Deleting my PayPal account – what do I need to know?
IONOS editorial team4 mins
PayPal is one of the best known and most popular online payment services worldwide. The possibility of processing payments through PayPal means a high level of convenience, and in many cases also a faster payment process. Added to this is the additional protection for both buyers and vendors that PayPal offers. Nevertheless, it may be that you no longer need the payment service – for example, because another service is more relevant for your own market. In this case it may make sense to switch to the alternative and delete your PayPal account.
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How do I delete my PayPal account?
Regardless of your reason for deleting your PayPal account, there are a few factors that may prevent you from deleting your account immediately. For example, it is not possible to close the account if there are still open payments. The same applies to open conflicts, requests for buyer protection, or chargebacks, which also prevent the deletion of the PayPal account. If you have these standing transactions on your account, you must resolve them first. Only then can you follow these step-by-step instructions on how to delete your PayPal account.
Step one – open the website and log in
To delete your PayPal account, you must first log in to it. First of all, open PayPal’s website, and then click on the “log in” button and log in with your personal login data.
Step two – open the settings of your own account
After logging in, you’ll automatically be taken to the overview page of your account, which summarizes your last activities and presents quick links to the individual menus such as “PayPal credit,” “bank accounts and credit cards,” or “selling with PayPal.” However, you’ll not find a quick function for deleting your PayPal account on this page. To do this, you must access the settings menu by clicking on the gear icon in the upper menu bar.
Step three – delete your PayPal account
You now have direct access to your account settings, where you can change the language version of the profile, or view your merchant number among other things. However, you’ll find the button you need at the very end. Click on “close account” to start the process of deleting your PayPal account.
A pop-up window will open, and a message from PayPal will be displayed, saying that the closure of your account is final. This means that you can’t reactivate the same or view transactions made at a later point at all. To confirm you’ve registered this information, and your decision, click “close account” again to permanently delete your PayPal account.
After you have deleted your PayPal account, you’ll automatically receive an e-mail to the address associated with your profile confirming the successful closure of your account. If you have received this mail without having deleted your account, you should use the link in the message, which takes you directly to customer service.
