Do I need a businness account to use Paypal for payments on my site?

[trickynicky]

Sorry if this dense. I am in a complex employment situation. I have a 3 day a week job. I also work on a self employed basis for a charity teaching at weekends. I also run a small baby class business from home which brings in some additional income. I have a website and would like to accept payments on line for these classes and have a personal paypal account. Can I use this for payments or do I have to set up a business paypal account? I don't have a separate business account for my baby business - it's pin money and I whilst I do declare it, there's relatively small amounts. Please help as I'm confused! My clients would love to pay on line. I also would prefer it.

Thanks

Sorry - "business"....

You can set up a business paypal account using your personal bank account, however the paypal charges are quite high. I use intuit, and can take card payments over the phone and through free handheld unit which connects via bluetooth to ipad. Your web developer should be able to advise on other payment options

Hope this helps

Short answer: Yes, you can use your existing personal Paypal account to take payments online, although you may wish to set up a new one for the sake of making accounting easier.

Longer answer: You may want to upgrade your account to a Premier or Business account - see here.

If your average transaction is under £5 and you upgrade to a Business account, you can apply for the micropayments fee schedule, which is 5% + 5p instead of the usual 3.4% + 20p.

Example for a £4 transaction:
3.4% + 20p fee structure: 33.6p fee
5% + 5p micropayments fee structure: 25p fee

If you are receiving recurring payments (e.g. for weekly classes) you might like to look at GoCardless for accepting direct debit payments (1% fee per transaction, capped at £2). You can use GoCardless for one-off payments too, although new DDs take up to 10 days to set up so it's not any good for situations when instant payment is required.