Should I start my Paypal account as personal or business?

[hv1000]

Here's my short story: I run a legitimate business and was a high volume eBay seller. My account was banned because I had a couple of bad months and my account performance dipped below standard for 3 months. My Paypal account, however, is still in good standing, but I guess I have to dump everything and start fresh. In my old PP account, I used my business name and EIN for tax purpose.

I already registered a new eBay account, and going to register a new Paypal account, but I am not sure if I should start it as personal or business. I am in the process of filing a new Article of Incorporation and getting a new EIN. In the long run, I would need to use my EIN to file for taxes, but I do not want to dive right in, in case I make a mistake and eBay links my new eBay account to the old one, then I have to throw away everything and start over again.

So I think maybe I should start with a personal PP account, use a f-a-l-s-e name, start selling for a little while. When everything looks OK, I will switch to business account, use business name and EIN to legalize it. It has been a long time since I registered my old PP account so I don't remember exactly how the process goes. I do own a stealth guide but it does not give me any instruction on how to legalize stealth account.

I want to know:

1. When I register my PP account as personal, what kind of information does PP ask? Name, address, phone number, date of birth, SSN, credit card info, bank account?

2. If I used f-a-l-s-e info, when I upgrade to business, will I have any problem? Beside business info like Article of Incorporation and EIN, does PP require me to mail in or upload and document relating to the imaginary person I used at the beginning? If it does, what can I do?

[Callidus]

Regardless of the fact you are in the US. Personal accounts are always preferred. Less scrutiny upon limitations. Business accounts need a lot more 'work'

[hv1000]

OK. But can you answer other parts of my question. Should I use the name of a real person for verification later or I can use imaginary name? I prefer to use imaginary name if possible, but of course I do not want to run into the problem of verification later because eventually I have to make is a legitimate account. What do you suggest?

Originally Posted by hv1000

OK. But can you answer other parts of my question. Should I use the name of a real person for verification later or I can use imaginary name? I prefer to use imaginary name if possible, but of course I do not want to run into the problem of verification later because eventually I have to make is a legitimate account. What do you suggest?

Always use imaginary names, otherwise you may end up in hot water

[Smoothness]

I guess it depends on how much you plan to sell. I always use business. But you need Ssn or ein for those. This is just is just s theory but I think business accounts have more leniancy from eBay when you are trying to sell a lot. I've had a stealth business account sell 2k the second week I had it. Now ymmv but that's just my two cents. But if you want to go full stealth use a personal account.

[evicktd]

Originally Posted by hv1000

2. If I used f-a-l-s-e info, when I upgrade to business, will I have any problem? Beside business info like Article of Incorporation and EIN, does PP require me to mail in or upload and document relating to the imaginary person I used at the beginning? If it does, what can I do?

I've been facing the issue of them using the PATRIOT act to verify the last 4 of your identity. If you are using f a -l- s e information, then it will be hard to get that verified