Marlo’s Money Advice

I was paying fees to have a Premier Account, but I was only getting paid from people with other PayPal Accounts, not credit cards. I paid all of these fees - what a waste of money!

This article will show you how to downgrade a Premier or Business account to a Personal PayPal account. PayPal makes is very hard for you to downgrade your account, so here are some tips on how to save money using PayPal.

There are 3 PayPal account options:

Personal

• If you are only accepting money from other people with PayPal accounts, I recommend this option (it is FREE to receive payments funded by PayPal Balance, PayPal Instant Transfer or PayPal eCheck). Personal accounts may not receive payments funded by credit card, debit card or Buyer Credit for eBay or eBay Express transactions without upgrading to Premier or Business accounts.

Premier

• Premier accounts include all the benefits of a Personal account [receive payments funded by PayPal Balance, PayPal Instant Transfer or PayPal eCheck (same as Personal)] and receive payments funded by Credit Card, Debit Card or Buyer Credit). You also have the ability to:
  • Accept all payment types for low fees
  • Set up your PayPal Shopping Cart
  • Access exclusive, professional customer service seven days a week
  • Be identified as a Premier account in your reputation pop-up box
  • Be featured in PayPal Shops, where over 150 million PayPal customers can make instant purchases from your website.

Business

• Business accounts include all the benefits of Premier accounts. In addition, you can:
  • Do business easily and affordably with our low-cost merchant account
  • Operate under your business name
  • Generate reports, financial statements and download settlement file
  • Use eBay Tools
  • Provide multiple employees with limited access to your account
  • Get paid from buyers without PayPal accounts

Downgrading an Account

There is no need to pay any fees unnecessarily. It is worth just having a Personal Account, and not pay any fees, if you are not accepting Debit or Credit Card Payments. Learn from my mistake!

There is no method to downgrade your account on the PayPal website. You need to follow these steps to request a downgrade from PayPal:

1. Login to your PayPal account
2. Click on ‘Contact Us’ at the bottom
3. Under ‘Help by Email’, click on ‘Contact Customer Service’
4. Under ‘1 - Choose a Topic’ – select ‘My Account’
5. Under ‘2 - Choose a Subtopic’ – select ‘Changing/Updating Account Information’
6. Under ‘3 - Summarize your question in one sentence’ – State “I want to downgrade my account from Premier to Personal.”

I hope this helps save you money when using PayPal.