When you visit most web sites, they record information about what you do on their sites. Some of this information is transient and disappears when you leave the site. But much of it is persistent and remains stored in your browser for the next time you visit that site.
These pieces of information that are stored in your web browser are known as “cookies”; transient cookies and persistent cookies.
PayPal uses cookies. If you log onto PayPal, it records information about this logon in persistent cookies.
So, when you return to the PayPal website to make your payment to the u3a, PayPal uses cookies to infer that you’ve logged onto PayPal account in the past, and it doesn’t offer you the “Pay by Credit or Debit card” option. The only option you have is to log into your PayPal account.
If you don’t want to use an existing PayPal account (for example, some u3a members use a PayPal account for charitable work, and can’t use it for personal payments), then you have to “delete your browser’s cookies”.
All web browsers allow you to do this. Typically, this is in the “settings” area of the browser where you need to select something like “privacy and security”. You will need to select “clear browser data”, and within that screen, select “clear cookies”.
Repeat the PayPal payment process, and you should see the “Pay by Credit or Debit card” option in the first PayPal screen.
Deleting the PayPal cookies in the Safari web browser on an iPad
- Open the Settings app (a spoked wheel) and navigate to "Safari" (in the section headed by the "password" app.)
- Now scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap "Advanced", followed by "website data"
- Search through the list (this may be a very long depending on your browsing history) and remove all PayPal cookies by swiping left and pressing Delete
Deleting the PayPal cookies in the Chrome web browser in MS Windows
- On your computer, open Chrome
- At the top right, click "More Settings"
- Click "Privacy and security. Third-party cookies. …"
- Click "See all site data and permissions"
- At the top right, search for "PayPal"
- To the right of the site, click "Delete"
- To confirm, click "Delete"