PayPal business account India: All you need to know

The California-born global payment provider has recently opened up business accounts for Indian businesses to receive payments and sell globally. If you have ever considered selling abroad or offering PayPal to customers, this is the article for you. Read on to learn about PayPal’s business account and what it entails for business owners.

Why do I need a PayPal business account?

There can be multiple reasons to get a PayPal business account, but the main draw is the ability to accept local and global payments from 200 countries in 26 different currencies with a single account¹. With this one account, you can sell your products and services and expand your customer base across the globe with a trusted partner. Plus, PayPal can let some of your customers have a seamless and familiar online payment experience in their own currency.

PayPal also provides additional services to businesses like Seller Protection and 24/7 fraud intelligence, along with marketing and business support.

How do I create a PayPal business account?

Getting started with PayPal for business is pretty straightforward. There are 3 main steps²:

1. Sign up for a business account on the PayPal website
2. Next, you will have to activate your account. This means confirming your email address, completing the KYC procedure and inputting your bank account information. This also includes putting in the company GST number.
3. Once that is complete, you will have to pick the method of payment that works best for you and your customers. This will be determined primarily based on if you have a website or not.

PayPal states that this process overall is quite quick and you can be ready to sell in just 1-2 days³.

Doing business overseas and need to receive international business payments? Wise could save you money.

PayPal business accounts let you get payments from abroad, but it may not be the cheapest way to do international transactions. With one transparent fee and an exchange rate that is the same one that you see on Google, Wise can save you money on every transaction.

Wise offers Indian businesses and freelancers with account details in 8 different currencies to receive payments from abroad. Your clients pay you with a local transfer in their currency, and you receive rupees in your INR bank account — with eFIRC for every transfer. That is truly business without borders.

Get started with a Wise Business Account 🚀

What's the difference between a PayPal business and a personal account?

There are a few differences between the two. First, with a business account, you can receive payments for your products or services online with PayPal. Second, a business account gains you access to different PayPal methods of payment, invoicing, services and more. Third, you can integrate a PayPal button into your website, or use a PayPal payment link to be paid- whether it's for your products or even freelance services. The income into the business account will be linked to your company registration and GST.

With a personal account, all you can do is send and receive money directly. You can easily upgrade your personal account to a business account from your PayPal profile. You will need to specify your business type and other business details, and agree to the terms and conditions, to make the switch over.⁴

Is there a charge for PayPal business account?

PayPal charges one fee per transaction. There is no set-up, installation, gateway or monthly fee. While the domestic-Indian transaction fee is straightforward, things start getting more complicated with international transactions. On top of the tiered transaction fee based on monthly sales volume, there is a fixed fee based on the currency that is used to pay. Then there is a currency conversion charge for every international payment. Here is a breakdown of the fees for domestic and international payments⁵:

The fixed fee based on currency is different for each and can be consulted on the PayPal website. If your account is in good standing and hits a qualifying monthly sales volume, you can apply for discounted rates.

How the PayPal business account works

First, when you sign up, you will be asked about how you would like to be paid. If you have a website, you can have your customers pay through the standard web payment, or with a PayPal Express Checkout. If you don’t have a website, PayPal has an option for online invoicing directly, as well as PayPal.Me which is a personalized payment link to send to customers. Also, many shopping or e-commerce platforms, like WooCommerce, Shopify or Zoho, have PayPal for business built in to make it easy to install.

When your Indian customers go to pay, they will have the option of paying by credit or debit card. International customers only have the option of using a bank for payment.⁶

Once payments are completed on PayPal, the money will be auto-drawn into your local bank account on a daily basis⁷.

Sources used for this article