Paypal Account freezes over Donate button
Dec. 6th, 2011 08:41 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
ankewehner.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
crowdfundingSince a lot of people use the Donate button for crowdfunding or tipjars, this seems important:
Paypal froze Regretsy's account because they used the Donate button for something that was not a "worthy cause". (The fact that their representative said that while collecting money for a sick cat was a worthy cause, collecting money for poor people was a charity, and not worthy, just adds to the WTF-ness, but, either way, I suspect collecting tips would not be considered "worthy", either.)
As far as I can tell, they pulled that policy out of thin air. It's not mentioned on the site where you create buttons, and the "Which button should I chose?" help site describes Donations with "Let customers choose a fixed or variable donation amount" - "customers" implying it's OK for business use, doesn't it?
Anyway, if someone knows of an alternative that does not require you to live in the US and/or to have a credit card, I'd love to hear about it.
Paypal froze Regretsy's account because they used the Donate button for something that was not a "worthy cause". (The fact that their representative said that while collecting money for a sick cat was a worthy cause, collecting money for poor people was a charity, and not worthy, just adds to the WTF-ness, but, either way, I suspect collecting tips would not be considered "worthy", either.)
As far as I can tell, they pulled that policy out of thin air. It's not mentioned on the site where you create buttons, and the "Which button should I chose?" help site describes Donations with "Let customers choose a fixed or variable donation amount" - "customers" implying it's OK for business use, doesn't it?
Anyway, if someone knows of an alternative that does not require you to live in the US and/or to have a credit card, I'd love to hear about it.
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Re: O_O
Date: 2011-12-06 10:02 am (UTC)Poking around in PayPal's acceptable use policies, I found that "collecting donations as a charity" is something that needs pre-approval, so the issue may have been "you're a charity, which needs pre-approval" rather than "the Donate button is for nonprofits only". I sent PayPal an email in hopes of getting a clear statement regarding tipjars, but I guess they're quite busy right now...
Re: O_O
Date: 2011-12-06 02:53 pm (UTC)