Credit Card Help!!

[watterson226]

Hi, I have an account and my husband has an account.  Mine is a business account (store), his is a non-store.  I recently had two people that were interested in my items.  Both didn't have paypal accounts.  The one was able to pay for their item, the other wasn't?  It gave the 'you do not have a linked paypal account' message.   Don't I need a gateway account to accept credit cards?  I just tried to update both accounts to say that I accept credit cards & checked all the credit cards.  It would not allow me to do this on my husband's non-store account.  I am puzzled how this guy was able to pay with a credit card???  I didn't even have the account updated with credit card options.   I need to know how this works so I can help customers when they get that message?  

[duchess-at-speakeasy]

No, you do not need a merchant account to accept credit cards. Nor does a buyer need a Paypal account to pay with a credit card to YOUR Paypal account as specified in a listing. However, if you block buyers who have no Paypal account, they cannot pay.

As a buyer, I do have a Paypal account but I keep a zero balance. I often pay sellers directly with a credit card (or debit card) and bypass Paypal entirely. But the seller receives the money in his/her Paypal account.

~~C~~

[watterson226]

Hi, thanks, How do I know if I am unintentionally blocking them.

[partial*eclipse]

In My eBay > Site preferences, under Buyer requirements there's an option to block bidders/buyers who do not have a Paypal account linked to their eBay account. It's handy in categories that attract scammers and sport bidders (video games, phones, etc.).  It seems that ths option was activated in one of the listings in queston but not the other.