PayPal For Dummies

Chapter 12

Asking for Money

In This Chapter

• Requesting money instead of sending an invoice
• Sending a Money Request
• Asking for Quasi-cash
• The eCheck's in the e-mail
• Refunding an eCheck
• Blocking eCheck payments
• Canceling a Money Request

When requesting payment for a good or a service, you can use PayPal to send an invoice, but if you're requesting money for some other reason, you should send a Money Request instead. The differences between the two transactions are pretty subtle, but there are reasons when you should pick one over the other. In this chapter, I explain when to use a Money Request instead of an invoice and tell you about different types of PayPal “money” — including Quasi-cash and eChecks.

Invoicing versus Requesting Money

Sending a PayPal Money Request is a lot like sending an invoice, but the process of creating a request is quicker. Use invoices only when you sell a good or a service and are asking for payment. With an invoice, individual line items are broken out for each type of product or service and shipping and tax get added to the total bill. Figure 12-1 shows an example of the fields that get filled out when creating an invoice.

When you send a Money Request, you enter the total amount of the request and select the type of payment that is being requested. If you're sending the Money Request to ask for payment of an auction item, you have the opportunity to provide information about the auction item; but if you're requesting money for a non-auction good ...