Where can I find my "Secure Merchant ID"?

[lhunath]

For the purpose of creating a subscription button that is not hosted by PayPal, I need to specify either my email address or my "secure merchant ID" as the "business" field of the form.  I've been trying to find this identifier in vein, where on my profile can I find my account's "secure merchant ID"?  What are the properties of this ID?  Under what conditions will it change?

[bid-write]

My PayPal / Settings tab gives Personal Info which includes Merchant account ID.

[snowshoe · Accepted solution]

The Merchant Account ID was introduced several years ago as an alternative to using your email address in non-hosted or non-encrypted item button code.  We normally refer to this type of code a "clear text".    Using the Merchant Account ID, prevents net bots from harvesting email addresses.

The ID is composed of about 13 random numbers and letters.  When you open a PayPal Account, this ID is assigned to your account automatically.  It does not change and it's not possible for you to edit it.  If you opened a new account, the system would assign you a new Merchant Account ID.

Assuming you have a Business Account, you would find this ID in your Account Profile under "My business info".  

[redseujac]

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@snowshoe wrote:

Assuming you have a Business Account, you would find this ID in your Account Profile under "My business info".  

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The question I have: does it exist for a Premium Account? If not, why not? Do the holders of a Premium Account have to let their email addresses vulnerable to harvesting by net bots when placing e.g. Donate buttons on their website?