Here’s how to open a US PayPal account.

Let’s assume that a) you’re not based in the US, and that you want to travel the world and b) you want to accept payments in USD.

Also, read up here if you’re sure if you should open a US PayPal account or not.

How to open a US PayPal account

You need to get everything set up for the US first. Don’t just make the PayPal account outside of the US and expect it to work. You need to prepare.

Expect this to take a few days of effort.

US LLC

Make sure you have a US business. I suggest an LLC formed in Wyoming (0% state tax), minimal bureaucracy, minimal invasion of your privacy. This shoudl cost you a few hundred dollars per year. Now you have the US address of your LLC to use, to open the PayPal.

US IP and cookies

Make sure you have a US IP Address. Either you’re on holiday in the US, and on the local wifi, or you have a quality VPN (not a free one). If you pick a more expensive VPN then you’re probably not going to be sharing the same IP address as poorer countries that have a lot of scammers. Scammers and spammers always try to save as much money as possible, so they’ll pick free or cheap VPNs. Don’t be in the same bucket as them, and pick a more expensive VPN.

Make sure your computer’s language is set to US English. I also suggest using a new web browser to your usual PayPal account, or install Brave Browser and have a separate profile set up, just for this new PayPal. This is so that your existing (personal) PayPal account doesn’t collide with this one in any way.

US Phone number for US PayPal account

Lastly, and the most difficult part of the process: You need a US phone number. Not a virtual number, not a VoIP number. Those will not work. PayPal will reject you, ban you, or block your account aggressively unless you have a real US phone number.

We can help with this. Use hardlinephone.com to get your US phone number for SMS verification.