Hello,

I have an offshore Internet company registered in the tax haven Republic of Panama.

Unfortunately, because of unknown reasons PayPal and Google Checkout don't allow companies registered in Panama to open a PayPal account.

PayPal is very popular, users want to pay via PayPal.
Google's Checkout will be extremely popular because to my mind its payment processor is much more attractive and also cheaper than PayPal.

It is a huge disadvantage for my company not to be allowed to have a PayPal or Checkout account.

I don't want to use 2Checkout.com because it is very expensive, almost three times more expansive than PayPal or Google's Checkout.

Can anyone give me an advice what I should do to get a PayPal and Checkout account? Outsourcing my company's payment processing? Does anyone have any information about that?

Which other online payment processors do you recommend?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Hello, Paypal should not be your only source of payment acceptance. Alot of companies dont even deal with Paypal. Some people frown when they visit a site that only accepts Paypal.

Why cant you just get a real merchant account in your country?

If I get a merchant account in UK would my offshore, Panama-based company become tax-liable in UK then?
If yes, then I don't want to get a merchant account in the UK.

You have to know that users don't need to have an account at PayPal when they want to pay a company which accepts payments via Paypal. The reason is that for one year or more users can make a payment using their credit card. The payment will be directed to the company which has a PayPal account.

So because Paypal accepts payments via credit card I don't need other credit card processors.

That's why I like to have a business account at PayPal for my Panama-based offshore company.

Unfortunately, I am not allowed to open a PayPal account for my offshore company because it is registered in the Rep. of Panama.

So what should I do in order to be able to open an account at PayPal and starting in 2008 also at Google's checkout?

Are there any other good, cheap, reputable and reliable online payment processors like PayPal which allows companies registered in Panama to open an account?

Yes I totally agree.d with Mikie.

Paypal is only 1% of money transfer merchants. And believe me, it is not something very good but not bad too. If we look at what you are asking about, it would be impossible.

When they realize your account, you would be limited or cancelled.

Did you look at www.merchantexpress.com ? They allow international applicants too. See here: https://www.merchantexpress.com/hr_int_application.htm

The drop down country list is showing Panama too, so you are good :)

@ Dan-Iron,
I don't understand your posting.
Most payments are done by using a credit card.
PayPal accepts users to pay with their credit card without forcing them to become a member of PayPal.
So why should I offer other credit card processors? PayPal has a good reputation, everyone knows how safe PayPal is.

What do you mean with the sentence
If we look at what you are asking about, it would be impossible.
Please explain.



@ tinuzzo:
I have just taken a look at merchantexpress.com
What a horrible website! Some parts are not readable at all.
is this payment processor really reliable? I don't have a good feeling when I look at their website.

Do you have other suggestions?

You're operating a tax shelter and are complaining about the lack of interest American companies have in doing business with an entity of questionable legality? That's like a heroin dealer complaining about not being allowed to setup a booth at a school bake sale.

Hello Haary,

Sorry for my English. I ment, lets say hard instead of impossible, to use PayPal as a CC Merchant.

PayPal has a good reputation, everyone knows how safe PayPal is.

Many people don't like PayPal.
Some of our customers don't even know how PayPal works.
They keep asking us to charge their PayPal account.

Merchant account my friend :) Although you might have to get a ma thats compatible for your country. Most of them require business to be in US. I could be wrong however.

@ Engelmacher:
Panama is the center of all Banks from Middle and South America. Even US and European banks have chosen Panama as their center for their activities in Middle- and South America. That's why I don't understand why Panama is put into the same category like the Cayman Islands. They do not think before they say something like this.


Is it allowed to found another company in a European country so that this company handles all payments from my users for my company? As this company would be registered in a country where users are allowed to open a PayPal and Google Checkout account and to send and receive payments, then this company could easily open such an account.
Or isn't it allowed for companies to handle other companies' payments?

@ Engelmacher:
Panama is the center of all Banks from Middle and South America. Even US and European banks have chosen Panama as their center for their activities in Middle- and South America. That's why I don't understand why Panama is put into the same category like the Cayman Islands. They do not think before they say something like this.

I'm sure they think plenty, they just don't care because everything you're doing sounds like a complete scam. The only people who succeed in skirting the tax laws are people who know everything about the tax laws and don't run around crying about all the extra work they have to do to bring their little schemes to fruition. This is almost certainly illegal, and you clearly have neither the intelligence nor the experience to make it work. Either do your homework or pay your taxes.

Thank you, Engelmacher for the nice words :bkick:
But I can tell you that neither will I pay taxes nor will I do my homeworks somewhere else except in forums like this one. Do you know why? Because I don't want to pay anything :rofl:

I have finally found a payment processor which is like PayPal or Google Checkout in order to receive payments:
PPPay.com and
Nochex.com

But the website of PPPay.com is strange, not very professional. it was very difficult to find an email address on their website. I had to search in Google in order to get their email address.