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How to Delete a Paypal Account: 5 Simple Steps

June 21, 2024

How to Delete a PayPal Account – 5 Steps

PayPal accounts are beneficial to both small and large businesses. They help you receive international payments and send money to service providers without any hassles. Also, there are no setup or hidden transaction fees on your account.

Despite this, you might want to delete your PayPal account for one reason or the other. The good thing is closing a PayPal business account is a simple process, and you should be done in no time. However, there are several things you need to know before going ahead with this.

Here’s What We’ll Cover:

How Does a Paypal Account Work?

Why You Might Want to Delete Your PayPal Account

What You Should Do Before Closing Your PayPal Account

How to Delete Your PayPal Account – 5 Steps

What Happens After You Close a PayPal Account?

Why Can’t I Close My PayPal Business Account?

Wrapping Up

More About PayPal

How Does a Paypal Account Work?

Paypal allows individuals and businesses to send online payment requests, make payments, and receive money from more than 200 countries.

Once you add your company’s bank account details or credit card information to your PayPal business account, you can start receiving payments from around the world.

Why You Might Want to Delete Your PayPal Account

It costs little or nothing to maintain a PayPal account for your business.

Yet, there are many reasons you might want to get rid of yours. For example, if you suspect that your account is compromised, then closing it is a smart way to keep your business financial details safe.

Other reasons for deleting your PayPal account include:

If you want to open another PayPal account with a new email address.
When you want to use a different business account.
If you no longer require the account.
When you want to use a different online payment method like Stripe or Payoneer.

What You Should Do Before Closing Your PayPal Account

There’s no way to recover a deleted PayPal account—in other words, it is gone forever. So, make sure you have retrieved all relevant information before going ahead with this process.

The first thing you should do is remove any money left in your account. You can use this balance to make a purchase online. Alternatively, you can withdraw the money to your bank account. PayPal can also send a check for the amount, but you have to pay a $1.50 processing fee.

When you delete your PayPal account, you will lose all existing information, including your transaction history. Keeping a copy of your PayPal transaction history is a smart move because you will certainly need it in the future. You can take a screenshot or print out the document for your records.

Next, remove any unconfirmed email addresses from your account and ensure you have no outstanding balances, incomplete transactions, or unresolved issues with the PayPal support team.

How to Delete Your PayPal Account – 5 Steps

Follow these step-by-step instructions to close your PayPal account permanently:

Step 1: Log into your PayPal account on your preferred browser. You cannot delete your PayPal account from the mobile payment app.

Step 2: On your dashboard, click on the gear icon right beside the “logout” option. Choose Account Settings from the drop-down menu.

Step 3: Click on Account Preferences under the Account and Security Menu.

Step 4: At the bottom of the page, you will see Close Account. Choosing this option will redirect you to the Close Account page. Go through the terms and conditions and click Continue.

Step 5: Complete the short customer satisfaction survey and click Continue. PayPal would ask you to confirm the account closure one last time. Once you do this, your account will be deleted permanently.

What Happens After You Close a PayPal Account?

Once you delete your PayPal account, you cannot reactivate it, even if you sign up for a new account with the same email address. You lose any unused redemption codes and coupons.

PayPal will automatically cancel all unpaid money requests too. You cannot access your transaction history and any other account information.

Why Can’t I Close My PayPal Business Account?

PayPal can prevent you from closing your business account on several grounds, like when you have a negative account balance of less than zero. To resolve this, you need to fund your account to cancel the negative balance.

It would help if you also took care of any account limitations, outstanding payments, disputes, claims, and chargebacks before going ahead with a PayPal account closure.

Wrapping Up

Closing the PayPal account for your business isn’t something you should do on a whim. While it is not a complex process, deleting your account permanently can cost you a lot if you fail to do your due diligence beforehand.