GiveWP uses PayPal email address but PayPal says must create a button

So I have a URL equivalent of a PayPal button, which goes directly to the page I am looking for. Since GiveWP apparently can’t do this (even though they say I only have to put in my email address for PayPal), is there a way to add this PayPal URL to the “donate now” button (e.g. through “Additional CSS”) or should I create a button or looking for advice on the best way to either get the donate to work or create the most efficient work around.

I’m not a developer on this plugin, just a user. When you click the donate button and it goes to the PayPal site, do you see at the bottom where it says “Pay with Debit or Credit Card”? If so, that’s how a user pays without entering their log in information. If not, you might want to verify the type of PayPal account that you have.

No, that’s the page I want it to go to. Instead, it is going to landing page that says “Login or sign up”. I have verified that I have a business account. It seems that I could just insert the URL equivalent of a button so that it goes directly to my customized PayPal page but I’m not sure where or how I would do this and the info fille out in the GiveWP form likely wouldn’t be transferred to the PayPal page in this manner. I’ve spent a 4 days now with PayPal and they are all about creating buttons and creating code that I can put on my website, etc. However, can’t I just put my PayPal email address in GiveWP and it automatically links? Supposedly this is all I have to do but there is some disconnect somewhere. PayPal says I have to talk to the add-on (GiveWP) to find out how to integrate since everything looks good on the PayPal side and GiveWP says there must be some issue on PayPal’s side. At a certain point, it’s probably best to just remove GiveWP and put a PayPal button, but then I’ll lose the value of tracking donors, although I could do that on the PayPal side I guess. Not sure, would be interested in hearing other options.

Hmm, that’s interesting. I’m using this plugin on two websites and I don’t see that issue.

However, maybe you can use a webhook to change the paypal redirect. Hopefully someone from the company sees this and can help you set that up. Do you already have any webhooks setup that could be interfering with giveWP?

Hi @douglasped

Happy to shed some light into this.
The page that users land on Paypal can vary depending on your GiveWP settings and Paypal settings.

We cover that in our documentation: https://givewp.com/documentation/core/payment-gateways/paypal-standard/

In the GiveWP settings at Donations > Settings > Payment Gateways (tab), under the PayPal Standard settings, there is the option to select the type of transaction you send to PayPal: Donation or Standard Transaction.

The option to pay by debit or credit card also depends on your Paypal account.
Here’s the current criteria for having that option, based on our research:

– Your account must be either Premier or Business. Personal PayPal accounts do not have this option unless they are older and grandfathered in.
– PayPal Account Optional (a setting in your account) must be turned on – this enables non-PayPal members to pay by Credit Card.
– The email address you use to log into your PayPal Account must be verified.
– Your Bank Account must be linked to your PayPal account and verified.
– Your Credit Card must be linked to your PayPal account and verified.

If those 5 statements are not true, there will be no option to pay with a credit card. Note that on a Test Payment (not a Test Donation) even with all of the above true of your account, there is no spot for users to use a credit card, which is apparently a restriction placed from PayPal’s end.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback. The link is not very helpful since it merely states “PayPal Email: This is the email address you used to sign-up for PayPal Standard. Once this is inserted, you’re ready to start accepting donations!” Which in my case is not true.

I have all of those 5 requirements, 1. Business Account 2. Account Optional enabled 3. Verified email address 4. Bank account linked and verified 5. Credit card linked and verified.

I can not currently show registration as a charity and so have PayPal Transaction Type within GiveWP settings set to “Standard Transaction”. However your last comment above (“Note that on a Test Payment (not a Test Donation) even with all of the above true of your account, there is no spot for users to use a credit card, which is apparently a restriction placed from PayPal’s end”) means that this might be the issue? If so, why does GiveWP give this option if PayPal Transaction Type must be only “Donation” in order to have Guest Checkout? Thoughts on this being the issue (Not being classified as a charity on PayPal’s side)?

Hi @douglasped,

I certainly understand the confusion here, as PayPal tends to vary their user interface widely, and some accounts are allowed to have that “pay with card” option on the login page, while others are not.

Make sure to check FAQ from that Doc that Rick passed along earlier, as that is where we cover these things in detail.

This is not something that we control at all from our side, and the PayPal button method of connecting to PayPal’s API is different from how our plugin integrates with their API, so there’s not a “quick fix” to be able to go from a GiveWP form to that button API.

If you temporarily switch over to classifying donations ad donations on PayPal’s side, does it work like you’d expect? I have a hunch you’ve isolated the problem here.

As for classification of them as donations, you’ll want to make sure to consult PayPal on this, but my understanding is that if you keep the amount below a certain annual threshold (which I don’t know) then the donation designation is OK. If it gets above that, you end up having to prove to PayPal that you are a charity registered correctly in your jurisdiction before you can withdraw the money.

I’m going to mark this issue as resolved now, because it’s not something we can help with from the GiveWP side beyond switching that designation.

Thanks for the input. I don’t have any webhooks setup. And when I switch PayPal Transaction Type to “Donation” it redirects to a page that says “We can’t complete this donation. The receiver doesn’t have a valid PayPal account”, which makes sense because I am not set up as a non-profit on the PayPal side. I’ve tried asking PayPal why others are “allowed” to have this and not me and they can’t give me an answer. They either say I have to set up a button or talk to GiveWP about integration. I remind them that over “90,000+ Nonprofits use GiveWP”. The issue is obviously on PayPal permissions side. I am inclined to believe it is because I am not set up as a nonprofit, but that shouldn’t matter. I’m sure all 90K nonprofits are not all registered nonprofits with PayPal. I even deleted my PayPal business account and opened a new one from scratch, linking all accounts and enabling appropriate settings, etc. Same issue. You’d think with the amount of people that use GiveWP and PayPal that PayPal would have a better and, certainly, more visible solution. I believe at this point it’s just worth using generic WP Form with a couple fields (if at all) and have a single customized PayPal button and track donations from the PayPal side.