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Retrieving Your PayPal API Credentials

I originally posted this article to x.com on August 10, 2010. Since that time, x.com has been repurposed, and my posts have been taken down. I have reposted this here for informational and historical purposes.

Update 9/16/2014: I’ve tried to update this information to reflect the myriad of different account layouts that are available as of today.

One of the very first things that you must do when implementing Website Payments Pro, Express Checkout, Mobile Checkout, Adaptive Payments, or Adaptive Accounts is to get your API credentials.  For someone like me, who has done this a hundred times, this is pretty simple; but I get calls almost every day from new merchants and developers who just don’t know what API credentials are, and where to go to get them.  Further, in all my browsing through paypal.com and x.com, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clear, concise guide on how to retrieve your API credentials.  So, here’s the answer.

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Sign Your Card, Damnit

I’ve worked in a retail store that has been prone to credit card fraud.  My wife used to work in credit card disputes.  My close friend works fraud.  And in all my years, there’s one thing I never understood — why people don’t sign the back of their credit cards.  I can be a stickler for rules, and there was a point in time where I tried to make people sign their cards before I would accept them — even if they wrote “See ID” on the back of the card — but I gave up on that because it ended up pissing off more people than I wanted to deal with.  Still, I never understood why people didn’t sign the back of their cards.  (If you’re one of those people that writes “See ID” on the back of your card, this post is for you.)

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