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Upgrading to a Business Account
 

Hello everyone,

I am still debating on whether or not I should upgrade my personal account to a PayPal business account. It is not stealth. The account has always been in good standing since I made it back in 2013. No 21 day payment holds, everything is confirmed. My volume of sales will be increasing quite steady in the next few months that will require me to send at least 200-500 invoices to customers a month for payment of their product. I am not registered as a business, just an individual/sole proprietor.

I am just worried if PayPal will see this suspicious (as possibly limit/hold funds) if I have a personal account, and if a business account will help? I heard if I upgrade then I will be subject to 21 day holds again (not sure if that's true). Was thinking of giving PayPal a call to explain the situation to them, but wanted to ask here first. Any experience would really help me out. Thank you!

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

Bump. Anyone? I would greatly appreciate it. I have looked throughout the forums but couldn't find anything in regards to this. Thanks.

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

It will not make any difference even if you upgrade

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

So I am fine just to use my personal one? Why do they even have an option for you to upgrade to a business then? Thanks!

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

Yes should be ok it's all depends on your sale, if you sell a lot then off course they will ask you to upgrade to business account

Account security treated same way this will not make any difference

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

Sometimes PayPal will want you to upgrade your account from personal to a business one once a certain transaction threshold is met. I already had this occur on three of my personal accounts, at that point they would limit, ask for the standard docs, and the option to "Upgrade to a Business Account". All three of these accounts had done a fair amount of sales; over 15k, so not sure that was the trigger or not.

Another time a PayPal rep told me that I was required to have a business account if I was doing "significant" sales on eBay. Of course that's not really true, either. Never can take what eBay or PayPal tells you as the truth anyway.

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

If it's not a stealth account I don't see any reason why you should have a problem. If they ask for documents you have the ability to provide them.

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

There is no advantage I've ever seen to upgrading to a business account.

That said, 2-500 transactions a month is obviously a business and a lot of volume, if you do it now you don't have to worry about a limitation and eventually sending in docs or whatever, so you should probably go ahead and do it to avoid possible interruptions.

OR, you could just open a separate business account with the same info, I've done that before. Lots of people use one account for personal and one for business.

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

Thanks for all the replies everyone I GREATLY appreciate it! Yeah it is not a stealth account. I do not have an issue with upgrading to a business account, but do I get to keep the no 21 day holds? Or do they consider the upgrade a "new account"? The account is established so I do not want to have a "downgrade" by having payments pending again. Thanks!

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

Eventually they'll ask you to upgrade to a business account. And when they have to ask you to do it, usually it requires little more step.

I personally just upgrade mine in a few weeks of the life of the account, stealth or no stealth and it seems that the process is a lot easier when I do it myself without being asked.

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

Best to start building OTHER backup accounts - relying on only 1 account is asking for trouble

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

But then when your account limited you can add a bank easier with Personal account

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

I have 3 established stealth accounts with no holds as well that I had for 2+ years, but it would be alot easier to just use my main account do to invoicing customers on a single account. If Paypal limits me, what would be the reason? I have nothing to hide can provide all the documentation needed. If that ends up happening worst case scenario will they hold that money for 6 months? Or do they only limit and do these things when you are doing/selling something fishy?

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

Even providing docs doesn't guarantee the limits will be lifted, better not to be limited in the first place at all...

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

Has anyone created a paypal business account in the past 10 days?

It is not now asking for identification and address confirmation to lift limits at the very start like it used to and lift all account limits?

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

Thanks everyone for the feedback again I really appreciate it! I want to start sending invoices, but not sure if I should contact Paypal by phone and explain everything to them? That way they are at least aware of the situation? Or is that a bad idea? 500 invoices sent is around $40k gross received when everyone pays.

Edit: Just checked my email and got an email from paypal saying my account deserves an upgrade to a business account. Like I said I do not have a problem upgrading but I need to know if the no 21 day hold will remain on my account?

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

thats the least of ur worries

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

What do you mean by that given my situation?

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

I recently upgraded to a business account about a month ago and can say they do not give you another 21 day hold.

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

Cool thanks for your experience? Do you think I should call paypal given my situation that I talked about a few posts up? Or what do you think I should do?

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

It really depends. They can still give you a 21 day hold even though your account is years old and is upgraded to business. Happened to me a couple of times.

I think you should just upgrade it to business in a few weeks before they as you to do so

Re: Upgrading to a Business Account
 

I have done invoices before but I rarely do them. So I'm not sure about that much volume, I would take it slow.