If you are going to do business online in any way, you must have a PayPal account. You must have one so that people can pay you without problems. You must have one so that you can refund money or pay people you owe. Using PayPal as a payment processor is more convenient and easier, as well as being much more secure overall. In fact, it can be that extra level of protection you need for yourself.

Whether you are a person who is selling all your old baseball cards and hockey equipment or a person who makes your money being a freelance writer, it is important to have a good way to get people to pay you and that is where things can get a little complicated. You don’t want to deal with checks and other types of payments from strangers. You never want to give these people your banking information and ask them to wire the money to you unless you’re sick of cash and good credit. The payment arrives in your PayPal account and all they need is your email address; you do not need to exchange any personal information to protect your identity and privacy.

Sometimes you’ll need to give people a refund or maybe you just want to buy a few items yourself. Giving out your credit card or banking information online can be tricky, even on sites that claim to have Iron Glad protection features. There is never a guarantee that your stuff will never be stolen; things happen all the time, with the best security. Using PayPal is safer and more secure, and on top of that, it’s much faster to do. You can simply click the PayPal button at the end of your transaction, review your order, then accept it and you’re done. He never entered a number of any kind and never had to risk any personal information.

Setting up a PayPal account doesn’t take long and can protect you from fraud and scams, especially if you’re buying or selling internationally.