One way to accept card and bank payments through your website is with PayPal.
A PayPal business account lets you:
- accept Visa and Mastercard payments from visitors — they don’t need a PayPal account themselves
- accept payments from visitors who do have a PayPal account, drawn from their linked bank account
Funds land in your PayPal account, and from there you can transfer them to a linked bank account.
Legal entities
PayPal business accounts can be opened for legal business entities such as a sole trader, company, government body, association or partnership. Trust entities are also supported with the right documentation.
Fees
It doesn’t cost anything to set up a PayPal account, but PayPal charges a per-transaction fee, with different rates for domestic and international transactions and a lower percentage available on higher volumes. Rates change over time, so check the current fees on PayPal’s own fees page before you rely on a specific number.
Setting up your account
- Go to your local PayPal site (for example, PayPal Australia).
- Start the sign-up. Use an email address you’re comfortable publicising as your payment address — for example, [email protected].
- Follow the prompts to create a Business account.
- Verify and link your bank account. PayPal deposits two small amounts into your account, and you confirm those amounts to complete verification.
Allow around a week for bank verification. You can still receive funds into your PayPal account during this time — you just can’t transfer them out until verification is complete.
A note on alternatives
PayPal is one option, but it isn’t the only one. Many businesses now take card payments directly on their site through a gateway like Stripe. If you’d like a recommendation for your situation, get in touch — payments is one of the things we help clients set up.