PayPal Review

Rates and Fees
80/100
Truth in Advertising
90/100
Consumer Reviews
80/100
Customer Support
70/100
4

Best for

Retail, eCommerce, Non-Profit, Mobile.

Specializes in

Card processing, Mobile phone processing, Virtual Terminal, Recurring billing, Online payment gateway. Merchant cash advance.

Pricing Summary

Setup Fee: $0

Monthly Fee: $5 for Advanced Setup

Swipe Rate: 

Keyed-in Rate: 

Early Termination Fee : $0

Contract Terms:

Month-to-month
Visit PayPal

PayPal is a worldwide online payment platform and is a household name in the 21st century. The company provides various services for the Ecommerce world, including merchant services for small businesses. 

PayPal Overview

 

PayPal started off initially as a subsidiary of eBay where it served the purpose of payment between buyers and sellers on the platform. In 2015 Paypal became a separate service from eBay and became a sole company. 

Today PayPal is one of the most reliable and accessible e-payment in the finance industry. One of the most important reasons for this is because of the ease of sending and receiving funds for anybody that has an email.

PayPal also provides merchant services for all types of businesses and organizations. This comes with the acceptance of credit cards just like every other merchant accounts.

Quick Facts

Head Quarters

2211 North First Street, San Jose, California 95131.

Year Founded

2015

CEO

Daniel Schulmanan

Employees

23200

Merchant Provider Risk Tolerance

What We Like

Zero setup fee.

No early termination fee.

Month to month contract.

No PCI compliance fee.

Dedicated account manager.

What We Don't Like

Monthly fee for advanced setup.

Has a virtual terminal rate.

High level of customer complaints.

Bank transfer option has dollar limits.

Flare rate pricing model.

Industries Served

  • Accounting & Tax Prep
  • Education
  • Electronics
  • Gaming
  • Healthcare
  • Legal
  • Marketing Agency
  • Medical
  • Personal Service
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Thrift Store
  • Web Design Services

Business Types Served

  • B2B
  • Digital Downloads
  • Drop Shipping
  • Ecommerce
  • Enterprise Merchant Accounts
  • Low Risk
  • Mobile
  • MOTO
  • Non Profit
  • Online
  • Small Business
  • Tech Support
  • Wholesale

PayPal Products & Services

 

It is important to know that PayPal is unlike other conventional card processing companies and its credit card will not work with other processing equipment.

Notwithstanding, PayPal has other services for merchant purposes, such as a donation button, a buying cart integration and a “purchase now” button.  

To make up for its card processing deficiency, PayPal offers virtual terminals that can work with most computers with the aid of a USB cord and comes with optional card readers.

Also, there is a mobile application for payments and card reading known as “PayPal Here”. With this, users are able to punch in the details of their credit cards in their mobile phones and receive payments.

PayPal Payment Processing

  • Cash Transactions
  • Chargeback & Fraud Prevention
  • Credit Card Processing
  • Crypto Currency Compatible
  • Debit Card Processing
  • Merchant Cash Advance
  • Mobile Payments App
  • Online Payments
  • Online Shopping Cart Integration
  • Payment Gateway
  • Shopping Cart Integration
  • Virtual Terminal

PayPal Billing & Invoicing

  • Online Payments
  • Payment Processing

PayPal Advertising & Sales

 
PayPal does not advertise or market services via an independent agent. The company does not make use of deceptive sales or marketing as strategies too.

The official website also lists all pricing and fees, and this remains consistent regardless of any individual seller.

PayPal Marketing and sales are transparent and understanding enough for new users and merchants. Also, it is a popular company and a 21st-century household name.

Truth in Marketing

Discloses All Important Terms

Yes

Public Pricing Available

Yes

PayPal Pricing, Rates & Fees

 

PayPal charges depend on the kind of set up a merchant wants for their business. 

Basic Setup.

The basic merchant setup does not come with any cost, monthly fee, early termination charge of PCI compliance fee.

With this account setup, merchants can receive payments via their website, with the “buy now”, “donate” and “add to cart” buttons. However, there is a disadvantage of completely leaving the merchant website to complete the transaction on the PayPal platform.

However, since there are zero charges for this setup, it usually comes with a high credit card processing rate. 

The charges are 2.7% with an additional $0.30 for PayPal store transactions, online transactions of 2.9% and $0.30, international store transactions of 44. % and $0.30 and international online transactions of 4.4% plus $0.30.

For merchants that are a non-profit organization, PayPal gives a discount of 2.2% with $0.30 and 3.7% with $0.30 for domestic and international rates, respectively.

Transfers

Paypal has a transfer to bank option, and the transaction will be instant. But there is a transfer limit of not more than $50,000 for one transaction, not more than $100,000 in a day, not more than $250,000 in a week and not more than $500,000 in a month.

For all these transactions, PayPal will charge a fee of 1%, which may be more than $10.

Advanced Setup

Another PayPal merchant account setup is the advanced merchant setup. Unlike the basic setup, customers will be able to complete the whole transaction on the merchant’s website without redirecting to PayPal’s.

The rates for the advanced setup is similar to the basic setup, but PayPal will charge a $5 monthly fee. The advance setup also comes with services like PCI compliance, customer service and data management, all of which attract extra charges.

Professional Setup

The PayPal professional setup has all features of standard and advanced setups. Unlike the previous setups, it is customizable, comes with self-hosting and also has a page to checkout funds.

The setup is popular among web developers, but it is not a bad idea for merchants as well.

Another feature of the pro account is the virtual terminal which is important for merchants whose focus are physical transactions, mobile orders or email orders.

For this service, merchants will need a further application regardless of if they are a PayPal user or not. PayPal will approve for virtual terminal application within 48 hours of the signup.

The charge for PayPal virtual terminal is $30 per month, which is relatively higher than most merchant service provider companies.

Other fees for the professional account setup include:


  • Domestic transaction via website: 2.9% plus $0.30

  • International transactions via the website: 3.9% and a standard fee.

  • Domestic transaction via virtual terminal: 3.1% plus $0.30

  • International transaction vial virtual terminal: 4.4% and a standard fee.

  • AMEX transaction: 3.5%


PayPal gives discounts based on individuals or organization. Also, overall, the company charges 5% plus $0.05 dollars for small transactions.

Pricing at a Glance

Pricing Model

Flat Rate

Swiped Rate

Keyed-in Rate

Mobile Payment Rate

Virtual Terminal Rate

$30 per month.

Monthly Fee

$5 for Advanced Setup

Payment Gateway Fee

Batch Fee

Early Termination Fee

$0

PCI Compliance Fee

Equipment Lease Terms

Address Verification Service (AVS)

Application Fee

Account Setup Fee

$0

Gateway Setup Fee

Annual Fee

Monthly Minimum

Statement Fee

PayPal Contract & Terms

PayPal contract terms are monthly, and there is no early termination fees or PCI compliance fees.

Contract Length

Month-to-month

Early Termination Fee

$0

PayPal Setup & Support

 

Setup Highlights

  • Documentation / Knowledge Base
  • In Person
  • Live Online (1-on-1)
  • Recorded Video Training

Support Highlights

  • Dedicated Account Manager
  • Offshore Tech Support (After Hours)
  • Staff Directory

PayPal Complaints, Ratings & Reviews

In the past three years, PayPal has had a total complaint of 8872, and the breakdown includes the following.


  • 6250 product and service complaints.

  • 1823 billing and collection complaints

  • 442 ads and marketing complaints

  • 205 warranty complaints

  • 152 delivery complaints.


The company was able to completely solve 2255 complaints, while 6617 complaints are unaccounted for. This means that the merchants were not satisfied with the company’s resolution, or they did not provide a final verdict.

BBB rates PayPal as an A+ merchant provider company, and it also has accreditation on the platform.

Ratings

BBB

A+

Google

Facebook

Yelp

Reviews

Total Online Reviews

1000+

Total Online Complaints

8000+

Lawsuits

Zepeda vs PayPal 2007.

PayPal Alternatives

NEED A MERCHANT ACCOUNT PROVIDER?

If you're in the market for a merchant account provider, be sure to check out our user reviews, our merchant accounts guide and our top popular merchant provider picks

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