How To Create A PayPal Premier Account

A PayPal Premier Account Allows You To Sell Products And Accept Payments

If you are considering selling something Offline (i.e. Shoes) or Online (i.e. Music Downloads) using your website, and more specifically using one or more HTML/CSS coded web pages as your Shopping Cart, you will need to set up a Payment Merchant Account from a Payment Merchant such as PayPal. PayPal is one of the more successful, low rates, payment merchants around.

A Payment Merchant is a company, such as PayPal, that gives you the facility to carry out Online Bank Transactions (i.e. Withdrawals and Deposits) using your Payment Merchant Account. When your, paypal, payment merchant account has been set up (explained below) you can then use the paypal Button Creator to create BUY NOW and VIEW CART buttons for your product(s). Each button is actually a HTML Form that contains product information (description, price and currency) that is sent to the paypal shopping cart (basket) whenever a customer clicks on the button.

How  Does  It  Work?

PayPal works like this. A customer reads about your product on your website and likes what they see, and read, and so decide to click on the product's BUY NOW button. Doing so takes them to the paypal order (shopping cart) web page where they are presented, as a reminder, with the product's information again. When they are completely satisfied with the order (product information) they click on another button to continue to the actual payment web page.

The payment web page gives them two choices. Either pay by debit/credit card or pay using their paypal balance, in which case they would have to log-in to their existing paypal merchant account (paypal account). The beauty of a payment merchant account (paypal account) from your side is that you do not need to set up a proper shopping cart yourself and handle its received payments manually - PayPal takes care of this for you.

GETTING  STARTED

To set up a PayPal Account you first need to go to your local (country based) PayPal website, in this example to PayPal (UK), and then click on the SIGN UP button. If you go to directly to PayPal .com it will also advise you to go to your local paypal website.

Fig 1.0  Click on the SIGN UP button to continue

After clicking on the SIGN UP button (Fig 1.0 above) you are then asked what Account Type you would like to set up (below) - Personal, Premier or Business.

In this example, assuming you are not a business and just need an account for buying and selling purposes, a Premier Account should be adequate. You may need a business paypal account for selling purposes when using EBay, which is owned by PayPal. See the EBay website for more information. You can always upgrade a premier account to a business account.

Fig 1.1  Select your COUNTRY, if need be, before clicking on your preferred ACCOUNT TYPE

When you are ready select your Country from the COUNTRY drop-down menu, if need be, and then click on the GET STARTED button underneath the PREMIER Account Type to continue. Doing so will take you to the following Registration Form.

Fig 1.2  Fill out the Registration Form and then click on the AGREE AND CREATE ACCOUNT button

As you can see, the registration form is simple enough to fill out. One thing to note here though is that you should never enter the password belonging to your email address inside the PASSWORD edit box - The PASSWORD edit box is expecting you to enter a New Password that will be used with this PREMIER PayPal Account, once this PREMIER PayPal Account has has been created.

When you have filled out the Registration Form click on the AGREE AND CREATE ACCOUNT button to continue. This means you accept the Terms & Conditions (User Agreement) of the PREMIER PayPal Account as laid out by PayPal - Click on the registration form's USER AGREEMENT and PRIVACY POLICY links for more information.

The next window to appear asks you how you would like to pay for your purchases (products and/or services) - By BANK ACCOUNT, DEBIT CARD or CREDIT CARD. In this example click on the CONTINUE button underneath the PAY WITH MY BANK ACCOUNT Payment Method where you will then be asked to fill out your Bank Account details in order to set up a Direct Debit agreement.

Fig 1.3  Click on the CONTINUE button underneath the PAY WITH MY BANK ACCOUNT Payment Method

This next part needs extra special attention paid to it, so read everything on the paypal pages (screenshots) carefully; as well as what I am about to say. Otherwise you may get problems with paypal and/or with your bank or building society.

This next part asks you for your bank (or building society) details. THESE MUST BE PRECISELY AS WRITTEN AND/OR GIVEN BY YOUR BANK OR BUILDING SOCIETY. Precise bank (or building society) details meaning your Bank Name, Bank Branch (Location), Bank Account Type, Bank Sort Code and Bank Account Number.

Before filling out these details I strongly recommend you print the paypal pages first and then show them to your bank (or building society) and say I am setting up a PayPal Premier Account - What are the precise bank details I need to supply paypal?. They should then give you their precise bank details, which also contain your bank account details, in order for you to set up any paypal account.

Do not be flogged off with any old bank details. For example. I had a case myself, and when helping someone else, whereby we asked the same bank (on different occasions, in different circumstances) for the precise bank details for setting up a paypal account; only to be given the wrong Bank Branch and Bank Address details. This not only delayed things but it also caused confusion amongst their ill informed staff.

In the end I just used a different bank account and the person I was helping eventually got their correct bank details. So it pays to check you have the correct bank details in the first place rather than relying on your Bank Book or Cheque Book for bank details, as those bank details might not be the ones used by your bank (or building society) for processing paypal accounts.

When you have acquired the correct bank (or building society) details you should start filling out the paypal Bank Account form. It is in two parts. The first part requires your bank (or building society) account details and the second part requires the specific bank (or building society) branch details - The branch that processes PayPal Accounts.

Fig 1.4  Fill out this form with your Bank (or Building Society) Account details and then CONTINUE




Fig 1.5  Fill out the NAME AND FULL ADDRESS OF YOUR BANK OR BUILDING SOCIETY details and SUBMIT

After clicking on the CONTINUE button (Fig 1.4 above) you are then asked to fill out the NAME AND FULL ADDRESS OF YOUR BANK OR BUILDING SOCIETY (Fig 1.5 above). These are the important details I mention above. When you have filled out these details verify that they are 100% correct before clicking on the SUBMIT button, because making a mistake here can cost you a penalty charge by paypal if your account details turn out to be incorrect. If you realize they are incorrect click on the CANCEL button, but if you are sure they are 100% correct click on the SUBMIT button to continue.

If you do make the mistake of submitting incorrect bank details log-in to your PayPal Premier Account and delete the listed/pending bank (or building society) account straight away - Give PayPal a call, if need be, to explain your mistake. With my experiences of PayPal I found their phone operators to be very helpful, caring and understanding. You can always set up a bank (or building society) account, again, by logging into your PayPal Premier Account and going to the Profile section.

Fig 1.6  Wait 5 Days to be sure that the two small amounts of money have been deposited into your bank (or building society) account

Now that you have entered and verified your bank (or building society) details paypal will deposit two small amounts, of between 10 and 99 pence, into your bank (or building society) account. Read the above instructions. Basically, after 5 Working Days you go to your bank (or building society) and check your statement for the paypal deposits.

If all is well, remember those two small amounts (i.e. 10 and 44 pence) as you will need to know them later. In the meantime you need to confirm your email address, in order to activate your PayPal PREMIER Account, which can be done before or after clicking on the above CONTINUE button. In this example click on the CONTINUE button and then confirm your email address.

With the PayPal website still open, open up a new Internet Explorer and log-in to your email account. In your Inbox you should see an email from PayPal titled ACTIVATE YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT. If you cannot see it look in your Junk Email box, although it should be in your Inbox. There will be other emails from PayPal but click on the one titled ACTIVATE YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT first. From there, click on the LINK NOW link inside that email which will then ask you to enter your PayPal PREMIER Account password in order to activate your PayPal PREMIER Account (Fig 1.8 below).

Fig 1.7  Click on the LINK NOW link to continue




Fig 1.8  Enter your PayPal PREMIER Account password and then click on the CONFIRM button

When you log-in to your PayPal PREMIER Account for the first time you will be asked to provide two Security Answers to two Security Questions of your choosing, from the relevant Q/A 1 and Q/A 2 drop-down menus and edit boxes. These details are asked for when ever you forget your password so that your password can be reset.

Fig 1.9  Set up your password Security Questions and Answers and then click on the SUBMIT button

All you have to do now is wait 5 days for the two small amounts to be deposited into your bank (or building society) account. Once you know the two small amounts log-in to your PayPal PREMIER Account and click on the COMPLETE BANK SETUP link, in the TO DO List, in order for you to enter those two small amounts as digits (i.e. 10 and 44).

Once this process is complete you can then start paying for online goods (products/services), and accepting product payments, using your PayPal PREMIER Account. PayPal does not take the two small amounts back out of your bank (or building society) by the way, they leave it in there for you!!

If you are asked any answer generic questions about you and your income, depending on PayPal's bank setup security procedure at the time, just answer the questions as you see fit. One question for example might be about your Business Status, but if you are not a business simply state you are an Individual.

Every so often, for security reasons, PayPal change their bank setup procedure. Hence why I cannot do an exact replication of their final bank setup procedure here simply because I cannot be setting up many different PayPal Accounts and Bank Accounts just to keep this section up-to-date.

By that I mean; This section is currently up-to-date, and I monitor the basic setup of PayPal regularly enough to keep this section up-to-date, but the final bank setup procedure (as explained in the paragraph above Fig 1.10, onwards) could be changed by PayPal at any time - I cannot go into, or explain, that procedure any further here without setting up a proper bank account of course.