Last updated on September 14, 2026
Last updated on September 14, 2026
This user agreement is a contract between you and PayPal, Inc. governing your use of your PayPal account and the PayPal services. It applies to U.S. PayPal accounts only. If you are an individual, you must be a resident of the United States or one of its territories and at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in your state of residence to open a U.S. PayPal account and use the PayPal services. If you are a business, the business must be organized in, operating in, or a resident of, the United States or one of its territories to open a U.S. PayPal account and use the PayPal services.
By opening and using a PayPal account, you agree to comply with all of the terms and conditions of this user agreement, including the Fee pages, and any upcoming changes described on the Policy Updates page at the time you accept this user agreement (which changes will apply to you on the indicated effective dates). These terms include an agreement to resolve most disputes by arbitration on an individual basis, a class action waiver, and a jury trial waiver. In arbitration, there is less discovery and appellate review than in court. You also acknowledge and agree to comply with each of the other terms or agreements on the Legal Agreements page that apply to you and the following additional policies:
Please read carefully all of the terms and conditions of this user agreement, the terms of the above policies, and each of the other terms and agreements that apply to you.
We may revise this agreement and any of the other terms, agreements, or policies from time to time. The revised version will be effective at the time we post it, unless otherwise noted. If our changes reduce your rights or increase your responsibilities, we will provide notice of such changes.
By continuing to use our services after any changes to this user agreement or any of the other applicable terms, agreements, or policies, you agree to abide and be bound by those changes. If you do not agree with any changes to this user agreement, you may close your account.
We offer two types of PayPal accounts: PayPal personal accounts (or "personal accounts") and PayPal business accounts (or "business accounts"), both covered by this user agreement.
All PayPal accounts let you do things like:
You are responsible for maintaining adequate security and control of any and all IDs, passwords, personal identification numbers, or any other codes that you use to access your PayPal account and the PayPal services. You must keep your mailing address, email address and other contact information current in your PayPal account profile.
If you are establishing your PayPal account primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, you are required to open a personal account. With a personal account, you can do things like:
Personal accounts may be subject to fees that differ from the fees applicable to business accounts. Certain features associated with business accounts may not be available for personal accounts. If the activity associated with your personal account primarily involves business or commercial activity, PayPal may close your account unless you agree to cease the business or commercial activity or convert your personal account to a business account.
If you are establishing your PayPal account primarily for business or commercial activity, you are required to open a business account. This is true even if your business is not incorporated. With a business account, you can do things like:
Business accounts may be subject to fees that differ from the fees applicable to personal accounts. Business accounts are not eligible to receive "personal transactions", although they may send personal transactions to friends and family with an eligible PayPal account. You may not establish a PayPal business account primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. If the activity associated with your business account demonstrates that the account was established primarily for personal, family, or household activity, PayPal may close your account unless you agree to cease the personal, family, or household activity or convert your business account to a personal account.
Eligible business accounts may have the option to use certain payment solutions features, which are provided by PayPal subject to the additional terms and conditions found under the Business Account Payment Solutions Agreements section of our Legal Agreements page (collectively the "Business Account Payment Solutions"). You will be deemed to have accepted such additional terms and conditions in the event, and at the time, either of the following occurs, whichever is first:
We may revise (or terminate) such additional terms and conditions for the Business Account Payment Solutions from time to time pursuant to their terms and the terms of this user agreement.
If you, or any other person associated with your account, use SAML SSO (Security Assertion Markup Language Single Sign-On) to allow access to your accounts with PayPal, you attest that you are compliant with applicable state and Federal Multi-Factor Authentication ("MFA") regulations (e.g., NY DFS Part 500 and 16 CFR Part 314: Standards For Safeguarding Customer Information). You will provide information to demonstrate compliance with this requirement as reasonably requested by PayPal.
By opening a business account or converting a personal account to a business account, you agree that you are not establishing the account primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. You further agree that each payment method you link to your business account (see Link or Unlink a Payment Method) is a payment method used primarily for business or commercial purposes and was not established for personal, family, or household purposes. You also consent to PayPal obtaining your personal and/or business credit report from a credit reporting agency at account opening and whenever we reasonably believe there may be an increased level of risk associated with your business account.
You may close your PayPal account and terminate your relationship with us at any time without cost, but you will remain liable for all obligations related to your PayPal account even after the PayPal account is closed. When you close your PayPal account, we will cancel any scheduled or incomplete transactions. If you have a Balance Account linked to a personal account, you must withdraw or transfer any funds held in your Balance Account before closing your personal account, and closing a personal account will result in PayPal automatically closing any linked Balance Account. If you have a business account, you must withdraw or transfer any balance from your business account before closing it, and if you have not provided the required identifying information to us, or if we are unable to verify the required identifying information you provide, you must transfer any balance in your business account to a linked bank account or debit card. You cannot withdraw or transfer digital gift certificates/cards that are purchased through PayPal Digital Gifts and linked to your personal or business account as payment methods. However, even without your PayPal account, you can still use the codes you received by email when you purchased the gift certificates/cards to make purchases.
In certain cases, you may not close your PayPal account, including:
You can link or unlink certain payment methods such as a credit card, debit card, a U.S. bank account or PayPal Credit to your PayPal account. If you open a Balance Account, it will be linked to your personal account as a payment method, and you can unlink the Balance Account by withdrawing all funds and closing it. If you have a Balance Account and have also opened a PayPal Debit Mastercard® account (PayPal Debit Card), your PayPal Debit Card, which allows you to access the balance in your PayPal Balance Account, will be reflected as the Payment Method in PayPal checkout and as the funding source for the Send Money feature on your PayPal account.
Before linking a bank account, you should review and understand the consumer protection rights and remedies available for different payment sources under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) and Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA). Please also refer to Authorization to Charge Your Payment Method for additional terms regarding our authority to charge your linked payment methods and your right to revoke our authority to charge such payment methods.
Please keep your payment method information current (e.g., credit card number and expiration date). If this information changes, we may update it using information and third-party sources available to us without any action on your part. If you do not want us to update your payment method information, you may unlink that payment method by removing it from your PayPal account. If we update your payment method, we will keep any preference setting attached to such payment method. You may need to confirm your payment method, so we can verify that it is valid and belongs to you. To do this, you authorize us to make credits and debits to your payment method as follows:
Unless otherwise expressly stated, all references to "funds" in this user agreement mean money denominated in sovereign currency and not cryptocurrency or any other form of asset.
Money sent to your personal account cannot be held as a balance in your personal account. When you receive money to your personal account, you can:
request PayPal to send the money to you by check (subject to a non-refundable fee of $1.50 U.S. dollars for PayPal personal accounts without a linked Balance Account, which will be deducted from the amount of the transfer). If you request a paper check from us, you must cash it within 180 days of the date of issuance, or we will return the funds to your linked Balance Account if you have one or hold the funds on your behalf and retain the non-refundable fee of $1.50 U.S. dollars, if applied. We will not send a check to a post office box, and we will only send a check to an address once we have confirmed that it belongs to you;
You also cannot transfer money to your personal account to be held as a balance in your personal account. You will need to open a Balance Account to hold the money as a balance in your Balance Account, which can be used for purchases or to send personal transactions to friends and family members. More information about Balance Accounts can be found in the PayPal Balance Terms and Conditions.
Except when PayPal acts as your agent and custodian to place funds in one or more banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) that we choose in our discretion ("Program Banks"), as provided below, any balance in your Balance Account and any funds sent to you which have not yet been transferred to a linked bank account or linked debit card if you do not have a Balance Account, represent unsecured claims against PayPal that are not eligible for FDIC pass-through insurance.
If your Balance Account is not eligible for FDIC pass-through insurance, PayPal combines your PayPal funds with the PayPal funds not eligible for pass-through FDIC insurance of other PayPal users and invests those funds in liquid investments in accordance with state money transmitter laws. PayPal owns the interest or other earnings on these investments. However, the claim against PayPal represented by funds held in your Balance Account is not secured by these investments and you do not have any ownership interest (either legal or beneficial) in these investments. These pooled amounts are held apart from PayPal's corporate funds, and PayPal will neither use these funds for its operating expenses or any other corporate purposes nor will it voluntarily make these funds available to its creditors in the event of bankruptcy. You will not receive any interest or other return on the funds held with PayPal.
If you have opened a PayPal Debit Card Mastercard® account, enrolled in Direct Deposit, or bought or received cryptocurrency with your personal PayPal branded cryptocurrency account ("Crypto Account"), we will place your U.S. dollar PayPal Balance funds in one or more Program Banks, where they will, subject to certain conditions, be eligible for pass-through FDIC insurance, up to applicable limits. Additionally, if you have bought or received cryptocurrency with a Crypto Account linked to your PayPal business account, we will place your U.S. dollar business account funds at one or more Program Banks. FDIC insurance protects against the failure of the Program Banks, not the failure of PayPal. PayPal is not a bank, does not take deposits and is not FDIC insured. Any other balance funds and all cryptocurrencies are not held in FDIC-insured bank deposits. Cryptocurrencies may lose value. See PayPal Balance Terms and Conditions.
Cryptocurrency services and accounts are provided by PayPal Digital, Inc. More information can be found in the Cryptocurrency Terms and Conditions.
You may also link PayPal Savings to your PayPal personal account. PayPal Savings is a deposit account provided by Synchrony Bank in which you can deposit funds and subsequently access those funds by transferring them back to your eligible Balance Account. A PayPal Balance Account is required to set up and utilize PayPal Savings.
PayPal Savings does not act as a payment method to fund transactions with merchants for goods and services or to send or receive personal transactions from friends and family.
All deposits to and withdrawals from PayPal Savings are made via transfer to your PayPal balance. When you link PayPal Savings to your PayPal account, you authorize PayPal and Synchrony Bank to transfer funds between your eligible Balance Account and PayPal Savings in accordance with your instructions. More information about sending and receiving funds from PayPal Savings can be found in the PayPal Balance Terms and Conditions.
Money sent to a business account can be held directly as balance in the business account. The balance functionality in your business account will differ depending on whether we have been able to verify the required identifying information that you provide to us.
The required identifying information is:
If we have not verified the required identifying information, a balance in your business account can only be held in your business account and transferred to a linked bank account or debit card or you can request PayPal to send you the money by check (subject to a non-refundable fee of $1.50 U.S. dollars for PayPal business accounts, which will be deducted from the amount of the withdrawal). Your balance may also be used to fund payments or money owed to PayPal, such as payments on your PayPal Working Capital account or monies owed for refunds or chargebacks.
If we have verified the required identifying information, a balance can be held in your business account, transferred to a linked bank account or debit card, used to make purchases or send money to others.
If you have a business account and we have verified the required identifying information that you have provided to us, you may transfer money to the balance of your business account from an eligible bank account or debit card linked to your business account. In addition to one-time electronic transfers, you may set up automatic transfers that add funds to the balance of your business account from an eligible bank account or debit card linked to your business account on a set schedule (such as daily or weekly) or whenever the balance in your business account falls below an amount you specify. There are daily, weekly, and monthly limits on the amounts you can transfer to your business account.
We may allow you to add funds to your business account at participating retail stores throughout the U.S. using the Add Cash at Store feature. There are transactional and daily and monthly limits on the amounts you can add and daily, weekly, and monthly limits on the number of times you can add money. Please refer to the "Business" tab of the What is PayPal Add Cash at Stores and how do I use it? PayPal Help Center page for more information. We may also allow you to add funds to your business account using the Cash a Check feature. Cash a Check is not available if you have a negative balance in your business account and may not be available in all locations. Please refer to the "Business" tab of the What is the Cash a Check service in the PayPal app? PayPal Help Center page for more information and details on availability and other restrictions. Fees for Add Cash at Store and Cash a Check transactions can be found in the Fee pages.
If we have not verified the required identifying information that you have provided to us, you cannot add funds to your balance in a business account.
When you open a business account, we may also assign you a The Bancorp Bank, N.A. ("The Bancorp") issued account number and routing number that you can use to receive funds into your business account for business or commercial purposes. You can also use your business account as a payment method for the purchase of business or commercial-related goods and services through a transaction that you initiate using your assigned account number and routing number via a third-party merchant's website or mobile application. Otherwise, you can separately request The Bancorp- issued account number and routing number.
Funds transferred into your business account using your assigned account number and routing number generally will be available on the day the funds are applied to your account. Because we may not receive funds instantly, there may be some delay between the payment being initiated by the payer and the payment arriving at PayPal.
You can withdraw balance from your business account by:
conducting a cash withdrawal transaction if you have a PayPal Debit Card via (i) a bank teller at a participating bank branch or other financial institution, or (ii) an ATM (automated teller machine) (fees may apply), or
requesting a check from us (subject to a non-refundable fee of $1.50 U.S. dollars for PayPal business accounts, which will be deducted from the amount of the withdrawal). If you request a paper check from us, you must cash it within 180 days of the date of issuance, or we will return the funds to your balance in your business account and retain the non-refundable fee of $1.50 U.S. dollars. We will not send a check to a post office box, and we will only send a check to an address once we have confirmed that it belongs to you.
If you use your assigned account number and routing number for your business account as a payment method for goods and services, your business account may be debited on a one-time or recurring basis as you instruct. There are daily limits on the amount and number of transactions that you can initiate, and limits on the amount you can transfer per transaction. For more information, see the Help Center. These transactions may require you to provide various consents and agree to the terms and conditions presented by the merchant. Management of any scheduled payments, including cancellation, can be done through the merchant's website or mobile application. For transactions using your assigned account number and routing number, unauthorized transfers or debits in excess of the amount you authorized are subject to notification timeframes set forth in the Returning Unauthorized or Excess Business Account Debits section of Liability for Unauthorized Transactions and Other Errors.
Any funds you hold in your business account represent unsecured claims against PayPal. PayPal is not a bank, does not take deposits and is not FDIC insured. If you have bought or received cryptocurrency with a Crypto Account linked to your PayPal business account, we will place your U.S. dollar business account funds at one or more Program Banks. You will not receive any interest or other return on the funds held with PayPal. PayPal combines your PayPal funds with the PayPal funds of other PayPal users and invests those funds in liquid investments in accordance with state money transmitter laws. PayPal owns the interest or other earnings on these investments. However, the claim against PayPal represented by your PayPal funds is not secured by these investments and you do not have any ownership interest (either legal or beneficial) in these investments. These pooled amounts are held apart from PayPal's corporate funds, and PayPal will neither use these funds for its operating expenses or any other corporate purposes nor will it voluntarily make these funds available to its creditors in the event of bankruptcy.
To protect us and our users from loss, we may delay a withdrawal, in certain situations, including if we need to confirm that you have authorized the withdrawal or if other payments to your PayPal account have been subject to a reversal (for example, as a result of a chargeback, bank reversal, or dispute by a buyer). If we place a limitation on your PayPal account, a payment is subject to a hold, or your account or an associated account has a negative balance in any currency while a withdrawal from your PayPal account is pending, you will have to reinitiate the withdrawal once the limitation or hold has been lifted, or negative balance is fully paid off.
We may set limits on your withdrawals. Completing two out of three of the following steps can help us verify your PayPal account, which may allow us to increase your withdrawal limit:
Your balance in your business account or in your Balance Account, if you have one, may be held in currencies other than U.S. dollars.
If you hold a balance in your business account or in your Balance Account:
To receive money in a currency your account is not currently configured to accept, it may be necessary to create a balance in your business account or in your Balance Account, in that currency or convert the money into another currency. Certain currencies can only be received by converting the money into another currency that PayPal allows you to hold. If the money is converted, PayPal’s transaction exchange rate (including our currency conversion spread) will be used.
You are responsible for all risks associated with maintaining multiple currencies in a Balance Account or business account. You may not manage or convert multiple currencies for speculative trading purposes, conversion arbitrage, conversion options, or any other activity that PayPal determines is primarily for the purpose of gaining or making money based on currency conversion rates. PayPal may hold, cancel, or reverse any transaction we determine to violate this policy.
If PayPal converts currency, it will be completed at the transaction exchange rate we set for the relevant currency exchange. The transaction exchange rate is adjusted regularly and includes a currency conversion spread applied and retained by us on a base exchange rate to form the rate applicable to your conversion.
If we cannot communicate with you at the time you authorize an in-person payment (for example, because you or the seller do not have connectivity at the time you authorized the transaction), and we perform a currency conversion for that payment, we will use the transaction exchange rate in effect at the time the payment transaction is processed by the seller.
For some uses of your PayPal accounts, PayPal may determine currency conversion is necessary. If your PayPal balance is not enough to cover the amount of a payment you instruct us to make in a particular currency, we may perform a currency conversion from any PayPal balance in another currency to cover the shortfall. There may be some restrictions on where you can send payments in certain currencies. The applicable currency conversion spread can be found on our Fees page under the heading Currency conversion.
Holds or limitations may delay currency conversion of amounts until such holds or limitations are released. This may result in the application of a currency conversion that is different from the transaction exchange rate that would have been applied had no account hold(s) or limitation(s) been in place. Currency conversions in these circumstances may be more favorable or less favorable to you.
When your payment is funded by a debit or credit card and PayPal determines a currency conversion is necessary, you consent to and authorize PayPal to convert the currency in place of your debit or credit card issuer. You may have the right to have your card issuer perform the currency conversion, if applicable for that card issuer and network. Currency preference selections may be presented to you in various forms, including setting the currency of your card, a choice of which currency is used for the transaction, whether PayPal or your card issuer performs the conversion, or which conversion rate is used for the transaction, and may be made available individually for each card and for each automatic payment agreement. If your card issuer converts the currency, your card issuer will determine the currency conversion rate and what fees they may charge.
PayPal will always perform the conversion for transactions where your Balance Account balance, business account balance or linked bank account is the payment method. For PayPal Debit Card transactions, the currency conversion will be performed by Mastercard, except for PayPal Debit Card transactions in PayPal checkout or when using the Send Money feature for which PayPal will perform the currency conversion.
Our consumer fees and merchant fees are exclusive of any taxes, charges, or similar assessments of any nature, including, without limitation, value-added, sales, digital services, stamp, transfer, or withholding taxes, assessable by any jurisdiction or governmental authority (collectively, “Taxes”).
Each of us shall be responsible to pay our own Taxes arising in connection with the performance of our respective obligations from your use of PayPal services.
If you are paying for a PayPal service, you agree to pay to PayPal the amount of any legally applicable Taxes imposed on any amount due from you to PayPal.
You agree not to withhold any Taxes on amounts payable by you to PayPal unless you are legally required to do so. If you withhold any Taxes, the amount payable by you to PayPal shall not be decreased by the amount withheld. You agree that PayPal is entitled to receive the full amount that would have been received had there been no withholding of any Taxes. Upon request by PayPal, you will deliver to PayPal in a timely manner any written documentation evidencing your payment of Taxes to the relevant authorities.
It is your responsibility to determine what, if any, taxes apply to the payments you make or receive, and it is solely your responsibility to assess, collect, report, and remit the correct taxes to the appropriate authority. PayPal is not responsible for determining whether any taxes apply to your transaction, or for calculating, collecting, reporting, or remitting taxes arising from any transaction.
You acknowledge that PayPal may have a legal obligation to make reports, and will make such reports, to tax authorities regarding transactions that we process on your behalf. Additional information can be found in our Help Center.
We may request that you provide PayPal with your tax identification number and/or other tax-related documentation or information. If you do not provide the requested information to PayPal or keep documentation up to date in your PayPal account, you may be subject to account holds or limitations and withholding Taxes at the applicable rates on gross payments received. PayPal will remit any such withholding Taxes to the appropriate tax authorities, and you acknowledge PayPal may be prohibited from refunding any amounts to you once these have been sent to the appropriate tax authorities.
If a currency conversion is required on a payment of withholding Taxes, the amount due to the relevant tax authority will be calculated by PayPal in accordance with our currency conversion terms when we process the withholding Taxes. To minimize risks relating to exchange rate fluctuations, account holds and limitations, tax withholding, and remittance to the relevant tax authority, you should add or confirm your taxpayer information to PayPal.
You have the right to receive an account statement showing your PayPal account activity. You may view your PayPal account statement by logging into your PayPal account. If you have a Balance Account linked to your personal account, you will receive two statements: one showing all transactions in your personal account and an additional statement showing only transactions involving your Balance Account.
You can send money to a friend or family member as a personal transaction using the Send Money feature in your PayPal account. You can send money to a friend or family member even if they don’t have an eligible PayPal account at the time you send them money, using their email address or mobile number in any currency that PayPal supports, and you can choose which payment method you want to use. If the person to whom you are sending money does not have an eligible PayPal account, they can claim it by opening an eligible PayPal account. If they don’t claim it, it will be refunded to you.
We may, at our discretion, impose limits on the amount of money you can send, including money you send for purchases.
When you send money to a friend or family member who has an eligible PayPal account, one of two things may happen: they may accept or decline the money. If they decline to accept the money, the money (including any fees you were charged) will be refunded to:
The fees applicable to sending personal transactions to an eligible PayPal account can be found on our Consumer Fees page and will be disclosed to you in advance each time you initiate sending a personal transaction to a friend or family member. If you convert money in your Balance Account balance or in your business account balance from one currency to another before sending money, PayPal’s transaction exchange rate (including our currency conversion spread) will be used. If you use your credit card as the payment method when sending money, you may also be charged a cash-advance fee by your card issuer.
If you send money to a friend’s or family member’s eligible PayPal account from a third party (non-PayPal) website or by using a third party’s product or service, then the third party will determine if the sender or recipient pays the fee. This will be disclosed to you by the third party before the payment is initiated.
You can also use the Send Money feature in your PayPal account to pay another PayPal account for goods or services. You will not be charged any transaction fee for sending money to purchase goods or services as long as you send the money as a commercial transaction (often referred to as using the “Send Money for Goods and Services” feature in your PayPal account). In that case, the seller will pay a fee. You must not send money as a personal transaction (often referred to as using the “Send Money to a Friend or Family Member” feature in your PayPal account) when you are paying for goods or services. Note that the “Send Money to a Friend or Family Member” feature may not be available when sending money to a business account as such accounts may not be eligible to receive personal transactions.
Business accounts may use the Send Money feature to send payments for goods or services to recipients with or without PayPal accounts. Different terms, conditions, and fees apply depending on whether the recipient has a PayPal account.
If you send money from your PayPal business account using the Send Money for Goods and Services feature to a recipient with a PayPal account, the recipient will pay the fees applicable to commercial transactions.
If you send money for goods and services from your PayPal business account using the Send Money feature to a recipient without a PayPal account, the payment will be processed as a Bill Pay for Business Accounts transaction. In that case, you will pay the applicable Bill Pay for Business Accounts fees.
You can purchase something from a seller who accepts PayPal or make a donation, in any currency that the recipient accepts and that PayPal supports using any payment method linked to your PayPal account. This includes, for example:
If the seller you are purchasing from sells goods or services and that seller does not already have a PayPal account, they can claim your payment by opening a PayPal account. If they don't open a PayPal account within 30 days, your purchase will be refunded.
In order to manage risk, PayPal may limit the payment methods available for a transaction when you purchase something or make a donation. In addition, payment methods may be limited for certain sellers or recipients, including PayPal payments made through certain third-party websites or applications.
When you authorize a payment to a seller who accepts PayPal, some sellers may take up to 30 days to complete the transaction. In these instances, your payment may appear as a pending order in your PayPal account. In that case, your authorization of the payment will remain valid until the seller completes the transaction (but no longer than 30 days). If you used a debit or credit card as the payment method, your debit or credit card issuer also may show a pending authorization for a period of time until they release the hold or receive a completed transaction. If your payment requires a currency conversion by us, PayPal's transaction exchange rate (including a currency conversion spread) will be used, and may be the rate at the time the payment is processed.
When you purchase something from a seller who accepts PayPal or make a donation, you don't pay a fee to PayPal. If PayPal performs a currency conversion for your purchase or donation, PayPal's transaction exchange rate (including our currency conversion spread) will be used. Your debit or credit card issuer may also charge you a separate fee for non-U.S. transactions.
In addition you may be required to pay a fee to PayPal if you are making a purchase using PayPal Business Payments and the seller discloses to you that you, as the buyer, must pay the fee.
When PayPal identifies a potentially high-risk transaction, we review the transaction more closely before allowing it to proceed. When this happens, PayPal will place a hold on the transaction and notify the seller to delay shipping of the item. As a buyer, this may delay your receipt of the item you purchased. If we clear the transaction, we will notify the seller and direct them to ship the item. If we don't clear the transaction, we will cancel it and return the funds to you, unless we are legally required to take other action.
Some sellers who accept PayPal allow you to store PayPal as the payment method for future purchases with that seller. When you store PayPal as a payment method with a specific seller, you agree with the seller that they can use PayPal to request payment for future transactions between you and the seller. The agreement between you and the seller may allow you to authorize and schedule a payment to the seller in advance on a one-time, sporadic, or recurring basis. Examples of automatic payments that can be arranged by you with a seller include those that PayPal calls a "billing agreement," "subscription," "recurring payment," "reference transaction," "preauthorized transfer"; or "preapproved payment."
If you have a personal account, you may cancel a recurring automatic payment 3 Business Days or more before the date of the next scheduled payment from your account settings or by contacting us through the PayPal Help Center, or by calling PayPal at (888) 221-1161. If you order us to stop one of these payments 3 Business Days or more before the transfer is scheduled, and we do not do so, we will be liable for your losses or damages.
Once your automatic payment authorization is canceled, all future automatic payments under your agreement with that seller will be stopped. If you cancel an automatic payment authorization, you may still owe the seller money for purchases that have been authorized but not completed, or you may still have additional obligations to the seller for any goods or services that you receive but have not paid for.
If you have given advance payment authorization to a seller that permits a seller to take or receive payments from your PayPal account on a regularly recurring basis (for example, every month or otherwise on a routine billing cycle), and if such payments will vary in amount, you have the right to advance notice of the amount and date of the transfer from the seller at least 10 days before the transfer is made. If the seller provides the option, you may choose to receive this advance notice only when the amount of your automatic payment will fall outside a range established between you and the seller.
If you have authorized an automatic payment and PayPal performs currency conversion for an automatic payment transaction, PayPal will use the transaction exchange rate (including PayPal's currency conversion spread) in effect at the time the automatic payment transaction is processed.
When you purchase something from a seller online using PayPal and the transaction is ultimately refunded, the money will typically be refunded to the original payment method you used for the transaction if you used a debit card, credit card, PayPal Credit, or a balance in your Balance Account or business account.
If you used a bank account linked to a personal account as the payment method for the transaction, we may give you the option to receive the money to your Balance Account; otherwise, we will attempt to refund the money to your bank account. If we are unable to do so, we will attempt to refund the money to your linked Balance Account if you have one. If you do not have a Balance Account, the money will be waiting for you to claim by using one of the available transfer methods under Receiving Funds, Holding a Balance or Transferring Funds for personal accounts.
If you used a bank account linked to a business account as the payment method for the transaction, we will attempt to refund the money to your bank account. If we are unable to do so, we will refund the money to your balance in your business account.
For purchases you make in a seller's store location that you paid for using your personal account and the transaction is ultimately refunded, the money will be refunded to your Balance Account if you have one. If you do not have a Balance Account, the money will be waiting for you to claim by using one of the available transfer methods under Receiving Funds, Holding a Balance or Transferring Funds for personal accounts.
For purchases you make in a seller's store location that you paid for using your business account and the transaction is ultimately refunded, the money will be refunded to your balance in your business account.
If you used Pay with Rewards to fund your transaction, your refund will be processed back as a dollar amount: depending on your card agreement with your issuer, your issuer may or may not credit your purchase back to your reward balance.
If PayPal performed currency conversion for your transaction and a refund is issued:
Money will be refunded in the currency you paid; or if we are unable to refund in the currency you paid, in your primary holding currency; or we are unable to refund in your primary holding currency, then in U.S. dollars.
You can choose any of the payment methods in your PayPal account as your preferred payment method. You can select a preferred payment method in your account preferences on www.paypal.com or in the PayPal app, or when checking out with PayPal online. There may be times when your preferred payment method cannot be used, for example, if you select a credit card that is expired.
You can set separate preferred payment methods for online transactions, in-store transactions, and each of your automatic payment agreements, as described below.
If you have chosen a preferred payment method, it will be shown as the primary method of payment.
For some online transactions, you can select two payment methods. For example, you may split a payment between (i) your PayPal Debit Card or balance, and (ii) your eligible credit card.
If you have not chosen a preferred payment method, you can always choose the payment method to be used for the specific transaction.
The availability of certain payment methods may be limited based on that particular seller or the third-party website you are using to complete the transaction.
If you have not chosen a preferred payment method for online transactions, when you choose a credit card (other than PayPal Credit), debit card, bank account, or balance with PayPal during a one-time online purchase, you are also providing your express consent to make that your preferred payment method for future one-time online purchases.
If you have not selected a preferred payment method, or your preferred payment method is unavailable, we will show you your available payment methods. You can also see all of your available payment methods, or add a new one, and select a payment method during the transaction.
Certain one-time online transactions may require that a backup payment method be used in the event that your selected or preferred payment method is unavailable. In those instances, the backup payment method may be displayed to you on your transaction review page before you complete the transaction. If PayPal determines currency conversion is necessary for a transaction that also requires a backup payment method, you may not be able to separately choose whether PayPal or your card issuer performs the currency conversion on your backup payment method.
When you send money using the Send Money feature in your PayPal account to eligible PayPal accounts within the U.S. using balance in your Balance Account linked to your personal account, the balance in your business account, or your bank account, we waive all fees charged to you (as per our Fee pages), so we always show you these payment options first, even if you have a set preferred payment method for your online purchases. You always have the choice to select any payment method in your PayPal account during the Send Money experience. If you select a payment method with a fee, we will always show you the fee before you send money.
Some sellers allow you to store PayPal as the way you pay when making purchases on their site, so you can check out faster. Often, this entails creating an agreement with the seller that permits them to request that we charge your PayPal account each time you make a purchase.
When you first set up an automatic payment agreement or store PayPal as a payment method with a seller, you may have the option to set up a preferred payment method for such agreement. You can review, set, or change a preferred payment method for an automatic payment agreement in your PayPal account settings.
Your preferred payment method for an automatic payment agreement will be used for transactions with that seller. If you have available balance with PayPal, that balance may be used before your preferred payment method, depending on your applicable automatic payment agreement with the seller.
If you have not set a preferred payment method for an automatic payment agreement, or if your preferred or selected payment method cannot be charged for the full amount of your automatic payment transaction (for example, due to fraud risk, insufficient funds, or because it is expired) you authorize PayPal to first charge your preferred or selected payment method for the available amount, and then charge the remaining amount due to complete that transaction to your backup payment method in the following order, if applicable: 1. Balance Account or PayPal Debit Card (which allows you to access your Balance Account), or balance in your business account (if we’ve been able to verify the required identifying information you provide to us); 2. Bank account (when PayPal pays the recipient before we receive the funds from your bank); 3. PayPal co-branded credit card; 4. Debit card; 5. Credit card; and 6. E-check (when PayPal waits to receive the funds from your bank before we pay the recipient). However, if a bank account is used as the payment method for a transaction and funding fails (for example, as a result of insufficient funds), PayPal may attempt another payment method as a backup notwithstanding the order specified above (typically a credit card, if applicable). To help minimize disruptions in your automatic payments, we may update your payment method information associated with such automatic payments; see Link or Unlink a Payment Method.
Each time you use your bank account as a payment method, you authorize PayPal to initiate a transfer from your bank account to the recipient. For these transactions, PayPal will make electronic transfers from your bank account, as set forth under Authorization to Charge Your Payment Method. You authorize PayPal to re-present this transfer from your bank account up to two (2) times if the initial transfer is rejected by your bank for any reason. Adding money to your PayPal balance (including your PayPal Balance account balance) while a re-presentment is pending does not stop the original transfer from being re-presented by us to your bank.
If you use your PayPal account to pay for an item and you select your bank account as the payment method for the transaction, remember that your PayPal account is issued to you by PayPal and not your bank. The terms, benefits, and protections associated with your PayPal account may vary from those that apply to your bank account. If you use your PayPal account to make a purchase that exceeds the balance in your linked bank account, you could incur overdraft fees, even if you chose not to allow overdrafts with your bank. Similarly, the liability limits applicable to your PayPal account may differ from those applicable to your bank account.
E-check is a payment method where you use your bank account as your payment method, and the payment is not received by the recipient until the transaction is processed from the bank. This process usually takes 4-7 Business Days, but this amount of time will increase if the payment is sent from a bank account located outside the United States.
PayPal may allow you to redeem rewards associated with your eligible card(s) or third-party membership rewards accounts when making a purchase with your PayPal account through PayPal’s Pay with Rewards program. PayPal may share with and receive information from your issuer, third-party membership rewards provider, or third-party membership program administrator about your accounts to complete the redemption of your rewards when using PayPal’s Pay with Rewards program. The exchange of this information is necessary to complete the purchase when you select the Pay with Rewards redemption option.
All Pay with Rewards redemptions are subject to the terms of your agreement with your card issuer, membership rewards provider, or membership program administrator. Pay with Rewards is only available for eligible purchases with certain merchants, and PayPal, your membership rewards provider, membership program administrator, or your issuer may limit, suspend, or terminate your ability to redeem rewards at any time in accordance with this user agreement and your membership rewards agreement. Your issuer, membership rewards provider, or membership program administrator determines the value of rewards redeemed through PayPal and available redemption methods (e.g., to pay for your purchase or for a statement credit).
There may be a delay between checkout and processing of your payment. Only rewards available upon processing of your payment will be used. Because your reward balance and/or transaction balance may change, whenever you request to redeem rewards for a purchase you also authorize PayPal to charge up to the full payment amount to your associated card or account if that happens. For more information on redeeming rewards and how it works, please see About Payment Methods.
PayPal may process debit card transactions through the ATM debit network or the Visa, MasterCard, or Discover network, except for PayPal Debit Card transactions you make in PayPal checkout or when using the Send Money feature, which will be processed directly by PayPal by debiting your Balance Account. If we process your debit card through an ATM debit network, we may provide you with the opportunity to switch to a Visa or MasterCard network. Choosing the Visa/Mastercard network may give you additional protection compared to the ATM debit networks. You should contact your debit card issuer to learn more about your rights and remedies if you pay with your debit card.
If you use the PayPal application on your mobile phone, you may store loyalty card numbers or bar codes, where applicable, for certain sellers in your PayPal account. When you store your loyalty card numbers or bar codes in your PayPal account, you will earn any rewards, subject to the seller’s loyalty card terms and conditions, at the time you make your payment to the merchant by presenting the stored loyalty card number or bar code to the seller at the point of sale. It is your responsibility to make sure you have entered your loyalty card information correctly and that you update it as necessary. It is also your responsibility to ensure that you are receiving the rewards to which you are entitled. PayPal is not responsible for managing your loyalty card account by offering this service and any questions about your loyalty card or associated rewards program should be directed to the seller who offers the card.
The PayPal Rewards Program allows eligible PayPal users to earn rewards points for completing qualifying transactions or activities. See the PayPal Rewards Program Agreement for more information. Such agreement governs participation in the PayPal Rewards Program and is incorporated herein by reference.
When you purchase something from a seller who accepts PayPal, you may be eligible for a refund under PayPal’s Purchase Protection program. When applicable, PayPal’s Purchase Protection program may result in coverage for the full purchase price of the item plus the original shipping costs you paid, if any. PayPal determines, in its sole discretion, whether your claim is eligible for PayPal's Purchase Protection program.
The program terms and conditions are set out in PayPal’s Purchase Protection program page and form part of this user agreement.
If you use your PayPal account to receive payments for the sale of goods or services or to receive donations, you must:
By integrating into your online checkout/platform any functionality intended to enable a payer without a PayPal account to send a payment to your PayPal account, or by sending an invoice for a payment request, you agree to all further terms of use of that functionality which PayPal will make available to you on any page on the PayPal or Braintree website (including any page for developers and our Legal Agreements page) or online platform. Such further terms include the PayPal Alternative Payment Methods Agreement.
If you are a seller, and the card payments you receive using the PayPal services meet certain criteria, you are required under the applicable card network rules to agree to a Commercial Entity Agreement with each card network member bank that processes such card payments. Such criteria include you receiving card payments from:
The applicable Commercial Entity Agreement(s) (as updated from time to time) apply to any such card payments processed by PayPal on your behalf through the relevant member bank(s) and are incorporated by reference into this user agreement.
If you use your PayPal account to accept donations, including using the Donate Button or PayPal Checkout for Donations, you must:
You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as a payment method. You may charge a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge and is not higher than the handling fee you charge for non-PayPal transactions.
You must treat PayPal and/or Venmo payment methods or marks at least on par with any other payment methods or marks offered or displayed at your points of sale where PayPal or Venmo branded services are integrated, including your websites or mobile applications. This includes at least equal or better: logo placement, position within any point of sale, and treatment in terms of payment flow, terms, conditions, restrictions, and fees, in each case as compared to other marks and payment methods at your points of sale. Further, you must not present any payment method or mark upstream (or at an earlier point in the checkout experience) from the presentment of any of PayPal or Venmo services or marks.
In representations to your customers or in public communications, you must not mischaracterize any PayPal or Venmo services or exhibit a preference for other payment methods over PayPal or Venmo services. Within all of your points of sale, you agree not to try to dissuade or inhibit your customers from using PayPal or Venmo services or encourage the customer to use an alternate payment method. If you enable your customers to pay you with PayPal or Venmo, whenever you display or exhibit the payment methods that you accept (either within any point of sale or in your marketing materials, advertising, and other customer communications) you agree to display the PayPal or Venmo services payment marks at least as prominently, and in at least as positive a manner, as you do for all other payment methods.
You must publish customer service information with clear instructions on how your customers can contact you. Such instructions must include at least: (1) one active customer service email address or active customer service URL to file tickets for assistance and/or (2) one active customer service telephone number. Such information must be readily accessible for review by your customers.
You must publish a refunds and returns policy.
You must publish a privacy policy, where required by law.
PayPal reviews certain potentially high-risk transactions. If PayPal determines, in its sole discretion, that a transaction is high-risk, we place a hold on the payment and provide notice to you to delay shipping of the item. PayPal will conduct a review and either complete or cancel the payment. If the payment is completed, PayPal will provide notice to you to ship the item. Otherwise, PayPal will cancel the payment and the funds will be returned to the buyer, unless we are legally required to take other action. All payments that complete this payment review will be eligible for PayPal's Seller Protection program if they meet PayPal's Seller Protection program requirements. We will notify you about payment reviews by email and/or through your PayPal account.
If you accept PayPal payments at your physical store, you must communicate the total amount of the transaction to the customer before it takes place. You may charge your customer's account only for transactions that they have authorized. You must also provide customers with a physical receipt if they request one. You agree that any transaction that you make shall have an accurate and true description of the goods and services being purchased.
If you use a QR code to accept payments in your physical store, you must use a QR code intended for goods and services transactions. You must also not use QR codes intended for in-person transactions as a method of accepting payment for goods and services transactions occurring online. For any buyer claims related to QR code transactions, you may be required to provide us with alternative evidence of delivery or such additional documentation or information relating to the transaction.
If you use Invoicing, the Invoicing Terms and Conditions will apply.
If you're a seller on a marketplace or through a third-party application where PayPal is offered, you must comply with any rules that apply to the marketplace's or the third-party application's buyer protection program for sales you make through that forum. Any such protections may require you to take certain actions and may impact how claims are processed.
If you are a charity and hold a PayPal account, you may be eligible to participate in PayPal Giving Fund programs. PayPal Giving Fund is a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) recognized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under Section 501(c)(3) of the Code as a tax-exempt public charity (Federal Tax ID: 45-0931286). If you meet the eligibility requirements in the Nonprofit Certification Policy and are either a "Public Charity" under Section 509(a) of the Code or a "Private Operating Foundation" under IRS regulations, you may be automatically enrolled with PayPal Giving Fund upon acceptance of this user agreement. You will receive an email from us confirming your enrollment. Your relationship with PayPal Giving Fund will be governed by the Nonprofit User Agreement, including receiving email communications from PayPal Giving Fund about its current and future partners about its programs. You can opt out of email communications at any time in your PayPal Giving Fund profile. If you don't want to be enrolled or receive donations from PayPal Giving Fund, you can opt-out at any time by contacting us. For more information, please see PayPal Giving Fund's Policies.
Whenever a buyer uses a debit or credit card as the payment method for a transaction using their account to buy something from you as a seller, the transaction will be processed as a "card not present" transaction, even if the buyer is at your store location.
As a seller, you can accept payments from a buyer's account through preauthorized transfers either on a one-time, regular or sporadic basis. This type of transaction is sometimes called a "billing agreement," "subscription," "recurring payment," "reference transaction," "pre-approved payment" or "automatic payment".
| If you receive preauthorized payments from buyers: | |
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You must: |
You must not: |
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Get each buyer's prior authorization for the amount, frequency, and duration of any such payment. |
Restart future payments without the buyer's written authorization, if a buyer has stopped or canceled a preauthorized payment. |
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Provide a simple and easily accessible online cancelation procedure, if buyers sign up for preauthorized payments online. | |
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Provide buyers the ability to stop any such payment up to 3 Business Days before the date scheduled for payment. | |
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Notify the buyer at least 10 days in advance of the amount and date of each preauthorized payment if the preauthorized payment will vary from the preauthorized amount or (at the buyer's option) any payment that is in an amount that falls outside of the pre-determined range. | |
Your PayPal transaction fees depend on:
The fees you pay when selling goods or services or receiving donations, and the buyer pays using their PayPal account (or using another authorized wallet), can be found on the Standard Transaction Fees table, with the fees applicable to charitable organizations founds on the Standard Transaction Fees for Charitable Organizations table for the charitable fees. Please note that:
You may apply to receive Micropayments pricing for certain lower value transactions processed through your PayPal account.
Not all payment types are eligible for Micropayments pricing.
Once you have access to any account statement(s) or other account activity information made available to you by PayPal with respect to your business account(s), you will have sixty (60) days to notify PayPal in writing of any errors or discrepancies with respect to the pricing or other fees applied by PayPal. If you do not notify PayPal within such timeframe, you accept such information as accurate, and PayPal shall have no obligation to make any corrections, unless otherwise required by applicable law. For the purposes of this provision, such pricing or fee errors or discrepancies are different than Unauthorized Transactions and other electronic transfer Errors which are each subject to different notification timeframes as set forth in this user agreement.
If you receive a payment for selling goods or services that is later refunded or invalidated for any reason, you are responsible for the full amount of the payment sent to you plus any fees (including any applicable chargeback fee or Dispute fee). Whenever a transaction is refunded or otherwise reversed, PayPal will refund or reverse the transaction from your PayPal account. If a currency conversion is necessary (for example if the balance in your Balance Account or your business account for a particular currency is insufficient to cover the amount of a refund or reversal, or if the buyer paid in a different currency), PayPal will perform a currency conversion as described in the section How we convert currency.
If you refund a transaction, we'll retain the fees you paid as set out on our Fees page.
Payments to you may be invalidated and reversed by PayPal if:
When you receive a payment, you are liable to PayPal for the full amount of the payment sent to you plus any fees if the payment is later invalidated or reversed for any reason. If the buyer paid in another currency, the full amount of that payment may be calculated in that currency, using the PayPal transaction exchange rate (including our currency conversion spread) that applies at the time the refund or reversal is processed. If the balance in your Balance Account or business account doesn't cover the payment amount due plus the fees, we may use any of the payment methods linked to your PayPal account to cover the amount due. If the payment methods linked to your PayPal account don't cover the amount due, this will result in a negative balance. A negative balance represents an amount that you owe to us, and, in this situation, you must immediately add funds to your balance to resolve it. If you don't, PayPal may:
PayPal will charge a Dispute fee to sellers for facilitating the online dispute resolution process for transactions that are processed either through a buyer's PayPal account or through a PayPal Guest Checkout. The Dispute fee applies when the buyer pursues a claim directly with PayPal, a chargeback with their card issuer, or a reversal with their bank. The Dispute fee will be charged at either the Standard Dispute fee rate or the High Volume Dispute fee rate. The Dispute fee will be charged in the currency which you selected for the original transaction listing. If the transaction was in a currency not listed in the Dispute fee table, then the fee charged will be in your primary holding currency. The Dispute fee will be deducted from your PayPal account after the claim is decided.
The Dispute fee amount will be determined when the dispute case is created. The fee is based on the ratio of all Item Not Received and Significantly Not as Described claims you receive compared to the total amount of your sales for the previous three calendar months. Your total claims include all Item Not Received and Significantly Not as Described claims that are filed either directly with and escalated to PayPal or with the buyer's card issuer or bank. Your total claims do not include claims for Unauthorized Transactions. For example, for the month of September, your dispute ratio will be calculated by considering your total claims to sales ratio over June, July, and August. The claims ratio for September will determine the dispute fee for all claims filed in October. Your total claims include all claims filed directly with and escalated to PayPal, except claims for Unauthorized Transactions; and all chargebacks from the buyer's card issuer or reversals from the buyer's bank.
If your dispute ratio is 1.5% or more and you had more than 100 sales transactions in the previous three full calendar months, you will be charged the High Volume Dispute fee for each dispute. Otherwise, you will be charged the Standard Dispute fee for each dispute.
You will not be charged a Standard Dispute fee for disputes that are:
You will not be charged a High Volume Dispute fee for disputes that are:
Sellers charged High Volume Dispute fees may be required to provide a remediation plan which includes an explanation of the cause of the increased dispute rate, the actions taken to reduce disputes, and the timelines for those actions.
Disputes listed above may be excluded from being charged a Standard Dispute fee or a High Volume Dispute fee, but the claim itself may still be included in the overall calculation of your dispute ratio.
If you engage in a Restricted Activity, PayPal may charge the High Volume Dispute fees for all current and future disputes, irrespective of your dispute ratio or sales volumes, given PayPal's increased involvement as a result of such Restricted Activity.
For transactions that are not processed either through a buyer's PayPal account or through a PayPal Guest Checkout, and where the buyer pursues a chargeback for the transaction with their card issuer, then PayPal will charge you a Chargeback fee for facilitating the chargeback process. This fee with apply regardless of whether the buyer is successful in pursuing the chargeback with the card issuer.
The applicable chargeback fee will be deducted from your PayPal account. The chargeback fee is applied as specified in the Chargeback Fee table and will be charged in the currency which you selected for the original transaction listing. If the transaction was in a currency not listed in the Chargeback fee table, the fee charged will be in your primary holding currency.
You should read and understand PayPal's Purchase Protection program, Venmo's Protected Purchase Program, and if you sell goods and services to buyers with PayPal accounts in countries other than your own, you also should be familiar with the purchase protection available to buyers in each of those countries. Buyers' rights under these programs may impact you as a seller. You can find information about PayPal's protection programs on the Legal Agreements page by selecting your buyer's location at the top of the page and referring to the corresponding user agreement. You can find information on Venmo's Protected Purchase Program in Venmo's user agreement.
If you lose a claim under PayPal's Purchase Protection program in any country, or under Venmo's Protected Purchase Program:
If you sell a good or service to a buyer, you may be eligible for PayPal’s Seller Protection program. When it applies, PayPal’s Seller Protection program may result in you retaining the full purchase amount. PayPal determines whether your claim is eligible for PayPal’s Seller Protection program.
The program terms and conditions are set out in PayPal’s Seller Protection program page and form part of this user agreement.
The PayPal Advertising Program enables qualifying merchants with eligible business accounts to promote PayPal services, including PayPal’s Credit Products, through PayPal-hosted banners and buttons on merchants’ websites or in other channels if and as approved by PayPal. PayPal may change the content provided through this program at any time for any reason, and PayPal may choose to discontinue the PayPal Advertising Program at any time.
| If you participate in this program: | ||
| You must: | You must not: | |
| Comply with all integration and PayPal Advertising Program requirements provided by PayPal or each authorized third party, including those with respect to accurate presentation of all PayPal related information. | Modify any PayPal content or its presentation in any way. | |
| Only use the code for PayPal content, or any promotional assets as provided by PayPal. | Copy PayPal content from other websites or channels or duplicate PayPal promotional assets from other merchants. | |
| Use the PayPal content in its entirety with all the links and language provided by PayPal and without modification by you. | Create, display or host your own PayPal content, unless authorized by PayPal in writing. | |
| Immediately remove all PayPal content from your sites or other channels and communications and/or cooperate with PayPal or your third-party provider to do so, if you stop using a qualifying PayPal payments solution. | Post or present PayPal content on social media networks or platforms or anywhere else, unless authorized by PayPal in writing. | |
| Keep all PayPal content current and up to date, including by cooperating with PayPal to manually update the PayPal content as it appears on your sites, other channels, or in your communications and repair or reinstall the code to facilitate future updates. | Display any non-current PayPal content. | |
| Comply with applicable advertising laws, regulations and standards issued by governmental authorities or advertising self-regulatory bodies including but not limited to the digital advertising standards issued by the Network Advertising Initiative. | ||
If you promote the use of PayPal’s Credit Products on your sites, other approved channels, and/or consumer communications through the PayPal Advertising Program, there are additional requirements that apply.
If you receive consumer inquiries relating to a Credit Product, then you must direct the consumer to PayPal Customer Support.
You are responsible for any damages suffered by PayPal or any third parties resulting from your failure to follow the rules of the PayPal Advertising Program, and if you violate these rules, PayPal may modify or remove the PayPal content you are presenting or require you to remove or modify it immediately. If you fail to follow these rules, we may limit or close your PayPal account.
In connection with your use of our websites, your PayPal account, the PayPal services, or in the course of your interactions with PayPal, other PayPal customers, or third parties, you must not:
If we believe that you’ve engaged in any of these activities, we may take a number of actions to protect PayPal, its customers and others at any time in our sole discretion. The actions we may take include, but are not limited to, the following:
If we close your PayPal account or terminate your use of the PayPal services for any reason, we’ll provide you with notice of our actions and make any unrestricted funds held in the balance of your Balance Account linked to your personal account or in the balance of your business account, or any money waiting to be claimed through your personal account if you do not have a Balance Account linked to your personal account, available for withdrawal.
You are responsible for all reversals, chargebacks, claims, fees, fines, penalties and other liability incurred by PayPal, any PayPal customer, or a third party caused by or arising out of your breach of this agreement, and/or your use of the PayPal services.
Under certain circumstances, in order to protect PayPal and the security and integrity of the network of buyers and sellers that use the PayPal services, PayPal may take account-level or transaction-level actions. Unless otherwise noted, if we take any of the actions described here, we’ll provide you with notice of our actions, but we retain the sole discretion to take these actions. To request information in connection with an account limitation, hold or reserve, you should visit the Resolution Center or follow the instructions in our email notice with respect to the limitation, hold or reserve. Account holds or limitations may impact your ability to move funds to or from your PayPal Savings account.
Our decision about holds, limitations and reserves may be based on confidential criteria that are essential to our management of risk and the protection of PayPal, our customers and/or service providers. We may use proprietary fraud and risk modeling when assessing the risk associated with your PayPal account. In addition, we may be restricted by regulation or a governmental authority from disclosing certain information to you about such decisions. You agree that we have no obligation to disclose the details of our risk management or security procedures to you.
In order to facilitate PayPal’s actions described above and allow us to assess the level of risk associated with your PayPal account, you agree to cooperate with PayPal’s reasonable requests for financial statements and other documentation or information in a timely fashion.
A hold is an action that PayPal may take under certain circumstances either at the transaction level or the account level. When PayPal places a temporary hold on a payment, the money is not available to either the sender or the recipient. PayPal reviews many factors before placing a hold on a payment, including: account tenure, transaction activity, business type, past customer disputes, and overall customer satisfaction. Some common situations where PayPal will hold payments include:
Holds based on PayPal’s risk decisions
We may place a hold on payments sent to your PayPal account if, in our sole discretion, we believe that there may be a high level of risk associated with you, your PayPal account, or your transactions or that placing such a hold is necessary to comply with state or federal regulatory requirements. We make decisions about whether to place a payment hold based on a number of factors, including information available to us from both internal sources and third parties. When we place a hold on a payment, the funds will appear in your PayPal account with an indication that they are unavailable or pending. We’ll notify you, either through your PayPal account or directly by phone or email, whenever we place a hold.
Risk-based holds generally remain in place for up to 21 days from the date the payment was received into your PayPal account. We may release the hold earlier under certain circumstances (for example, if you’ve uploaded shipment tracking information related to the transaction), but any earlier release is at our sole discretion. The hold may last longer than 21 days if the payment is challenged as a payment that should be invalidated and reversed based on a disputed transaction as discussed in the following paragraph below. In this case, we’ll hold the payment in your PayPal account until the matter is resolved (but no longer than 180 days).
Holds related to Marketplace transactions
If you’re a seller on a marketplace or through a third-party application where PayPal is offered, a hold may be placed on a payment sent to you at the instruction of the applicable marketplace or third party. This is done once you have granted us permission to have your funds held and will be in accordance with your agreement with the third party. These holds will appear in your PayPal account. If you have questions about why the applicable marketplace or third party instructed PayPal to put these holds in place, you will need to contact the marketplace or third party directly.
Holds based on disputed transactions
If a payment sent to you as a seller is challenged as a payment that should be invalidated and reversed, we may place a temporary hold on the funds in your PayPal account to cover the amount that could be reversed. Any of the situations described under Refunds, Reversals and Chargebacks are situations that could result in us placing a hold on a payment. If we determine the transaction should not be reversed, we’ll lift the temporary hold. If we determine the transaction should be reversed, we’ll remove the funds from your PayPal account.
Limitations are implemented to help protect PayPal, its affiliates, buyers and sellers when we notice restricted activities, an increased financial risk, or activity that appears to us as unusual or suspicious. Limitations also help us collect information necessary for keeping your PayPal account open.
There are several reasons why your PayPal account could be limited, including:
Unless a permanent limitation is placed on your account, you will need to resolve any issues with your account before a limitation can be removed. Normally, this is done after you provide us with the information we request. However, if we reasonably believe a risk still exists after you have provided us that information, we may take action to protect PayPal, our users, a third party, or you from reversals, fees, fines, penalties, legal and/or regulatory risks and any other liability.
We may place a reserve on your business account at any time if we believe there may be a high level of risk associated with you, your business account, your business model, or your transactions. When we place a reserve on your business account, it means that all or some portion of the money in your business account is reserved as unavailable for withdrawal in order to protect against the risk of transactions made by you being reversed or invalidated or any other risk related to your business account or use of the PayPal services. We make decisions about whether to place a reserve based on a number of factors, including information available to us from both internal sources and from third parties.
PayPal considers a list of non-exclusive factors and whether and how these factors have changed over time, including:
There are two categories of reserves that may be placed on your business account, and one or both may be applied at the same time:
If we place a reserve on funds in your account, the funds will be shown as "pending" and we’ll notify you of the terms of the reserve.
If we change the terms of the reserve due to a change in our risk assessment, we’ll notify you of the new terms.
If we are notified of a court order or other legal process (including garnishment or any equivalent process) affecting you, or if we otherwise believe we are required to do so in order to comply with applicable law or regulatory requirements, we may be required to take certain actions, including holding payments to/from your PayPal account, placing a reserve or limitation on your PayPal account, or releasing your funds. We will decide, in our sole discretion, which action is required of us. Unless the court order, applicable law, regulatory requirement or other legal process requires otherwise, we will notify you of these actions. We do not have an obligation to contest or appeal any court order or legal process involving you or your PayPal account. When we implement a hold, reserve or limitation as a result of a court order, applicable law, regulatory requirement or other legal process, the hold, reserve or limitation may remain in place longer than 180 days.