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Take payments with PayPal

About 20 minutes, plus however long PayPal takes to verify your bank. Commercial transactions carry a percentage fee plus a fixed amount per payment; check PayPal's current fee page, since the rates change.

1. Create a Business account

1. Go to paypal.com and choose Sign Up, then Business Account. If you already have a personal account you can upgrade it instead of starting over.
2. You will be asked for your business name, the type of business (sole trader is fine for most instructors), your address and your phone number.
3. Confirm your email address from the message PayPal sends.
4. Link your bank account so you can move money out. PayPal usually verifies this with two tiny deposits that take a couple of days to appear.

Have your business details to hand: legal name, address, and your tax identification number (an EIN, or your SSN if you are a sole trader in the US).

2. Create your PayPal.Me link

This is the part the booking page uses today.

1. Go to paypal.com/paypalme and sign in.
2. Choose your link name. Short and obvious is better, for example paypal.me/ConejoCapoeira. It cannot be changed later, so get it right.
3. Save it, then copy the whole link.

3. Put it into your dashboard

1. My Account → Settings → Getting Paid.
2. Find the PayPal box and tick Accept PayPal.
3. Paste your PayPal.Me link into PayPal email or PayPal.Me link. Paste the whole thing, paypal.me/ConejoCapoeira.
4. Press Save PayPal.

Your booking page now offers PayPal, and sends clients to your link with the amount already filled in. As with Venmo, you confirm the money arrived in Dashboard → Payments.

4. Optional: the API credentials

The dashboard also has boxes for a Client ID and Client Secret. Those are for the fuller integration, where PayPal tells us automatically that a payment succeeded instead of you confirming it. That is not switched on yet, but you can save them now so nothing is needed from you later.

1. Go to developer.paypal.com and sign in with the same PayPal login.
2. Open Apps & Credentials.
3. Switch the toggle at the top from Sandbox to Live. Sandbox is a practice mode and its credentials will never take real money.
4. Press Create App, give it a name such as "Booking", and create it.
5. Copy the Client ID. Press Show next to Secret and copy that too.
6. Paste both into the PayPal box in Getting Paid and save. The Secret is stored but never shown again; the box will just say "Saved".

Common problems

• PayPal is switched on but does not appear on my booking page. The PayPal.Me link is missing. The Client ID alone cannot take a payment yet.
• My link 404s. Check for a typo, and that you finished creating it at paypal.com/paypalme rather than just picking a name.
• Money is in PayPal but not in my bank. PayPal holds it until you transfer it, and new accounts sometimes have a hold on the first few payments.