You can accept it but it is a little dangerous. They could easily chargeback on you but the good thing is that PayPal does not offer buyer protection for virtual items, which is what your website would be. Just to be safe I would also accept Liberty Reserve.

Would it help if I get the buyer to sign an agreement (one clause would be no charge back) and use that to protect myself in case they do a charge back?

I have found it helps to get the advance invoice or the signed agreement and inform paypal in advance.

However, realize, if this dollar amount of activity is not "normal" for your paypal account, they can always freeze your account and that is in the TOS.

I generally never had any trouble though until I got above $20,000.00

I've used PayPal for payments up to $5,000 in the past, and it's been just fine. However, I would caution you to document the process just in case they decide to open a dispute of some sort - get physical signatures on file. For a hundred bucks or so, it's not worth the time, but for anything upwards of $1k it's smart to be protected and have real contracts.

I agree with Topkat22, if you choose to go through Paypal, be sure to both call them and email them in advance and if they try to freeze your account pm me and I can give you a letter that will help get your account back to normal.

I wouldn't do it.

I don't understand what you're saying about escrow, either.

I've used Sedo.com's escrow service and been extremely happy with it. The money is wired straight to your bank account.

Hi, thanks for the advice. I do sell websites on a regular basis. But most are valued at $200 at most. This time it will cross $1k, so I am not sure if it's unusual. I do have verified account though.

I will document the process and give PayPal a call and email in advance. On top of that, will get an agreement sign.

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As long as its not out of the norm then I say go for it, use PayPal, just make sure you document everything as others have said.

I have done transactions for much larger amounts than this many times using PayPal.

However, I WOULD NOT transfer a website to someone without escrow for this amount. Pay the extra few dollars and protect yourself.

get a signed agreement in addition to all the normal stuff. also look into alertpay i don think they charge you as much to use and i have heard some horror storys on paypal limiting people accounts when its a high amount and they have had to wait ages to get there money.

using a paypal account is a good idea due to which i can receive my having payments which i having earn from the online business.....and it is easy to receive and mostly people use paypal for the online business......

I think you should be okay as long as the payments received aren't international....that's then I've heard there are big issues....but I've received payments over 5k with no issues.

Congrats on the sale!

Paypal can be weird sometimes.

They once froze my account when I recieved a payment of $75 because it seemed 'suspicious'. Yet a couple of days before I had a payment of $999.99 come in and they didn't even question that. Even though the person who sent it to me decided to send it as a 'gift'. Although it wasn't a gift, he just didn't have a clue what he was doing.

And the $75 was actually a refund from a large reputable company. Paypal is nothing but hassle for some of us, but sometimes you just gotta' use it.

Here is the way to do this.....

Sign a contract before which clearly states about payment terms and chargebacks including paypal e-mail addresses....

Ask him to send money with a note stating "Payment for website and domain name"

When you transfer the domain, contact your registrar and ask him to send you a proof that this domain has been transferred to that person including his full name....

The only way he can claim back his money is via opening a dispute, and if you have this all documentation you are fair enough to give a proof that you are legit....

Paypal:

Upto 10K is not a big payment in Paypal if you have business account.... For personal account safe limit is considered near 4-5K.....

All the best.....

If you would like to use a bankcard ecommerce account instead, I can secure a merchant account for you to avoid these limitations. I've owned a bankcard ISO, along with my marketing company, since 2008 and have relationships with 25 bank portfolios.

Be glad to assist you if this will help. I can normally get pre-approvals quickly customized for your type of business. This can be a primary or back-up account for your transactions. No application fee and normally can save you 20% to 50% on processing.

Thanks for this post, i read all the comments and did not realize that it could be such a hassle in getting over 1k on a personal account. One of my blogs is currently up for sale on flippa and i will be expecting to get anywhere over 1.5k as well.

I am going to contact paypal right after this post to know what can be done to avoid any restriction on my personal account after getting payment..

Best regards.

All I know is PayPal is not under government regulations like other regular banks. So they can be unpredictable.

Personally, I would just use escrow and avoid having to worry about any of this.

After reading all the comments, I can take a summary like this:

For transaction about $100-500, it's no problem using paypal, but it's safer to use escrow. And document all the process to be safe.

For any virtual product (website) sale using PayPal is very risky.

If you are buying or selling a website worth over $500 then I definitely recommend using Escrow.com

Yes they take a big chunk in fees, yes it takes ages to get your money, but having used PayPal as both a buyer and seller of websites, and been burned on 2 out of 4 of those PayPal transactions (ended up losing $2,600 all up), there is no way it is worth taking the risk.

I've sold sites ranging between $100 and $8,500. Under $500 I sometimes risk it, but over $500, forget it.

Escrow.com is a bitch for waiting on payment, but you are better off having to wait an extra week for your money than ending up getting screwed out of your website if the PayPal transaction gets reversed because they claim that their account was hacked or something

Hi there,

I would say Paypal would not be a problem but the problem would be in the case, buyer makes a charge back. I use escrow for this purpose & get money the next or 2 days after the buyer confirms the transaction. Why can't you get money from escrow?

If you trust the buyer, Paypal is not a problem for transactions up to $3k.

Wish you all the best, may God bless you!

Cheers
Ciel!

It almost sounds like you know that it's a bad idea but are using the word "good" to remain optimistic!

It's highly risky. They can file a Paypal dispute and it's anyone's guess who will win it. Escrow.com or Safefunds.com is the way to go.