paypal - Braintree Production Account Request Declined

Question

I am working on a ride-sharing app where riders pay via paypal to the company and driver's payout is done through Paypal payout API.

We used Braintree IOS and Android SDK and successfully completed the integration including storing the customers in vault on braintree, charge them upon trip completion through braintree REST API etc.

Now when we were ready to go live, I tried to get access to production account on Braintree. They have an option to login with PayPal. I have a PayPal business account using which if I login, it gives me the attached error:

So I tried to register for a new production braintree account from here: https://apply.braintreegateway.com/country/usa

I added my business info. After couple of days I got email from them saying "Your account is declined.. Because we don’t accept any new car sharing business"

I said Uber is also using Braintree. They said yes. But they are just not accepting any new car sharing business..

Anyone out there with similar experience? This has messed up whole my business logic completed for payments and payouts. This was just ridiculous.

Any other suggestions on how still we can allow the user to pay with PayPal without using Braintree?

There is a way to use PayPal API. But that requires user to be in the app while doing transaction. What we need is, connect user's account with Paypal account and once ride is done, money is automatically deducted so users get hasslefree payment experience.

Any suggestions and help would be highly appreciated.

Answer 1

You seem to be looking for the equivalent of PayPal's Express Checkout Billing Agreement / Reference Transaction functionality, which allows you to bill in a "headless" way (by just doing an API call) once a user has signed up for your service.

Here is a "classic" integration guide of PayPal's: https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/express-checkout/integration-guide/ECReferenceTxns/

Using it requires that your live/production PayPal account be approved for Reference Transactions, for which you would need to contact their general business/customer support via https://www.paypal.com/smarthelp/contact-us (note: not PayPal MTS) to explain your business need for.

Assuming you're able to clear that business hurdle, there may be newer APIs available to integrate than the older EC Reference Transactions , but which one exactly seems to be changing as far as what's available on developer.paypal.com