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PayPal account types

In order to connect your PayPal account to our marketplace, it needs to be either a Premier account (which is no longer offered in some countries, including the UK) or a Business account, rather than a Personal account. You can try to connect your PayPal account to your Destashery account, you’ll get a message if your account type is not compatible. This page explains why Destashery can only connect to these account types and that you can easily either ‘upgrade’ your PayPal account (for free) or create a new Premier or Business account (also free) specifically for selling online.

If Premier accounts are offered in your region, you can use a Premier account (it’s basically a Personal account with at least some of the selling functionality of a Business account). In regions where the Premier account is no longer offered, PayPal says you can have a Business account even as an individual who is not running a business. Either of these account types supports a greater range of e-commerce functionality such as allowing buyers to pay via credit card without themselves having a PayPal account, and being able to allow the Destashery marketplace to understand the status of the PayPal transactions.

Aren’t PayPal Business accounts just for actual businesses?:

PayPal’s User Agreement explains the account types they offer and what each one should be used for.

As at September 2020, for example, their User Agreement for UK accounts states: “With a personal account you can send and request money from friends and family and pay online for purchases … To use your PayPal account primarily to sell things, you must open a business account or convert your personal account to a business account.” It also states that “[b]usiness accounts are for people and organisations (whether incorporated or not) that primarily use PayPal to receive online payments or donations).”

We can’t advise you as to PayPal’s terms and conditions for your account – you should review their User Agreement and other terms and conditions if you have particular questions – but we note that with Business accounts, there may be some differences in the fees you pay when receiving money for items you have sold, versus when you receive money from friends and family with a Personal account. You may therefore want to create a separate account which you use specifically for selling items.

How do I know what type of account I have?

Depending on the age of your PayPal account and how you have used it in the past, you may have already converted your Personal account to a Premier or Business account. At certain points this has been recommended for selling on major online marketplaces with certain transaction types. You should be able to see your account type in your PayPal account’s profile page. If there’s a link you can click which says ‘upgrade to a Business account’, it’s likely a Personal account. If there’s a link saying ‘convert to a Business account’, it’s likely a Premier account.

How do I change my account to a Business (or Premier) account, or create a new one?

If you already have a PayPal account, and it is a Personal account, you can upgrade the account to a Business (or Premier) account within your account settings page using the link we mentioned above, or go to http://www.paypal.com/upgrade.

Alternatively, you can create a second PayPal account with a different email address (it is currently permitted to link the same card/bank account to two separate PayPal accounts), and set it up as a Business account. You could then use this account primarily when selling items online, as suggested by PayPal’s terms, and keep your Personal account for the uses they described, as explained above.

When creating or converting to a Business account, you may be asked:

  • to select a ‘business’ type (you can select ‘Individual’ rather than any of the sole trader / business options);
  • what range your annual sales volume falls into (e.g. ‘below £5000’);
  • where you mainly want to accept payments from (e.g. ‘an online marketplace’);
  • to provide a legal ‘business’ name (your own legal name, if you are an individual) – this is the name that will appear on transaction emails/invoices with buyers;
  • to select your ‘product or service keywords’ (PayPal asks for this so that they can “provide you with the solutions you need”);
  • to choose the short name which will appear in people’s bank statements when they buy from you;
  • to confirm your date of birth, address, and telephone number.

How long does it take?

The account is upgraded/opened instantly and the whole process took us less a couple of minutes.

What if I do not want to create or convert to a Business account?

Unfortunately at present you won’t be able to sell on Destashery as PayPal is the only supported payment gateway at present. But you can still buy items from other users with your Personal PayPal account!

If you have already paid for a listing membership, just contact us and we’ll refund that.