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One of those persistent questions that always come up is “Why don’t any eliquid vendors accept Paypal?”.
Let me clarify that no e-commerce vendor with more than a single brain cell refuses to accept Paypal. We know that multiple payment options increases trust in the eyes of consumers. In fact, data suggests that offering paypal in addition to credit card payment options would increase sales by 30% – 50%! You’d be one terrible entrepreneur to turn that down!
Paypal’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
The fact of the matter is that Electronic Cigarette and E-Liquid sales have been against Paypal’s “Acceptable Use Policy” (AUP) in the United States since 2009. If you find a vapor vendor who accepts paypal, they are either based outside of the United States, or they are idiots who will very soon learn their lesson when paypal suspends their account and freezes their funds for 120 days.
Requires Pre-Approval?
A matter that has caused confusion is that in 2015 Paypal updated their policy and now list E-Cigarette sales as “requires pre-approval”. This tidbit of information made the rounds within the vapor community, but it has done nothing but spread around more misinformation. I recently had someone argue with me that vendors simply assume they’ll get rejected and don’t even bother trying to request pre-approval. I insisted that this “pre-approval” process was a farce, but to backup that statement I went ahead and requested pre-approval per Paypal’s instructions. I very quickly received the response below.
Under PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy, PayPal may not be used for the sale of e-cigarettes, including e-liquids containing nicotine, without pre-approval. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer pre-approval for you at this time; this is due to complex legal and payment industry requirements related to e-cigarettes.
That response speaks for itself.
