Payment Guide: PayPal

Opening a PayPal Account

There are two types of PayPal accounts: Personal and Business.

Personal accounts are what majority of our users will need. This lets you receive and send money as Goods & Services, which is the option all artists are expected to use according to PayPal Policy.

Business accounts are for users who have a legitimate home or office business, along with a business tax ID, and accept physical payments for their goods and services as well as online payments. Most of our users who just sell artwork digitally would not need a business account.

You can always upgrade your account to a business account at a later date if your plans change. Both accounts are free to sign up for.

How to Sign up for a PayPal Account:

• Go to the PayPal website and click "Sign Up" at the top of the page.
• Select the type of account you would like to open, "Personal" or "Business" and click "Next".
• Provide your email address, create a password and click "Next".
• Fill out your personal information and click "Agree" and "Create Account".

Information Needed to Sign up for a Personal Account:

• First and last name
• Address
• Phone number
• Email address*

You must use your real information to sign up for Paypal. If you use false information for any reason, you can lose your account due to security reasons. Remember, you must be 18 years or older to use PayPal. If you are under the age of 18, you can have a parent or guardian create a PayPal student account for you. More information regarding that can be found here, https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/student.

*You will be asked to verify your email later and will receive all notifications of money sent or received, so it is best to use one that is secure and that you have access to.

Getting Verified

Verification provides an additional benefit: it lifts the withdrawal limit allowing you to withdraw more funds from your PayPal balance to your bank account. It also allows buyers and sellers to trust you more.

Verification Options

• Linking and confirming your bank account*
• Linking a Debit/Credit card
• Providing your social security number

After you complete at least two of those three options, your account will be verified automatically. Whenever you send money to another user, the attached receipt will list that you are verified right next to your name.

You do not need to be verified to send or receive money, however verification greatly increases the usability of PayPal.

*Linking and confirming your bank account can take 3-5 business days depending on your bank. The quickest way to verify your account is to link a debit/credit card and provide your social security number (SSN).

How do I send money/make a payment?

There are two ways to make payments to our artists via PayPal. These are the only approved ways of sending payments as they come with PayPal’s buyer and seller protection if done properly. Using PayPal correctly to make payments will help minimize scams.

Option 1 (highly recommended)

Artist sends an invoice to the buyer with the amount owed via email address.
 

• Click Send & Request at the top of the page.
• Under Request Money click “Create Invoice”.
• Hover over “Create” and choose “Invoice”.
• Enter the required information and hit send.

The invoice option is highly recommended due to the fact that it greatly decreases the chance that an artist will receive a false chargeback if the transaction is good. Artists can send their terms of services along with any other information along with the invoice, and both parties will receive verification of transaction. We highly encourage all artists to adopt this practice and frown upon users who use direct transfers instead. This is the safest option to collect and send payments for everyone due to PayPal's various protection policies for both buyers and sellers.

Option 2 (not recommended unless necessary)

Buyer sends payment to artist via email address or PayPal.me* link using the “Pay for goods or services”** option.

• Click Send & Request at the top of the page.
• Select “Pay for goods or services.”
• Enter the email address or mobile number to whom you are sending money.
• Enter the amount you want to send and click “Continue.”
• Review and confirm the information on the screen and click “Send Money Now.”

Both the artist and buyer will receive email receipts of the transaction and will have them listed under the “Activity” section on the summary page of your PayPal account.

*For more information about PayPal.me and how to set up your own personal payment link, go here: https://www.paypal.me/

**You will always use the “Pay for goods or services” option when making a payment to an artist.

Important Notes

Under no circumstances should a seller accept payments from buyers via the "friends & family" option, and a buyer shouldn't send payments to artists via the "friends & family" option. This voids both the Buyer and Seller protection PayPal offers in case something goes wrong after the transaction and drastically increases your chance of being scammed with a false chargeback/refund request.

You cannot ask your buyers to pay for the fees associated with accepting PayPal as a payment option. This is against PayPal's TOS and can cause you to lose your PayPal account along with any money currently associated with it, along with being banned from ever using PayPal again on a different account. If you are seen asking buyers to send additional funds or to use a fee calculator to send more than the asking price to cover the additional fees, the buyer(s) can report you to PayPal, even if the transaction is done off-site.

Do not put your account or money at risk by avoiding policies and fees.