PayPal is an online platform that allows users to pay others. Businesses and e-commerce websites all over the world use Paypal for its simplicity.  With over 15 billion transactions in 2020, PayPal is probably the most used payment processor. Even giants like Google offer PayPal as a payment option. If you want to start a business as fast as possible or just want to pay your friends back for that meal last night, then getting a PayPal Account is a great choice.

Unfortunately, as widely adopted as PayPal is, the service can be a bit strict about who they do business with. Users can get an account easily, but to get the most out of it, you’ll have to verify your identity. PayPal does this to avoid scammers and bots from opening accounts with ill intentions.

To verify your PayPal account, you will need to have a phone number. But what if you don’t want to use your real phone number for this? You may just want to try the platform out without giving up too much of your information, see how it works before making a choice, or you may believe that using your phone number in an online service is a bit invasive on your privacy.

In any case, the perfect tool for the job is a Virtual Number. With one of these, you can enjoy all the benefits of PayPal or any other online service all while protecting your privacy. Using a virtual number is as simple as using a regular one, while having a lot of advantages over the latter.

Today, you’ll learn how to create a PayPal account and how to verify it using a virtual number. By the end of this guide, you’ll learn how simple it is to use a virtual number, and you will have a PayPal account ready to use.

This guide is made for users in the US. If you’re not in the United States but want to set up an account as if you were, then you can use a residential proxy. With a residential proxy, you can connect to services in other countries from a residential IP. That means you’ll get the same content from web pages and platforms as any person in that country.      

Step 1: Go to PayPal

Look up PayPal in your browser. Type “PayPal” in the search engine, then click on the first link to enter the site.

You should see something like this once you’re in:

It’s always good practice to check the address so you know you’re on the right site:

It’s time to create an account. Click on the blue “Sign Up” button at the upper right corner.

This will take you to the following page, where you must choose what type of account you want:

Step 2: Choose your account type

Some platforms allow you to use Gmail, Facebook, or Apple to sign up quickly. Here, you need to fill out your data by hand.

In this section, you must select what type of account you want to create. A personal account allows you to shop and send money to other PayPal users. For most purposes, a personal account will be plenty. Business-type accounts have some features made for commerce, like accepting payments via a website. If you change your mind later, you can change a personal account into a business one, but not the other way around.

To follow along with the guide, choose “Personal Account” and click on the “Next” button.

Step 3: Enter your number

On the next screen, you’ll be asked for your phone number. Enter your virtual number in the text field. If you don’t have a virtual number provider, you can get one from us – Major Phones. After you’re done, press on the blue “Next” button. Note that if you choose to open a business account later, you will be asked for your email instead.

Step 4: Verify your number

After you press “Next”, you will have an SMS sent to your phone. This SMS has the code you need to enter into the next step. Take note of it and enter it in the next screen:

What to do if you don’t receive your code

If you haven’t received a code after a little while — 5 minutes or so — consider clicking on “Send code again”. If that doesn’t work, try out the following steps:

• Clear your browser’s cookies and cache. To do this on the Firefox browser click on the three-bar menu at the top right corner of the screen:

• Click on “Settings”, and then click on the search bar at the top with “Find in Settings” and write “cache”, then click on the “Clear Data” button.

• Click on “Clear” in the emerging screen.

• Now, try clicking on the “Send Code Again” button.
• If you are using a proxy to enter PayPal’s site, then check if you’re using a bad IP. To do this, go to IPHub. IPHub is a proxy detector which tells how legitimate your connection looks to the web server you’re connecting to. A bad IP will have problems during verification, and it will appear in the website like this:

• If this is happening, you should consider checking your proxy settings. If you have a residential IP, it should show up like this:

• If all of the above didn’t work, then try reporting your virtual number to your service provider.

Step 5: Enter your details

In the next section, you will be asked for additional details. What you’re asked for will depend on the type of account you want. After filling in the details, create a safe password and click on continue.

Step 6: Agree to user conditions

In this page you’ll be prompted to fill in a few more details. After you’re done, click on the second checkbox to agree to PayPal’s user conditions. Check the first box off if you don’t want to receive any mail from PayPal.

Step 7: Setup your payment methods

The hardest part is over. Now, you can start playing around with your account to customize it to your needs. However, before using PayPal for its main purpose, you need to add some funds and a payment method.

Usually, you’ll be asked to add a payment option when creating a new account. If you skipped this step, you can easily add payment options by doing the following:

1. Log into your account if you haven’t done so already.
2. Click on the wallet tab at the top of the screen.
3. Click on Banks & Cards.
4. Select the payment method you want to add.
5. Add the details of your payment method.

And that’s it! You have successfully created a functional PayPal account while keeping your real number to yourself. So go ahead and start using it to its best!