How to make "PayPal Account optional" option available in business account

[Ahmed-Ali]

Hi, 

I have a standard business account and accepting payments via HTML buttons. (My setup settings). My problem is i have not "PayPal Account Optional" option in my PayPal website preferences settings. It is just not available to turn it on or off. My account is verified. Any suggestion?

[snowshoe]

As we don't know anything about your account details best we can do is provide some detailed information:

Things to know Payments Standard's Credit Card Option or PayPal Account Optional as referred to in the User Guides:

First, your Item Button Code require no special coding.   It's related to how your Account is setup.

*  Account must be either Premier or Business.   Personal Accounts do not have this option.
*  PayPal Account Optional is turned on - this enables non PayPal Members to pay by Credit Card.
*  The email address you use to log into your PayPal Account must be verified.
*  The "business" variable value in your button code must be a verified email address or your Business ID.
*  Bank Account linked and verified - so you can withdraw or transfer funds.
*  Credit Card linked and verified.

To enable the PayPal Account Optional feature:
Go to your Account Profile.
Select:  My Selling Tools
Under:  Selling Online
Locate:  Website Preferences
Click on:   Update
Locate:  PayPal Account Optional
Click:   On
Click:   Save

When the "account optional" feature is turned on, customers don't need a PayPal account.   They use an alternate checkout and have the option to sign up for a PayPal account afterward.   Customers with PayPal accounts still log in to their PayPal accounts to check out.

This feature is available for Buy Now buttons, Donations, shopping carts and invoices.

Please note that if both the "auto return" and "account optional" features are turned on, customers who don't log in to PayPal can choose to go back to your website after checkout, but are not returned automatically.

Next, there are specific reasons the Credit Card Option may not be available to your customers.

*  You are using Express Checkout.   Express Checkout requires a PayPal Account
*  You are using the wrong email address or an unverified email address.
*  The country you reside in.   Not all countries have all the PayPal features available.
*  The country your customers reside in.   Not all countries have all PayPal features available.
*  The IP address of your hosted site is on a blocked list.

Want to know what PayPal Features are available in your Country.   Check out this page.   Send and Receive Payments Securely Worldwide.

Last, you have your PayPal Account setup properly but, still don't see the Credit Card Option or only see a small link to the Credit Card Option.

It's all about the cookies.   The PayPal Screens are designed to be displayed in a specific way and what you see is based on the cookies and/or your PayPal Account configuration.

PayPal relies on the use of cookies to track what's in your cart and retain other info about you and therefore the screen that is displayed may not be the screen you expect to see.   If you are a new customer visiting PayPal for the first time, the Credit Card Option will be clearly displayed.

If this is your second or third visit to PayPal and your previous cookie has not expired, PayPal now views you as a returning customer.   You will get a screen with a small link to the Credit Card Option.   Although this is not as obvious to the customer, the Credit Card Option is still available.   For example, the cookie that holds the cart info will retain that info for up to 21 days.   The only way it will change is if you remove the items selected from the cart or delete the cookie.

If you are testing your web pages, creating new code or making changes, etc., simply delete your web browser's cookies, temp files and history, then close your web browser, reopen it and try your web pages again.   When you view the PayPal Screens, you will now get the screen with the Credit Card Option because PayPal views you as a new visitor.

Other reasons for deleting cookies.   Let's say you changed your business email address or business graphic logo.   If you don't delete the cookies, temp files and history before you test, you will still see the old information.

[Ahmed-Ali]

Thanks for briefing. A PayPal agent just calls me and guides me regarding this issue. "PayPal account Optional" is still missing from my settings but it is working fine on my site. On checkout page PayPal is accepting credit cards. But only one problem is left. On checkout page, Credit card option is available under the headings of "Create a PayPal Account" that confuse my customers. 

By default this tab remains closed and Pay with my PayPal is open. When user clicks on “Create a PayPal account”, then it shows the credit card options. Today i go to a website for purchasing. Its checkout page was as per same as mine but the main difference was his "Create a PayPal account" tab was open by default and "Pay with my PayPal account" was closed. It was so clear that this site accept the credit cards.

Please proceed to this link: http://www.woothemes.com/products/warranty-requests/

So is there any way to change the default settings for this tab?

[lovecradle]

"...Things to know Payments Standard's Credit Card Option or PayPal Account Optional as referred to in the User Guides:..."

Where is this in the user guides?  I found this post because another post referred to it and didn't have a link either.  So I went to a search engine to find this page.  Now I still don't know where the documentation is.

[Mariyam]

Hello Ahmed,

I have exactly the same issue as you, did you figured it out?

Thanks,

[gnfoster]

I don't get it.  I have the settings set correctly.

I am getting different results with two different websites.

On one I am using WooCommerce and my customers DO get the option to pay with credit card without creating a Paypal account.

On the other site, I am using Ecwid and the customers DO NOT get the option to pay without creating an account.

Both use the same paypal api credentials.

Each are using different confirmed "payment email addresses".  Does that effect it in any way?

I have cleard the cache and cookies several times.

perplexed.

[Thomas789]

@gnfoster

Did you find the soluttion for this? We are having the same problem: one site allows customers to pay without creating an account (showing a 'Pay' button), the other creating an account in the process (showing a 'Agree and create account' button). And this is even though we have two identical shopping carts.

[haipeiaht]

Hello. This option works good for me when I checkout in desktop mod. When I try to checkout on the same site on mobile, there is no option to pay without account. If I select the option to see the site in desktop mod on the same mobile, direct credit card checkout apears.

Can you help me with this strange issue?

Thanks. 

[codaa]

i have sent a message to paypal support asking about such option why it's not available for me . 

but the answer i got is " the option has been suspended by PayPal and no longer available in any account "

is that really true ! 

i need that option so much , i want to tell my customers pay by credit card and in same time NO you don't have to have paypal 

some people really still don't want paypal account but they need my service and they need to be able to just pay by credit card 

i prefer to have this handled by paypal 

[AJNOMULA]

Hey Codaa,

Did you get an answer for this? Is that setting really suspended from all the accounts? Did you figure out a way to enter only the CC details and not to create new account? Please advise and thank you.