A Canadian receiving payment from an American, wondering how this works.

[Sum-Guy]

I'm wondering how easy or hassle-free its going to be to receive payment through my paypal account if I sell a few items to an American.  I'm Canadian, in Canada, my paypal account is linked to two credit cards (one of them is a US-dollar credit card if that helps).    I've only ever used paypal to buy things, not to receive payment.  I understand that I have to generate some sort of "pay me" link and the buyer gets that and clicks through and then the money is credited to my paypal account - yes? 

Can the payment stay in the account as US dollars?  I very likely will use paypal to buy something on-line from the US in the next 12 months so I don't need to withdraw that money to my bank or credit card, so it would be useful for it to just stay there in paypal as US dollars.  We're talking less than $100 here.

I'm not really concerned about any fees, if there's a dollar or two charged in fees that's not a big deal.  Will this work, and be simple to use?

[kernowlass]

@Sum-Guy 

You can receive funds from all over the world. If you want to hold a balance in a currency then just add that currency to your paypal wallet.

You can ask folks to send in CAD or USD whichever you want, fees are here.

 https://www.paypal.com/ca/cshelp/article/what-are-the-fees-for-paypal-accounts--help383

1. The email address you use with Paypal identifies your Paypal account and is all someone needs to pay you.

2. Your phone number identifies your Paypal account if using the app.

3. If you have set up a paypal.me link you can send that but make sure the buyer ticks the goods/services option to pay (if the f/f option is available in your country).

4. You can send a money request/invoice from your Paypal account to their Paypal email address for them to pay.

The latter is better as you can then fully describe the item that your buyer is paying for and that may help you if they open a received but not as described dispute.

You may be subject to the new seller hold (info on that in link below) but once cleared you can click on withdraw/transfer funds and send it to any linked funding source approved for withdrawals for the country you are in.
https://www.paypal.com/us/brc/article/funds-availability (that's the U.S link but the information is the same).

However be very careful as lots of scams about.

1. A lot of scammers encourage you to accept a Paypal payment and if you don't have an account ask you to open one.
2. Do not get scammed via spoof emails that look as if they are from Paypal.
3. Never send anything unless the funds are showing in your Paypal account balance, even if you are a new seller and subject to the new seller hold the funds would still show in your balance but have pending or on hold by them.
4. Do NOT send anything to an address that is not the buyers Paypal registered address.
5. Do not be fooled by your so called buyer and "Paypal" telling you that you either have to >>>

a. Send the item and provide a tracking number BEFORE the funds show in your balance.
b. You have to pay the buyers shipping agent via western union or moneygram OR any other payment transfer option before payment is credited to you.

6. Do not accept payment for sales using the family / friends option.
7. Remember sellers send invoices and not buyers so if you get an invoice or money request pending then you have NOT been paid if its not actually in your Paypal balance.
8. Any buyer asking you to send a gift card as well as their item is suspect as you will get a fake Paypal email saying they have paid but need to give them the gift card code first, thats all they want and you will never get paid.
9. If you are a seller you never have to send money or any sort of voucher to a buyer for anything account related.

If in doubt come here and ask and also read up on Paypals seller protection first so you can risk assess your transactions.

[Sum-Guy]

> You can send a money request/invoice from your Paypal account to

> their Paypal email address for them to pay.

If I send a request/invoice from my paypal account, will my paypal email address be visible to them, or will it be anonymized? I have an email address dedicated for paypal and use it for paypal login and I feel its a security vulnerability if others see this address. Ebay, for example, anonymizes email exchanges between buyers and sellers.

> 4) Do NOT send anything to an address that is not the buyers Paypal registered address.

How do I know if the address the buyer gives me is the Paypal registered address? If I send the payment request through paypal, will paypal tell me / show me the buyer's registered address?

> 6) Do not accept payment for sales using the family / friends option.

I'd like to know the implications if I do, or don't do that. What are the different ways to accept payment?

[kernowlass]

@Sum-Guy 

They see your name and email address.

On the paypal email you receive it will give you the address to send the item to, don't respond to agree to any emails from the buyer to send to another address. If they wanted it sent to another address they could have added that address as a gift address to their paypal account before they paid and selected that address to be shown on the paypal email.

Its against paypal rules to accept friends/family payments if you are selling good or services and if you do you risk your account being limited because paypal would see that as an attempt to not pay your fee. You would also negate your buyers and your own paypal protection.

You accept goods/services if you are selling anything and friends/family for gifts of payments.