PayPal Payments Pro (or PayPal Payflow Pro) is the company’s all-in-one online payment processing solution. It gives its merchants access to PayPal’s payment gateway so they can begin accepting card payments, as well as a merchant account so they don’t have to rely on a third-party merchant account provider. PayPal Payments Pro has several pros and cons but there are still many controversies about it, this article will show you all misunderstanding or questions about PayPal Payments Pro.

What is PayPal Payments Pro?

PayPal is simply understood as an intermediary service for international payments and money transfers over the Internet. It can be seen as an electronic wallet or similar to Internet Banking of banks. Currently, PayPal has 2 types of accounts with their own characteristics, which are personal accounts (PayPal Personal) and business accounts. (PayPal Business). PayPal Pro is a service only available for PayPal Business accounts, i.e. accounts with high transaction volume, multiple rounds of verification, and underwriting of PayPal accounts.

“PayPal Pro” (full name PayPal Payments Pro or PayPal Payflow Pro) is a solution that provides an API connection between the website and PayPal, allowing buyers to pay by credit/debit cards directly on the merchant’s website (merchants). Merchants can customize the API to streamline their in-store checkout process.

Common Misunderstandings and FAQs about PayPal Payments Pro

1. Merchants Can Use PayPal Payments Pro Without a PayPal Account

In fact, PayPal Payments Pro is a function of PayPal so in order to use this function, you MUST have an underwriting and verified PayPal Business account. If you’re interested in learning how to set up your PayPal business account, we suggest you open one for free here.

Read more: CorpAgent’s Full Guide on PayPal Pro

2. PayPal Payments Pro Is Free

Obviously, there is no digital banking without fees, PayPal gives you the option of signing up for PayPal Payments Pro. This is a payment gateway that enables you to take payments from customers via your website. Here is fees of PayPal Payments Pro:

• For transaction fee: it depends on what country you are in. 

• For US transaction, the current fees for PayPal Payments Pro are 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction 
• For international transactions, they’re 4.4% + a fixed fee. The fixed fee differs between locations, like the standard transaction fees above.
• Service maintenance fee: 35 SGD/month. This is an extra fee if using the PayPal Payments Pro function.

3. PayPal Payments Pro is Available All Over The World

PayPal Payments Pro only integrates merchants based in the US, UK, AU, HK, SG. So if merchants want to use PayPal Pro,, businesses need to establish a legal entity in Singapore (or in European countries, USA, …) to proceed with the registration of PayPal Business account and PayPal Pro service or contact CorpAgent for support.

4. PayPal is PayPal Payments Pro

PayPal Pro is a function of PayPal, there are differences between PayPal and its function:

PayPal Standard: Transactions via PayPal Standard are processed on PayPal’s site (not your own), and will allow customers to pay with a PayPal balance or credit card. They’ll be sent to PayPal from your checkout screen, and you’ll be charged the standard transaction fee for these payments, which is 2.9 percent + 30¢ per transaction. Customers are then directed back to your site after completing the PayPal checkout. PayPal also offers volume discounts if you process more than $3,000 in transactions with PayPal monthly.

PayPal Payments Pro: There are no startup or termination fees with PayPal Pro, but there is a $30 monthly fee along with a per-transaction fee of 2.9 percent + 30¢ (volume discounts are still available). PayPal Pro also includes the PayPal Virtual Terminal to allow you to accept payments over the phone, the ability to accept bank transfers and in-person payment, as well as online invoicing.

The biggest difference and benefit to using PayPal Payments Pro is that you can customize the entire checkout experience, as customers remain on your site during the checkout process rather than being directed to PayPal to complete checkout or approve payments.

5. PayPal Payments Pro Is The Perfect Solution

PayPal Payments Pro has more advantages not means that it has no disadvantages, here are some disadvantages of PayPal Pro:

• High chargeback fees ($20.00)
• It can take up to 3 days for PayPal to send you your funds.
• Merchants account can be suspended or frozen at any time too.

6. PayPal Payments Pro in Singapore is better than in Hong Kong one

There is no exact comparison between two of them but we got some researches here:

The preference for cash in Singapore was followed next by traditional payment modes such as bank transfers or Internet banking at 74 per cent, with 61 percent saying they prefer credit cards. When it came to using cash regularly, however, only 43 percent did so, citing problems such as having insufficient cash on hand, and long queues at automated teller machines (ATMs).

This was behind consumers surveyed in China in the same study, where only 25 per cent use cash regularly, but close to Hong Kong’s 44 per cent. PayPal is the most popular payment gateway in Singapore among digital wallets, according to 2020 research from global fintech group Rapyd, Singapore is one of the top three digital wallet markets in Asia-Pacific, followed by Hong Kong.

See More: PayPal Underwriting

PayPal Payments Pro Features?

PayPal Payments Pro allows merchants to do the following:

Optimize customer experience

• Design and host their own checkout pages.
• Allow customers to come to their website for credit card transactions. (Customers who choose to pay using the PayPal payment method will still be redirected to paypal.com.)
• Real-time transaction authorization

Start accepting credit and debit cards

• Use built-in integration with many popular shopping carts.
• Secure API calls can be made directly to the server or optionally using the Payflow SDK.

Give PayPal customers a more streamlined payment experience

• Customize the look and feel of the PayPal checkout pages to match their website.
• Eliminates the need for customers to enter personal information including shipping, invoice or payment information.
• Process customer payments on PayPal’s secure website.
• Automatically send customers back to the merchant’s website to complete the order.

Accept payments by phone, mail, fax

Includes Virtual Terminal, a web-based application that turns any computer into a credit card terminal. Merchants can log into their PayPal account and enter credit card orders offline. (PayPal Virtual Terminal is not available in US territories.)

Conclusion

In conclusion, PayPal Payments Pro is an effective tool for offshore companies because of its usefulness and wide coverage. Simple as it may sound, the underwriting process leading to the long-term operations of a PayPal Business or PayPal Payments Pro account requires hard work and insights from the professionals. Years in the business, CorpAgent believes that nothing but expertise, experience, valuable partnerships, and transparency make a professional stand out from the others.

CorpAgent has 10 years+ in the business and a strong bond with PayPal Hong Kong. We have helped thousands of foreign businesses start with PayPal Business and PayPal Payments Pro, and we look forward to helping more as we develop more insights and form a stronger bond with PayPal Hong Kong (and PayPal Singapore, for those who are interested), we are confident that our service quality is unmatched especially in the SEA/APAC region.

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