PayPal is one of the world's largest Internet payment companies. The company operates as an acquirer, performing payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee.

PayPal's primary markets include the US, Germany, the UK, France, Australia, Canada, and Italy.

PayPal payment flow

Properties

Type of Payment

Online

Chargebacks

Yes; PayPal has it's own two-stage dispute process. For more information see the Reach chargeback and disputes guide.

Consumer Currency

AUD, CAD, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HUF, ILS, JPY, MXN, NOK, NZD, PHP, PLN, SGD, SEK, CHF, TWD, THB

Consumer Country

Any

Expiry Period

URL Expiry: The URL returned for online payment methods is generally only valid for a few minutes Authorization Expiry: PayPal allows 3 days within which a supplier may attempt to capture funds. Outside of this window, PayPal will attempt capture on a best-effort basis.

Recurring Payments

Yes

Partial Payment

Refunds

Yes. PayPal only accepts refunds up to 60 days.

Authorization

Payment capture is only guaranteed for 3 days after the payment is authorized. A capture can be attempted up to 29 days after authorization, but PayPal cannot ensure that 100% of the funds will be available after the three-day honor period.

PayPal will not allow you to capture funds if the buyer's account is restricted or locked, or if a fraudulent transaction occurs.

Seller Protection

PayPal's Seller Protection can offer some protection for PayPal claims filed for the "Item Not Received" and "Unauthorized Payment" types of claims.

There is no PayPal Seller Protection for "Significantly Not as Described" claims.

For an order to be covered by PayPal's Seller Protection, the order must meet the following requirements:

The customer must have a confirmed or verified address associated with their PayPal account.
The shipping address must be included with the purchase request.
The shipping address must match the customer's confirmed or verified address.
The order must be for physical goods.
PayPal information requests must be responded to promptly (typically 7-10 calendar days).
Online tracking must be provided upon request.
Proof of Delivery or Proof of Shipment must be provided upon request. This can be a screenshot from the courier's back-end showing that the delivery address matches the shipping address.
For orders over $750, a signed delivery confirmation must be provided upon request.

Best practice

It's best to have a reliable process around PayPal capture. Authorizations are only guaranteed until the third day. After the fourth day, captures are tried on a best-effort basis but will not reliably work. For those in retail, we recommend not shipping before the capture is complete.

Testing

Although testing can be completed through the Reach sandbox, Reach does not provide a PayPal developer account with which to complete test authentication on PayPal's sandbox instance. A PayPal developer account can be attained at https://developer.paypal.com. This account can log in and authenticate test transactions initiated and completed in the Reach sandbox environment.

Related Information

PayPal maintains a list of FAQs here.

PayPal maintains a demo site here.