This is an awesome topic. It is one that is relevant to me as I worked for Paypal up until 5 years ago.

A couple of things that I advise people to do:

1) Read the buyer and seller agreements. Know your rights and specifically what IS and IS NOT covered. I will say that I learned to read TOS and agreements because of my time at Paypal.

2) Big evil Paypal is not out to get you. Unfortunately there are hundreds and thousands of criminals that try to filter money through Paypal. Seeing some of the things I saw caused you to be somewhat suspicious.

3) Your site needs look professional. If I come to your site and I see that it looks amateurish – I am going to lean to the side of caution.

4) Be easy to contact. Do not put a Skype # that you never answer on your website. Paypal will often try to call you when investigating fraud. Answer the call!!

5) Paypal hates sites that brag about clicking buttons and making millions. If it smells scammy, over the top, etc… you make get into Paypal’s crosshairs.

Those are just a few things that come to mind.

As always, I love the work you do.

Jeremy

I’d like to be in the position of having to worry about these things one day. hehe.

Shall bookmark this page for future reference 🙂

Christine

Pay Pal put a hold for 21 days on my money, and said they would review my account every 35 days.
I use others like these.
SolidTrust Pay.
Alertpay now called Payza
Nxpay.
Solidtrustpay and Nxpay are good for all over
Payza is in a transition with the use of credit cards, but will have it all taken care of soon. I have used them more than the others.

Fraudulent situations is another VERY important reason to diversify. Thank you so much for sharing your insights and expertise with us, Gabrielle! Come back soon. 🙂

N

Like several of your experts and commenters, I use PayPal both for downloadable products, as well as with direct clients. I also use Clickbank and DigiResults for my product affiliate programs. DigiResults works through PayPal and does allow instant payments, but they give you to control over which affiliates get instant payments and which have a waiting period. I like that a lot and have had no trouble whatsoever with it so far. I also use PayPal like a regular bank account.

Like you, much of my income goes directly into my bank checking account, and I get regular payments directly from Amazon and some from paper checks and direct deposit (ACH transfers).

As a professional bookkeeper, the advice in this article is excellent for ALL small business owners! You should diversify your income streams and have more than one place to receive payment so you could survive some crazy corporate decision or even a hijacked or fraudulent situation.

Thanks again! 🙂

Gabrielle

I have been on the vendor end and the customer end with Paypal disputes and have been really confused on both sides.

1. As a customer, I bought something and never was able to get ahold of the seller to get it. I didn’t get it. Period. During the dispute the seller never responded. I still lost. No idea.

2. As a vendor, I’ve been able to prove not only that the person bought the product but they downloaded it and to show emails going back and forth – and lost.

Very confusing. I do love Paypal and I don’t mean this to be a PayPal bash – but the results of the disputes tend to be rather inconsistent in my experience.

Thanks for commenting.
N

eek! Rhonda, how scary.

I forgot to mention that I pulled most (hopefully all) promotions for WSOs that I’d been promoting and removed my paypal account from JVZoo, too. Both seem to be getting targeted for “Instant payments” to affiliates.

Stop by and share more if you hear anything else, please.

Thanks!!!
N