Paypal, Merchant Account, or a Bank Account?

Hello folks,


I feel like I've really been making some progress on reseaching my upcoming business. And I want to thank everybody who has given me advice and encouragment up to this point.

My business will be one where I sell information products online via Paypal. I am probably going to do this as an LLC with a designated business name. My plan is to then have Paypal transfer that money into that business account and not my personal account.

So I've got a couple of questions:

In order to do this, do I get a bank account under my busness name or do I have to get a merchant account?

I've been checking out my bank's website and all I'm seeing so far is information on merchant accounts.

Heck, is there a particular name for a business bank account that's not necessarily a merchant account???

Any steering in the right direction that anyone can give me would be much appreciated (as usual).


Thanks.

VU365

 

I think I just found the answer to my own question:

According to Regions Bank, what I'm looking foris simply called a Business Checking Account.

Sorry for the intrusion. Never mind this thread, folks. Nothing to see here...lol




VU365

 

i wrote it,so i'm going to tell you any way.

the difference between a business and a personal bank account is you have the business name on the account,fees and benefits the bank offers,and for tax purposes,should you collect any money from the bank such as interest.

if you just use paypal it is not really needed.if you just want a separate account,you can open another personal account.

merchant account is a service to collect payment with a credit card from your customers.

a merchant account may require you to have a business bank account.

 

paypal is better

 

paypal is better if you are a buyer, and not good for seller

 

Can you tell us about your business more.

 

Get a LLC, a business checking account and a Paypal Business account. make sure to register both the bank account and the Paypal account in the name of the LLC, most specifically for tax purposes.

Then connet the Paypal Business account with your business bank account.

I also recommend you to not be overly happy about making withdrawals to your bank account all the time. Make it a good habit to withdraw at the very most once per week, and then say always on Mondays. Preferrably you only withdraw once per month, say on the 20th of each month. This makes bookkeeping MUCH easier and you can easily backtrack if something goes wrong or you need to set things straight.

Also, when doing your monthly withdrawal, make it a good habit to also print out a Paypal transaction history on paper, label the first page "MAY 2010 statement" up in the top righ hand corner, this allows for easy flipping/searching once it's put into a binder. Get a binder, add some tabs to it and file all your Paypal statements from one year under one tab. Should the IRS or any one else want to see where you got the money from, or you're being audited, it's all very easy tto provide the requested information.

Do it and do it right from the beginning, it will surely save a lot of time for you in the end.

 

Have you ever considered accepting other forms of payment for your business other then paypal?

 

GREAT advice Adraco!

 

Yes, agree with you on this. However, for any good transparent business with a good honest returns policy, Paypal chargebacks are not too much of an issue.

 

Paypal is the best.

 

Totally agree with you on this. Paypal is really easy to use for buyers - I guess they're really good at taking money *evil grin*.
But seriously, I've used Paypal to buy stuff and I have no complaints - except for that time when I had a problem with the bank
but that's really more on the side of WAMU than Paypal. As a buyer I can easily request for refunds and stuff - I would guess
it would be a nightmare doing this if you are directly using your credit card. On the seller side of the fence...I've heard too many
horror stories.