Cannot be made to a personal or un-registered PayPal account
I have a personal account and it works with that but with my colleague's personal account (different country) it doesn't.
Not available if the API caller passes an email address in the request
envelope.
This is very vague. Pass where? We use the email address in the pay request but it works in some cases.
Could anyone give some up-to-date info about this subject?
Guest payments are only made available to certain countries no matter which PayPal product you are using (PayPal Payments Standard, PayPal Express Checkout, Adaptive Payments). So if a buyer is in a country that requires a PayPal account, then they will only see the option to "Login to PayPal" or "Create Account" when they land of the PayPal checkout page. Unfortunately there is not a list of countires in our documentation to show which countries allow guest payments and which don't.
Here are my findings together with PP_MSI_Colin's answer:
Documentations
Guest payment - integration guide (UI is different now)
Guest payment - adaptive payment
Account optional settings
Requirements
Upgrade to business or premium account.
Make sure the email address is verified.
Make sure that on this settings page the Paypal account optional setting is ON.
Limitations, exceptions
In EU, this option is limited to 10 payments/card
In some countries (tested in Hungary) a personal account can also receive guest payments.
In some countries it is always disabled. No official list found.
Logic
Even if it is enabled for a user, it is up to Paypal if they show it or not. Where its enabled it also depends on the paying user. If Paypal finds (from cookies, etc) that the user has a paypal account they don't show credit card option. To test it try to pay in an incognito window. PayPal’s fraud prevention measures can also cause the guest checkout to not be displayed in certain scenarios
Limitations for making guest payments via PayPal adaptive payments are documented here:
Guest payments cannot be made to a personal or un-registered PayPal account
Related
I've had an NVP integration running for a year, and it's been great.
However, PayPal have now changed the page my customers see and the new style forces a user to create an account.
My customers are older people and don't want to sign up for an account. Previously they didn't have to
Is there anything I can do to make this optional again?
Thanks
It's important to remember that Guest Checkout feature for Website Payment Standard and Express Checkout is not guaranteed for every transaction.
To control the risk for merchant, PayPal may close the guest checkout function for some special countries or districts buyers and the buyer will be asked to create a PayPal account.
If possible, please consider using the PayPal Payment PRO product line, where merchants can accept Credit Card directly within their own website.
I've found several conflicting views on the internet with regards to if this is possible.
I have a verified paypal business account and have added the legacy MPL into my company's mobile application. Using the express checkout to process a chained payment, the user is forced to log in and use their PayPal balance as the only form of payment.
There is no option to supply a credit card and pay directly. There is no option once logged in to pay with an attached credit card.
This is from the sandbox perspective, which has mock credit cards on each mock user account.
Can anyone, who knows the actual answer, if a chain payment with the legacy MPL with a registered verified business account supports guest checkout on mobile (Android in this case).
Thanks.
Yes, guest checkout is available with Adaptive Payments. I have a sample Chained Pay request setup here. Loading that you'll see the successful response which includes a RedirectURL. Copy/paste that RedirectURL into your browser address bar to load it and you'll see it sends you to PayPal, at which point this is what I see...
You can see it provides the option to either login and pay or just pay with a credit/debit card.
I have a working paypal IPN, but ive been wondering: can I somehow set the "I have no paypal account" as the default choice when a customer is directed to paypal?
Short anwer: No, don't do that.
Long answer:
PayPal sets this dynamically based on customer information, primarily the cookie. In other words, people who have logged into PayPal on that device/browser before generally see that option presented first; people who have not are presented content that features the non-PayPal-login more prominently. This is done (primarily) to increase conversion for you (ie get the highest percentage of people to complete the payment & buy from you). Trying to defeat PayPal's code here would usually be counterproductive.
That said, there are also differences in how PayPal's screens are presented between various PayPal products (e.g. Payflow looks different from Express Checkout which looks different from Website Payments Standard) due in part to the mix of payment methods supported by each of these products, and also in part to expected customer mix with each of these. Some of these products also vary their behavior somewhat based on account settings or button/api parameters, again with the goal of being as effective for you as possible. But those parameters are product-specific and the question did not specify which PayPal product you are using.
As an example of variation between (and within) products:
Website Payments Standard (WPS) was designed to allow a merchant to accept payments from everyone, as the merchant's "sole solution." Express Checkout was originally designed to be used alongside a merchant's existing or separate credit card collection page, by merchant who would directly bill credit cards through a separate product (PayPal's DoDirectPayment or another processor). So PayPal's first WPS page was designed to present well to buyers with just credit cards or buyers with PayPal accounts. But a buyer would only be sent to the Express Checkout screen if they proactively chose to use PayPal rather than entering a credit card directly on the merchant's page, so PayPal's first Express Checkout screen could be aimed directly at PayPal account holders to generate the most intuitive buyer experience and highest conversion. Since that original version (ten years ago, in 2005!), however, Express Checkout has become more integrated into "PayPal Pro" and can also used as a sole solution, like WPS. For that usage it now supports an option that includes collecting card payments without a PayPal account.
PayPal also offers Payflow, Hosted Sole Solution, Adaptive Payments, and more payment flows.... each of which offers some slightly-different balances of buyer experience (and merchant experience/requirements -- e.g. some of these give the merchant access to credit card numbers and require PCI and merchant banking agreements, etc etc).
We are a UK-based marketplace site that wants to never force buyers to sign up for paypal. We allow users to set up customized stores through our site, and our second requirement is that these users be able to become sellers with only a basic paypal account. When a buyer makes a purchase, we are the primary receiver, taking 15% and passing on the entire paypal fees to the secondary receiver (user), as well as all the remainder of the transaction. My question is: What's the best solution paypal offers for this? It seems that chained payments would be, but if I understand correctly the Website Payments Pro system is the only one that guarantees that buyers outside the UK wouldn't need a paypal account. Is there a way to take the money in ourselves with Website Payments Pro and use the API so it transfers the 85% (minus the fees) to the user's paypal account?
It depends on what approach you want to take.
I would prefer Chained Payments as it allows guest checkout (credit card payments outside a PayPal account) with certain restrictions and will easily allow the user to receive the funds and automatically forwards the 15% cut to your account. This removes the need to collect funds outside of the payment flow. This means no invoicing or no lost dues!
Website Payments Pro only offers credit card payments however you would also need to offer Express Checkout for PayPal payments as well. You also have the flexibility of hosting the order form so you control what the users see. The downside is you'd have to collect funds from the user outside the payments. Such as monthly invoicing, billing agreements or manual processing.
Here is the criteria we use to allow guest checkout. Please keep in mind these are due to rules and regulations, not PayPal's choosing.
The credit card has a lifetime limit of 10 purchases outside a PayPal account
The user's email address must not be attached to an existing PayPal account
I don't have a direct answer for you but hopefully this helps make your decision.
we have set up Paypal as a hook into an e-commerce application, where users just enter their paypal account, and we link their clients through to their Paypal account when buying products.
This works great, and paypal asks you to login to pay for your purchases.
But we don't want clients to be forced to create a paypal account, just to make a purchase.
Does website payments standard API actually support paying without a paypal account?
At the moment this is a real showstopper for us.
Check out PayPal Adaptive Accounts. You can create PP accounts for your users. The only step they'll have to complete at PayPal is creating a password. Once the account is created you might need send the user back through a checkout flow.
Adaptive Accounts
Use the Adaptive Accounts API to build applications that create and manage PayPal accounts. Merchants and developers can use the API to create PayPal accounts, add payment methods to accounts, and verify a PayPal account status.
Paypal is a very useful payment service gateway, exactly because the customer does not need to enter a credit-card number.
What we do, is offer Paypal as an option. We allow credit-card entry as well. In order to evaluate the credit-card for validity etc., we interface with the bank that supports our account and let their system do the checks. Another option would be "Cash on Delivery".