How to Downgrade Your PayPal Account and Save Money

These days, everyone has a PayPal account. Whether you’re using PayPal for simple eBay transactions or an online store, you’re bound to end up paying a fee somewhere along the way. In fact, if you ever accept a credit card payment, even one, your personal account will be automatically upgraded to a Premier Account, but what a lot of people don’t understand is that once your account has been upgraded, well, every payment you accept from that point on (even PayPal to PayPal) will be subject to PayPal’s transaction fees.

For some people, this is all well and good, as the amount of money they make through credit card payments far outweigh the fees they are charged. However, for most people, this can be a huge inconvenience, not to mention a money loser.

Think about it, Grandma accepts a credit card payment for an eBay auction she just held, and not understanding the fees associated with a new premier account she accepts the payment. Now every time she receives a payment in the future for an eBay auction she is charged a fee.

So what’s a Grandmother to do? Simple, it’s time for Granny to downgrade her Paypal account back down to her (fee free) personal account. Unfortunately, PayPal doesn’t make it as easy as simply clicking a button that says “downgrade me”, but never fear! By following these simple steps you can have your personal account back within as little as 48 hours.

First, log into your account and click on the “contact us” link near the bottom of the page. On the next page under the “Help by e-mail” section, click “Contact Customer Service” and you will be forwarded to another page. Now you will be presented with two boxes where you should choose a category. In the first box choose “My Account Profile” and in the second box choose “User Agreement”, now click continue…don’t worry, we’re almost finished.

Now we are finally at the contact form and need to put something in the subject box, simply type “Need help downgrading”. Finally, type “I would like to downgrade my account to a personal account please. Thank you” and hit “Continue”. Within 48 hours you will receive a nice e-mail from PayPal letting you know that your account has been downgraded. Simple right? Riiiight.

Finally, let’s have a look at the actual e-mail. It does contain some useful information that you may want to know before you actually go downgrading that account.

We appreciate that you have tried our PayPal Business/Premier account. Per your request, your PayPal account has been downgraded from a Business/Premier to a Personal account. Please note that with a Personal account, you will no longer be able to receive unlimited credit card funded payments and all payments received from eBay, auctions, and Website Payments Standard buttons (e.g. Buy Now Buttons, PayPal Shopping Cart, or Subscriptions payments), will be limited to the equivalent of $500.00 USD per month. (This monthly limit applies to all US, UK and
Canadian Personal accounts.)

You are only permitted to downgrade from a Business/Premier account to a Personal account one time. If you would like to upgrade your account to a Business/Premier account in the future, it will remain a Business/Premier account for the lifetime of the account.

If you exceed your monthly receiving limit, you will be given the choice to accept or deny the payment. If you accept the payment, your Personal account will be upgraded to a Premier account. If you receive a credit card payment to your Personal account, you can: Accept the payment by upgrading to a Business or Premier account. Accept the payment for a fee. Personal accounts can receive a limited number of credit card funded payments per year and are assessed a transaction fee. To view our fee schedule, click “Fees” in the footer of any PayPal page. To view your Personal account limit, log in to your account and click the “View Limits” link. Deny the payment.

Note: If you receive a credit card payment for an eBay item, you must be willing to upgrade your PayPal Personal account to a Premier or Business. Refusal to accept a payment after the auction has ended falls under eBay’s Seller Non-Performance policy.

There are no fee adjustments or refunds on payments received.