How to Cancel a Paypal Business Recurring Payment or Automatic Renewal

Apparently, even PayPal support does not know how to cancel an automatic renewal (recurring payment) in a PayPal business account. They gave me directions—three times, even though I told them those direction do not work in my business account—that work fine in my personal account, but do not work in my business account.

The solution was simple. I should have caught it right on the home page, but I did not know to look for it.

On the home page is "recent activity." I do not use PayPal much for this tiny business, so my recent activity list goes back three months right on the home page. If you have to go back further, just click "view all." This will give you options to go further back in your transactions.

On February 13, I had renewed my Christian-history.org web site. I could see the payment (an annual renewal). Right above that payment is a transaction that says, "Recurring payment from Sitesell inc."

It seems like "recurring payment from" should mean they are paying me automatically on a recurring basis, right? It doesn't, of course. I clicked on that transaction, it opened up, giving the details of the automatic renewal (recurring payment). There was a "cancel" button at the top. I clicked it and, presto, the automatic renewal was no more. Yay!

Paypal does not delete the recurring payment from your activity list. Instead, it adds a new "recurring payment from" transaction with today's date and the word "canceled" underneath.

Here are the steps in bullet form for easy reading:

• These instructions are for a PayPal business account only!. There is a bullet list below that has the steps to cancel a recurring payment in a personal Paypal account.
• On the home page look for the payment you made that you do not want to renew automatically.
• If it is not there, click "view all," then change the dates to find your transaction.

• Once you see the payment you made, look for a "recurring payment from" the same company on the same day as your payment.
• Click on the "recurring payment from" transaction.
• Use the "cancel" button near the top to cancel the recurring payment.

Again, Paypal does not delete the recurring payment from your activity list. Instead, it adds a new "recurring payment from" transaction with today's date and the word "canceled" underneath.

Simple as that.

The instructions are done. I just want to add that despite the fact that I do not like automatic renewals, I love sitesell.com and do not want to disparage them for this minor annoyance.

My Automatic Renewal with Sitesell

As said, I love Sitesell.com (SBI!). I am very happy with them, other than not wanting my several SBI! sites to renew automatically unless I request it. SBI! is a business building web host, and if you follow their step-by-step guide to building a business online, then when you create your web site, you WILL get traffic. Basically, they do your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for you—IF you patiently follow their step-by-step instructions like they tell you to. Their logo is a turtle, not a hare.

I have built three sites per their instructions, getting between 400 and 2,000 unique visitors per day on those sites. They only stopped increasing in traffic when I stopped writing pages, and even then, the traffic continued unabated or with a small decline. Despite how well their business plan works and the abundance of their SEO tools, they cast roughly the same as any other web host.

I get a commission if any of my readers start a website with SBI!/Sitesell. You can ask any questions you want about from SBI!'s staff itself. (I know you did not come to this page to start a web business, but I figured I'd tell you how to have a web site with lots of traffic. SBI! has a plug-in for WordPress, too, so ask the staff about that too.)

Why I Wrote This

This site is not about internet hacks. I wrote this because I was unable to find any instructions to cancel automatic payments in a PayPay business account online. Hopefully, this page will be picked up by search engines, and you will not have the same frustrations I did. As said, apparently even PayPal support does not know about this. Three times they gave me the following INCORRECT instructions that work for a personal PayPal account but are IMPOSSIBLE to follow in a business PayPal account:

• THESE ARE THE INCORRECT INSTRUCTIONS PAYPAL SUPPORT GAVE ME THREE TIMES. They work for personal accounts, but cannot be followed in a business account. See the top of this page for the correct instructions to cancel a PayPal business recurring payment or automatic renewal.
• Click the Settings icon next to "Log out".
• Click the Payments tab.
• Click Manage automatic payments under "Automatic payments".
• Select the merchant whose agreement you want to cancel and click Cancel.
• Click Cancel Connection to confirm.

In a PayPal business account, the "Log out" link is in a dropdown menu you get to by clicking your name or business name in the top right corner. It is not sitting there next to your name like it is in a personal account. That dropdown menu has "account settings," not just "settings." If you click "account settings," you will not find a Payments tab. Their instructions work for a personal account. You must follow the instructions at the top of this web page to cancel a PayPal business recurring payment or automatic renewal.

Again, this web site is not about internet hacks. I am just trying to be helpful. This site is about following Jesus wholeheartedly and honest Bible interpretation rather than the compromised version so popular in the United States today. It is solidly founded in the teachings of the early churches in the first couple centuries when all Christian churches were united. This site's main focus is stated, explained, and defended from the Bible in the Rebuilding the Foundations book you can read on this site. All my articles on this site are alphabetized by subject.

Go to Rebuilding the Foundations home. If you are leaving my site, may God touch your life today!