One of those persistent questions that always come up is “Why don’t many vape gear 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) since 2009. If you find a vape shop who accepts paypal, they are will very soon learn their lesson when paypal suspends their account and freezes their funds for 180 days as is systemically happening to reputable brick’n’mortar vape business with additional e-commerce platform.

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, this was not congruent with my initial agreement with the e-commerce merchant payment giant, and if i was able to restrict online sales to batteries and not much else we would be sweet.

The other more important thing to note is that buying anything that is on PayPal’s restricted list voids any PayPal protection for the consumers purchase. So disputes and warranty claims against those companies still allowing the gateway, what will happen to your transaction when PayPal eventually catches up to them and all funds are frozen for 180 days. We have learnt the hard way as have many others in the industry page.

As so many small family business are being hit the hardest with the lack of e-commerce merchant accounts accessible - only 1 so far that wants to charge every store 5k upfront and that does not guarantee approval. I am thanking you for your continual support while we navigate to find a way to provide you will alternate and secure methods of payment.

There are a few companies who have made there payment services available to local australian vape stores who i would like to applaud and encourage Ivanna Vape patrons to support. Without these businesses your access to a variety of vape devices and competitive prices would go up in smoke!

ZipPay

LayBuy

PayItLater

if given the opportunity i would encourage you to support your right to vape by selecting these payment providers over the PayPal at the checkout.

much love Tanya