When you want to go into online business and make money online, you need services to send and receive payments. Usually, you can use a credit or debit card to make payments online but to receive payments, you need services like PayPal. Because PayPal has become one of the oldest and largest services for sending and receiving payments online. Especially when you will receive payments from abroad, most people will ask if we have a PayPal account.
Because most advertising networks (if you are a blogger) more transaction methods are using PayPal, so it is important for you to have a PayPal account. Besides being used to receive and send payments individually, PayPal also has a lot of support in various marketplaces such as eBay, and various international online shopping places because PayPal is the best online payment tool at this time. Or if you have PayPal then it will be easy for you to rent the best hosting such as Bluehost, iPage or Hostgator easily and quickly.
PayPal is one of the digital payment instruments that can be done to buy needs in local and international markets. The transaction system used by PayPal is entirely electronic based so it does not require an account book or ATM card as is commonly used. Unlike conventional payment methods, PayPal works broadly, not limited to just one country. As for receipts and payments, it is almost real-time without the need to wait for the queue or working hours of bank operations.
What is PayPal?
PayPal is a service that allows you to pay, send money, and receive payments quickly, securely and protected. Because PayPal uses data encryption and anti-fraud technology to keep your information safe, reducing the risk of online fraud. You can use your PayPal account to shop with millions of merchants and sellers around the world wherever you see the PayPal logo. PayPal is a virtual account that has more extensive functions than a local bank account because it can be used to transact online in various countries, very different from a local bank account that can only be used to transact in one country.
Origin of PayPal
PayPal’s history begins with a company called Confinity, founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin in 1998. Officially, PayPal began launching as a new payment system service in 1999 funded by John Malloy of BlueRun Ventures. A year later, in March 2000, Confinity joined X.com made by Elon Musk. In June 2000, PayPal continued to develop by introducing new types of accounts intended for business users. This type of account is specifically for users who book high transaction volumes with a fee for each transaction. By the end of 2001, more than one-fifth of the 12.8 million PayPal accounts had been upgraded to the business type.
While continuing to walk the sweet way, Elon Musk and the ranks then changed the name PayPal to PayPal Inc. and officially stepped on the stock exchange floor in 2002 with a value of $ 13 per share and managed to raise an investment of $ 61 million. Shortly after the IPO, PayPal was immediately applied for by eBay in July 2002 with an amount of $ 1.5 billion. Now, more than 70% of the shanties on eBay use PayPal as a means of payment.
The use of PayPal in the Digital Age
Since it was first introduced in 1999, PayPal has immediately brought substantial benefits to accommodate the needs of digital transactions. The proof, a few years after the official floor on the stock market alias IPO, PayPal immediately got an acquisition from eBay to be integrated into their marketplace services. The use of PayPal is very simple, such as an online bank account, you can create an account in 5 minutes, there are no fees, no account management fees either. In the PayPal application, customers only need to link their card once with their PayPal account and then, after simply logging in to the PayPal Wallet, can make the payment.
Online purchases can be made after entering your PayPal username and password, meaning confidential credit card and account information is not required for all online purchases. The buyer has 45 days to initiate a dispute regarding the order. If you are unable to agree with the merchant, you can file a complaint with PayPal within an additional 20 days. And if your claim is legitimate, the buyer will be 100 percent compensated for the failed order. Following are the uses of PayPal:
For Buyers:
- Can make secure payments without being limited to regions
- Faster when checking out
- A conventional online bank account replacement
- Can accept payments in foreign currencies from overseas clients
- Become a payment instrument with a flexible source of funds, can be from a bank account, credit card or debit.
- It has become a secure payment tool on eBay and millions of merchants on the internet.
For Sellers:
- Alternative payment to accommodate buyers who do not have a bank account
- Accept payments via credit card without needing to go through the process of submitting it to a local merchant bank
- PayPal as an alternative payment from customers can be added to the site page.
- Have a useful tool for gathering buyer information
For Individuals:
- Being a tool for sending money to friends, family, relatives.
- Being a fundraising tool for example for charity activities or funding which is socially active.
Features of PayPal
PayPal the most popular online payment method in the world which is also engaged in online money transfer, there are several features that can be utilized with PayPal.
1. Online payment
One of the main features of PayPal is the online payment feature. At the beginning of the launch of PayPal, it can only be used to make payments in e-commerce, now you can pay or send money via PayPal to anyone you want. You can do this with the Send and Request Money feature found in your PayPal account. In addition, of course, as with the first feature, you can always pay for goods in e-commerce with PayPal, of course, if they are compatible.
2. Receive money online
Not only send and pay an amount of money online, but you can also receive an amount of money online using PayPal. Anyone can send money via PayPal as long as you know your e-mail address, which of course must be connected to a PayPal account that you have.
3. Shipping costs
One of the important points for PayPal is that shipping costs are much cheaper. For those of you who send money personally, either to friends or family in one area, there are no shipping costs you have to pay. However, PayPal charges shipping costs when you make commercial payments or payments between certain countries.
Why use PayPal?
Indeed, there are currently many online payment systems that you can choose from, and many even have digital wallet features. However, there are several advantages that PayPal has over other online payment applications.
- Widely accepted – PayPal’s first advantage, due to its relatively old age. With PayPal’s old age, its existence has been widely accepted. In fact, there are now thousands of sites that accept payments via PayPal.
- Fraud protection – In addition to that, the security system for PayPal-owned users includes topnotch numbers. One security feature that is much appreciated by PayPal is fraud protection. As a seller, you may continue to receive money from buyers, even if there is a claim from the return if your item is not received. The conditions are easy, as long as you can provide proof to PayPal that you have sent the item in question by the buyer, PayPal will still process the payment.
- Data theft protection – With such an easy system, where you don’t need to enter credit card details and CCV numbers every time you make a transaction, you don’t need to worry because the website won’t store the credit card data. Because every time you want to buy goods using PayPal, you just have to log in to your PayPal account and enter your password or your mobile number and your PayPal PIN only.
- Practical – On several occasions, PayPal has a one-touch feature where PayPal will continue to log in on your personal computer. So every time you make a transaction you do not need to enter your PayPal account details.
- One of the largest online payment companies – To date arguably PayPal is one of the largest online payment companies with a reputation that cannot be underestimated. Until now PayPal already has more than 267 million active account users, with availability in more than 19 million merchants worldwide. In addition, PayPal also supports more than 100 currencies. Interestingly, starting in 2017, PayPal made an extraordinary breakthrough by providing financial assistance in the amount of US $ 3.7 million to various nonprofit institutions and charitable foundations every year.
- Suitable for new start-ups – Why is PayPal suitable for new entrepreneurs? This relates to some of the characteristics of PayPal above, which is widely known, is easy to install, and has a low cost. You who are still in the business idea testing stage can use PayPal to sell products. If your product is successful, then continue! But if your product fails, you can immediately switch to a relatively small loss of course!
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using PayPal in Transactions
As an online transaction method that is quite old, of course, there are some advantages and disadvantages to it. Let’s first discuss the advantages of PayPal.
- Has many payment methods – one of the advantages of PayPal is having various payment methods on one platform. With this, of course, you can offer a very diverse payment method, a combination of various methods of PayPal and other methods. For example, you can offer PayPal, Venmo, PayPal Credit, as well as debit and credit card payments in the online or offline stores that you have.
- Have a variety of attractive offers – Certainly attractive to consumers from your store. Because on several occasions, PayPal dares to offer shipping discounts that are not small in value. With discounts, you can use this promo as a way to attract consumers to shop at your store. Even if you don’t get immediate benefits, at least this method can increase the number of consumers who shop in your shop.
- Many partnerships – as one of the oldest companies, of course, there is a lot of cooperation done by PayPal to existing third parties, such as Wix to Intuit QuickBooks. With this collaboration, you as an entrepreneur can use it. Some of PayPal’s collaborations are known to help business people, especially those who are new, in developing their business. Starting from making, upgrading, to company management and financial management. Imagine, just because you use PayPal services, you get many benefits from several companies that have worked with PayPal.
- All-round low administration costs – if most of the above benefits apply to sellers. It’s time we discuss the benefits that can be obtained for PayPal account holders who want to shop. The first advantage is low administrative costs because the PayPal system allows various costs that were there to be cut off. Even PayPal never made a new breakthrough when opening payment options without interest. The conditions are easy, as long as you have a purchase value of more than the US $ 99 and the payment is less than 6 months, you are entitled to this benefit. Moreover, PayPal also does not apply monthly fees, let alone annual fees, to its account holders.
- It is well known – PayPal is arguably a large company that is widely known in the world. The implication is that public trust in the PayPal brand is high. The direct impact that you can enjoy of course as a seller, you can increase conversions from visitors to your online store site. This benefit you might not get when using other online payment systems.
Disadvantages of PayPal
Although it has a lot of tempting advantages, before actually deciding to use PayPal services you should read the disadvantages behind its use. The following are some of the disadvantages of using PayPal.
- Seller protection is relatively low – compared to some of its competitors, it turns out that PayPal’s protection against sellers is quite low. There are many cases where buyers have managed to outsmart the system. The goal, of course, is to be able to get goods for free. Most of these thieves usually take advantage of selling digital or intangible goods where the seller does not need to do shipping to the buyer. PayPal itself implements a security system where the seller is required to provide proof of shipping when there are buyers who claim the goods purchased did not arrive. While for the types of goods above of course the seller will have difficulty in providing proof of shipping. Until finally many buyers whose money is returned by PayPal, the end result is, of course, free goods. If left unchecked it is not possible that more and more people will be able to outsmart the PayPal system and get free goods in this illicit way.
- Limitations of customization – Despite having many partnerships, it has long been known that PayPal has a limited system in terms of development and customization. This is one of the shortcomings that are quite often pointed out by experts. For example, if you want to add a third-party feature that can benefit your business, but on the other hand, PayPal does not work with these companies. Now this will make it difficult for you to the end if you can not even use these additional features.
- High risk of failure – In certain cases, excessive use of PayPal actually increases the risk of failure of the business you are developing. So as is known for the convenience, practicality, and brand trust that PayPal has, many young companies use PayPal as their payment method. Moreover, because of limited funds, many of these companies use PayPal as the only payment method in their company. This is indeed good because, on the one hand, it can increase the value of the company quickly. But when there is a system failure on PayPal, the company that only utilizes PayPal’s services will be destroyed immediately. Because they do not have a back up of the payment system, and it could be that many of their financial resources are put there. This is where one of the biggest risks that may be faced by business starters.
How Safe is PayPal for Buyers?
There are several forms of protection that PayPal has given to its users. This protection covers protection against fraud, digital encryption, to masking the buyer’s financial information from the seller. Of these three protections, you should be able to use PayPal with enough confidence and without any worries. Even if there are problems with the buying process, buyers can cast protests. In this case, PayPal will act as a mediator between the buyer and seller. Various problems encountered, such as package loss, package damage, or package delivery errors will usually be helped by PayPal. The steps that the buyer can take are:
- The buyer has the right to protest through his PayPal account and is expected to communicate directly with the seller to find a way out first. Keep in mind, the longest resolution process is claimed or done within a period of 6 months (180 days) from the first time the buyer makes a payment.
- If the seller does not answer the lawsuit from the buyer, or if the answer given by the seller is deemed unsatisfactory to the buyer, then the buyer can increase the stage from protest to filing a claim.
- When the buyer has submitted a claim, PayPal will investigate. This is where both the buyer and the seller will be asked for documents related to the problematic transaction.
Now, this way then buyers who use features from PayPal can be protected from fraud.
How safe is PayPal for Sellers?
PayPal implements a system where the seller can only make claims in case of transactions made against eligible and partially eligible buyers. Beyond that, claims that you submit as a seller may not be ignored by PayPal. Now after selling only to these two categories, there are some special requirements that need to be met so that the claim you provide can be processed by PayPal. Some of these conditions are:
- The delivery address is listed on the transaction details page.
- The goods sold must be physical goods or tangible in physical form that can be shipped. In other words, digital goods that do not have physical form cannot be guaranteed by PayPal.
- Provide documents requested by PayPal no later than 10 working days.
- Your permanent address must be within the United States which is not beneficial for other nations users.
How to Create or Register a Paypal Account?
Before proceeding to the registration process, you must be over 18 years old and have an E-mail. Please create an email first if you don’t have an email account. The process of creating a PayPal account itself is not as complicated as it used to be, even the verification process can be done in a matter of hours. You also need personal identity which can be your driving license or passport. In addition, you must also have a telephone number that is used to protect your account from hacker attacks. The last thing that is not less important is the annual credit card which is still active and can be used. Apart from being a source of balance for your PayPal account, the credit card also functions to receive a verification code from PayPal that is sent to a bank account.
- Please visit the PayPal site, make sure you see the PayPal URL beginning with https like https://www.paypal.com/. And click the Register button in the upper right corner next to the login button.
- You will be faced with a page after clicking the signup button in the first step, now select the Getting Started button on the left under Buying using PayPal.
- Please select a country in the drop-down menu, in the bottom column enter your email address and password. Try to use passwords that are unique and difficult to guess and are longer than 6 characters. And click the Continue button.
- Enter your personal data in accordance with the ID card and mobile number that you are currently actively using. Don’t forget to check the privacy policy and then click the Agree and Create Account button.
- Enter your credit card number and credit card expiration date to verify your PayPal account. If you still aren’t ready or don’t have a credit card, please click I’ll do it later.
- Next, you will see several options and click Open Your Account at the bottom.
- Open the Email that you used to register your PayPal account, you will receive an email containing a link to activate your PayPal account. Click the button that says Yes, this is my email.
- Please enter the PayPal account password that you entered earlier.
- Now you already have a PayPal account, you can log in to your account via the Login button at the top right with your email address and password.
How to Shop Through Paypal?
You have to remember that not all online shopping places provide PayPal as an option for payment. But usually, PayPal is often used as a payment system if you make transactions through online shopping sites from abroad, such as eBay, Amazon, and others. In addition, if you work for freelance at a foreign company, payments will usually be made via PayPal. Well, for how to shop through PayPal itself, actually not much different from using other payment systems, namely as follows:
- Visit online sites that provide payment options via PayPal (Alibaba, eBay, Amazon, etc.)
- Put the items you want to buy into the shopping basket
- Do check out
- When checking out, you will know the total amount of expenditure you have to spend, including shipping and insurance (if any)
- After that choose the payment method
- In the payment method column, you can see several options provided by the store, such as debit cards, credit cards, m-banking, and others. Then click PayPal.
- After that, you will automatically be taken to the PayPal.com site. If you are taken to another site, then immediately cancel the transaction because it could be a fraud.
- Type the email and password you used for registering.
- Then you will be taken to a page that contains the details of the items you want to buy.
- If the item data is correct, especially for the price, click PayNow.
- PayPal will automatically send the details of the transaction that was just done.
- Later credit card balances linked to a PayPal account will be automatically deducted to pay for the transaction.
Recover forgot password of your PayPal account
If you have forgotten your data for the PayPal login, you can reset your password or your email address in order to regain access to your PayPal account. Even if your password is no longer accepted, you should reset it, as it may have been changed without your knowledge.
- The function that you can use to reset your email address or password is easy to find on the PayPal website. So you do not have to search long if you have forgotten your login data.
- Go to the PayPal homepage and first click on Login in the top right corner.
- Now click on the link Forgot your password? On the registration page.
- Select you have forgotten your PayPal password.
- If you have forgotten your password, enter your email address and the generated captcha code in the corresponding field. Then click Next.
- After a few minutes, you will receive an email from PayPal with a link that you can use to reset your password.
Make sure to change your password regularly – after all, it’s about the security of your money.
Second Alternative method
Recovering the password for the PayPal account is not different from the method that we use for recovering the password for Facebook, or Gmail. Follow the steps below:
- The first thing you have to do is enter the PayPal website, www.paypal.com. When you are in it, press the Enter button that you will be able to see in the upper right corner of your screen. With it, you will start the process of entering your account.
- You will enter the login page, where you can enter your email and password. Now click on the link Having trouble logging in? which you will see just below the blue Login button.
- By default, the first help will be offered is to recover your password if you have forgotten it. Therefore, you will see that on the page you arrive at they tell you Do you need help with the password? What you have to do here is write the email of your account and click on the Next button to proceed with the next step.
- Next, you have to choose one of the five options to verify your identity and be able to recover the password. Most of them are to receive a security code like a second step, although you also have other alternatives. The options are:
- Receive a text message: They will take you to a page where you will be asked for a security code, and they will send you that code by SMS.
- Have us call you: They will take you to a page where you will be shown a security code, and you will receive a phone call. In that call, you will have to say the code that has been shown to you.
- Receive an email: They will take you to a page where you will be asked for a security code, and they will send you that code by email.
- Answer the security questions: When Paypal asks you strange questions related to your past or your family to complete the profile, it is precisely for this. With this option, you will be asked the answer to these security questions, such as What was the name of your first school? or What is your oldest child’s nickname?
- Confirm the number of your credit card: You will have to write the number of the credit card that you have linked to PayPal.
- And that’s it, now you just have to complete the verification process you have chosen, and press the Continue button. If the code or the data entered are correct, you will be taken to a screen where you can choose a new password.
- Now type the new password that should be safe, secure, strong and above all the one that you can remember easily.
- That’s it, you’re done, proceed with your new password and the same email.
Always keep changing the password of your account so that you can be more safe and secured.