If the Credit Card is not available for your customers when they proceed to pay via the PayPal platform, it can be several reasons.
Store owners with Paypal payments standard account often find that their customers were not able to pay with their credit cards. Simply, there is no credit card option on the payment page. Also, they write to us asking why.
First, Ultimate Membership Pro or the Paypal Payments plugin needs no special coding. They play no role in enabling or disabling the credit card option on the Paypal Payment page.
It’s related to how your Account is setup. You read it right. It is YOUR account set up
- Account must be either Premier or Business. Personal Accounts do not have this option.
- PayPal Account Optional is turned on – this enables non-PayPal Members to pay by Credit Card.
- The email address you use to log into your PayPal Account must be verified.
- The “business” variable value in your button code must be a verified email address or your Business ID.
- Bank Account linked and verified – so you can withdraw or transfer funds.
- Credit Card linked and verified.
How to enable the PayPal Account Optional feature:
Go to your Account Profile.
Select: My Selling Tools
Under: Selling Online
Locate: Website Preferences
Click on: Update
Locate: PayPal Account Optional
Click: On
Click: Save
When the “account optional” feature is turned on, customers don’t need a PayPal account. They use an alternate checkout and have the option to sign up for a PayPal account afterward. Customers with PayPal accounts still log in to their PayPal accounts to check out.
This feature is available for Buy Now buttons, Donations, shopping carts, and invoices.
Specific reasons the Credit Card Option may not be available to your customers:
- You are using Express Checkout. Express Checkout requires a PayPal Account
- You are using the wrong email address or an unverified email address.
- The country you reside in. Not all countries have PayPal features available.
- The country your customers reside in. Not all countries have all PayPal features available.
- The IP address of your hosted site is on a blocked list.
Last, you have your PayPal Account set up properly but, still don’t see the Credit Card Option or only see a small link to the Credit Card Option.
It’s all about the cookies. The PayPal Screens are designed to be displayed in a specific way and what you see is based on the cookies and/or your PayPal Account configuration.
PayPal relies on the use of cookies to track what’s in your cart and retain other info about you therefore the screen that is displayed may not be the screen you expect to see. If you are a new customer visiting PayPal for the first time, the Credit Card Option will be displayed.
If this is your second or third visit to PayPal and your previous cookie has not expired, PayPal now views you as a returning customer. You will get a screen with a small link to the Credit Card Option. Although this is not as obvious to the customer, the Credit Card Option is still available. For example, the cookie that holds the cart info will retain that info for up to 21 days. The only way it will change is if you remove the items selected from the cart or delete the cookie.
If you are testing your web pages, creating new code, making changes, etc., simply delete your web browser’s cookies, temp files, and history, then close your web browser, reopen it, and try your web pages again. When you view the PayPal Screens, you will now get a screen with the Credit Card Option because PayPal views you as a new visitor.
Other reasons for deleting cookies. Let’s say you changed your business email address or business graphic logo. If you don’t delete the cookies, temp files, and history before your test, you will still see the old information.
With PayPal’s Payments Standard, PayPal advertises that you do not have to have a PayPal Account to make a purchase. This statement is quite true however, there is one small bit of very important information that is not mentioned in any of the available documentation.