How To Obtain PayPal Merchant ID

[Bryan]

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Edit: As new information came in, this thread became a bit fragmented. To keep things clear and organized, I’ve consolidated all the key details into a new post (linked below):

viewtopic.php?t=84495

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Effective March 20, 2025, PayPal has changed how their payment integrations work.

To accept PayPal payments on the AAPK store platform, you'll now need your PayPal Merchant ID entered into your AAPK account.

Instructions for locating your Merchant ID and putting it on file at AAPK are provided below:

First, log in to your PayPal account.
Please note that the interface may vary depending on whether you have a business or personal account, and whether you're using the classic (legacy) dashboard. The layout will also differ between mobile and desktop devices.

I've included screenshots to help guide you through the process, covering different scenarios when possible.

For business accounts:

• From your PayPal dashboard (home page), look for either your name or a gear () icon near the top right hand side of the page.
• Hover over or click it to access the “Account Settings” page.

It should look like one of the examples shown in the screenshots below:

or

account-settings-2.png (28.38 KiB) Viewed 2518 times

The account settings link should bring you to a page with a menu to click a "Business Information" link on the menu on the left to display your PayPal Merchant ID, as shown below:

Once you have that merchant ID, you can enter it on your Payment Settings page via the following link:

https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/ca ... t_settings

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For personal accounts:

From your PayPal home page, look for a gear () icon near the top right of the page.

It should look like one of the examples shown in the screenshots below:

That should bring you to your "Profile" page where you can scroll down to find a section that should display your merchant ID that looks something like follows:

Once you have that merchant ID, you can enter it on your Payment Settings page via the following link:

https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/ca ... t_settings

[JAWSUSA]

Personal accounts do not have merchant ID numbers, only business accounts.

[Bgwright72]

Do you have to set up a business account in paypal first? My account is a personal account. After following your instructions I still don't have a merchant ID listed or displayed. However, there is an option to "upgrade to a business account" Thanks for your help

[Bryan]

For those with personal accounts, the following YouTube video shows how to find it. I was able to find merchant ID in the same way as the video describes with a personal account I have, but Google AI and a few other online locations are saying Personal accounts don't have them . If anyone watches the vid and cannot find theirs, please let me know.

[robcelani]

FYI

I have a personal account with PayPal. I watched the video and could not find a merchant ID in my account where the video said it would be. I called PayPal just now and was told I had to convert my personal account to a business account to get a merchant ID. No other way for me to get a merchant ID for my current PayPal account.

I could set up a new PayPal business account however that would mean possible limits on the number of transactions or the dollar amount of the transactions allowed in my new account.

[Bryan]

I just spoke with a nice lady at PayPal that seemed to have some answers. The following is what I was told.

PayPal used to offer three types of accounts: Business, Personal, and Premier. The Premier accounts were later consolidated into Personal accounts, leaving only two types—Business and Personal.

All Business accounts have a Merchant ID. Some Personal accounts also have a Merchant ID, specifically those that were previously Premier accounts before the change. If the account was never a Premier account, it likely won't have a Merchant ID.

Solutions I discussed with PayPal for those who cannot find merchant ID with personal account that wants to accept PayPal payments on AAPK are as follows.

• You can upgrade your personal account to a business account. This will ensure you have a merchant ID that will work. I was told you could then, if you wish, downgrade it to a personal account again and the merchant ID will still be good (I find this odd, but it is what I was told). Downgrading requires you to call them. Link to get phone number to call is on the following page:
  https://www.paypal.com/us/cshelp/contact-us

• You can open a second account (business account) to use for AAPK and any other "business" endeavors you may wish to partake in so that you can have the "benefits" of a business account as well as the "benefits" of having a personal account that would otherwise be unavailable (peer-to-peer friends & family).

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We were blindsided by this to be frank & it appears many who work at PayPal were as well. I was told by those I spoke with that they were getting multiple calls today about it and that the matter keeps getting escalated by front line workers and lower/mid level managers in an attempt to get answers as to what changed and why with payment flows like we use here at AAPK.

Apologies for the inconvenience of it all.

I will keep plugging away at doing everything we can to help with customer service and all other disruptions this has/is causing.

Sincerely,
Bryan

[sharp+3dgy]

Just spoke with paypal- was told that because I'm a low volume 'personal' seller & only have a personal PayPal account that I'm OK taking payments with my email ID only. Bottom line was I don't need a merchant ID because I'm not a business, just a "once in a while seller".

[bestgear]

A PayPal Personal account allows a user to send or receive money, functioning mostly as a peer-to-peer payment platform and is best suited for users looking to send money to individuals within their network and make online merchant purchases.

A PayPal Business account offers merchants a unique way to manage their business and facilitate their operations, functioning as a payment service provider to accept online payments from 3rd parties like AAPK.

Make no mistake, this is about ensuring that PayPal gets their 3.49% + $0.49 per transaction for EVERY online sale. No more free rides.

[Bryan]

For better context on the situation, the following might help.

Previously, PayPal allowed sellers to use their PayPal email address as an identifier for receiving payments for sales made on AAPK. That’s no longer the case — PayPal now requires a Merchant ID instead.

Here’s how the PayPal payment process works when utilized through the AAPK store:

1. The seller provides an identifier (formerly their PayPal email, now their Merchant ID). When a buyer checks out, product details, prices, quantities, shipping costs, and buyer/payment info are sent to PayPal along with the seller's identifier.
2. PayPal processes the request, checking things like card validity, account standing, available funds, etc. If everything is in order, PayPal securely communicates with AAPK and routes the payment to the correct seller account using the provided identifier.

Until recently, using an email address as the identifier worked just fine. However, as of yesterday, PayPal has started rejecting payments where an email is used instead of a Merchant ID.

We discovered this after investigating reports from a few customers who were unable to complete purchases.

Moving forward, AAPK must pass the Merchant ID for all sellers in order for payments to go through successfully. Without it, PayPal will reject the transaction.

If you want to enable PayPal payments for your AAPK store items, you must have a merchant ID entered as outlined in the instructions above. If you do not, customer attempts to pay by the methods PayPal allows will be rejected.

[robcelani]

A PayPal Personal account allows a user to send or receive money, functioning mostly as a peer-to-peer payment platform and is best suited for users looking to send money to individuals within their network and make online merchant purchases.

A PayPal Business account offers merchants a unique way to manage their business and facilitate their operations, functioning as a payment service provider to accept online payments from 3rd parties like AAPK.

Make no mistake, this is about ensuring that PayPal gets their 2.59% + $0.49 per transaction for EVERY online sale. No more free rides.

3.49% + $0.49 I think is what the normal PayPal fee is unless I’m overpaying. I do notice sometimes the amount is less on aapk transactions although not always.

[Sharpnshinyknives]

My question about all of this is concerning the 1099K that will be sent next year. My PayPal has a merchant number but my wife’s does not. We just moved everything about the business to her because of complications that we have with my social security and limits on income. We can use my merchant number but will that mean that the 1099K will come to ME or to HER? I would like to know the answer to that so that we can set up a merchant account that would flow to her if necessary. Anyone have the answer on how this change will affect taxes in a situation like this?

[bestgear]

Anyone have the answer on how this change will affect taxes in a situation like this?

I don’t have the definitive answer Mark but my educated guess is that whether you should expect a Form 1099-K from PayPal depends on whether the applicable threshold for the year is met and not the type of account or what SSN (individual) or EIN (business) is attached to the account.

With your SS impact, I would channel all sales through your wife to make it her income and not yours irrespective of whether she has a personal or business account.

Of course this advice is worth exactly what you paid for it

[Sharpnshinyknives]

Anyone have the answer on how this change will affect taxes in a situation like this?

I don’t have the definitive answer Mark but my educated guess is that whether you should expect a Form 1099-K from PayPal depends on whether the applicable threshold for the year is met and not the type of account or what SSN (individual) or EIN (business) is attached to the account.

With your SS impact, I would channel all sales through your wife to make it her income and not yours irrespective of whether she has a personal or business account.

Thanks Tom, We have all payments going to her PayPal account as of the first of this year. So if we use my merchant number and the payments continue to flow to her, then who gets the 1099K? We always have enough payments that we have been getting 1099k’s for 8 years now. So we know one is coming but with this situation whose SSN will it come to?

[bestgear]

So if we use my merchant number and the payments continue to flow to her, then who gets the 1099K?

Again, my educated guess is that the merchant number in AAPK is linked to your account and you would receive the 1099K. This is what Bryan gave us earlier:

PayPal processes the request, checking things like card validity, account standing, available funds, etc. If everything is in order, PayPal securely communicates with AAPK and routes the payment to the correct seller account using the provided identifier.

How could your merchant number that originated in AAPK be connected to another account?

[Bryan]

Anyone have the answer on how this change will affect taxes in a situation like this?

I don’t have the definitive answer Mark but my educated guess is that whether you should expect a Form 1099-K from PayPal depends on whether the applicable threshold for the year is met and not the type of account or what SSN (individual) or EIN (business) is attached to the account.

With your SS impact, I would channel all sales through your wife to make it her income and not yours irrespective of whether she has a personal or business account.

Thanks Tom, We have all payments going to her PayPal account as of the first of this year. So if we use my merchant number and the payments continue to flow to her, then who gets the 1099K? We always have enough payments that we have been getting 1099k’s for 8 years now. So we know one is coming but with this situation whose SSN will it come to?

Hi Mark,

You should not link your PayPal account's merchant ID to AAPK. That will associate your SS EIN or whatever tax id you have to the sales & the funds would flow to your paypal account exactly as it did before you switched to your wife's account. If your wife upgrades her account to a business account, the merchant ID attached to it would be the one to use. I don't know if she wants to do that, but if the account is somewhat new, it may be the only way to take PayPal payments through the AAPK store platform with her account / tax id.

[Sharpnshinyknives]

Thanks Bryan, that is what I thought would happen. Might have to use that temporarily until we get a merchant account opened that has my wife’s info associated with it. What a mess they have created with this.

Tom, I don’t’ know how to answer that question. I think Bryan addressed my concerns with his response. Thanks.

[robcelani]

How are the PayPal peer to peer transactions on aapk affected?

Do they require a merchant ID as well?

[Bryan]

How are the PayPal peer to peer transactions on aapk affected?

Do they require a merchant ID as well?

The money transfers with peer to peer transactions take place after the sale and exclude AAPK from being involved in that part of the transaction, so they are not affected by this. We will, however, be requiring sellers to take standard PayPal in order to take friends and family for reasons that are beyond the scope of this issue. It was never meant to be a replacement and is only available to buyers who are registered members.

[robcelani]

How are the PayPal peer to peer transactions on aapk affected?

Do they require a merchant ID as well?

The money transfers with peer to peer transactions take place after the sale and exclude AAPK from being involved in that part of the transaction, so they are not affected by this. We will, however, be requiring sellers to take standard PayPal in order to take friends and family for reasons that are beyond the scope of this issue. It was never meant to be a replacement and is only available to buyers who are registered members.

Ok, I get it. I’m just wondering about it as a short term solution until I figure out the best way to move forward with PayPal. I’m still deciding if I want to set up a new business account or convert my current account to a business account. I know you said it can be converted back to a personal account however it kind of seems like there’s more going on here. For example, why don’t the customer service reps have a heads up of a major change like this? The call volume is obviously going up for them.

[kennedy knives]

Correct me if I'm wrong you will get a 1099 if you have sells over $600.00. All your fees will be deductible on your Business Tax liability. Just not sure how this will work if you take pay-pal Payment at a show and try to use your email as before. Will you need your merchant ID #????

[Bryan]

Correct me if I'm wrong you will get a 1099 if you have sells over $600.00. All your fees will be deductible on your Business Tax liability. Just not sure how this will work if you take pay-pal Payment at a show and try to use your email as before. Will you need your merchant ID #????

I think I need to clarify that this change is isolated to programmatic integrations — specifically, how PayPal is used within eCommerce platforms like AAPK.

This does not affect how your PayPal account works outside of AAPK or other platforms that integrate PayPal in a similar way.

What you need to know:
To accept PayPal payments through your AAPK store, you’ll now need to provide a PayPal Merchant ID.

Everything else about your PayPal account remains unchanged.

[kennedy knives]

Correct me if I'm wrong you will get a 1099 if you have sells over $600.00. All your fees will be deductible on your Business Tax liability. Just not sure how this will work if you take pay-pal Payment at a show and try to use your email as before. Will you need your merchant ID #????

I think I need to clarify that this change is isolated to programmatic integrations — specifically, how PayPal is used within eCommerce platforms like AAPK.

This does not affect how your PayPal account works outside of AAPK or other platforms that integrate PayPal in a similar way.

What you need to know:
To accept PayPal payments through your AAPK store, you’ll now need to provide a PayPal Merchant ID.

Everything else about your PayPal account remains unchanged.

Thanks

[KnifeToolGadget]

Thanks, Bryan. I know this must have been a headache. And thank you to all for figuring this out. I went ahead and just created a new business account. Took about 10 minutes. Then I was able to do what the YouTube video said. Thanks all. Sometimes it takes a village:)

[Rookie]

I decided to upgrade my account to Business. For those who go that route, it took me about 5 minutes. Being able to sell in AAPK store to me is worth the extra fees, because I've got burnt 1 too many times trying to sell on facebook only to get bit by scammers. I prefer to sell directly face to face at a knife show, but my next best option is here on AAPK.

Also, 1 thing to note. If you upgrade to Business, you can no longer receive or send any Friends-and-Family payments via Paypal.