Setting up Donations
For donations, I would highly recommend using something like Streamlabs donations or StreamElements tips rather than just using something like PayPal. This is because both have some form of chargeback protection that other services don’t provide.
Setting Up Streamlabs Donations
If you receive a chargeback from a donation made through a credit card on Streamlabs, you can flag the chargeback and Streamlabs will help dispute the chargeback with the card processor.
For PayPal chargebacks, you will need to dispute it yourself; however, you can use Streamlabs logs to help dispute the chargeback.
Setting Up StreamElements Tips
To prevent chargebacks in the first place, SteamElements has something called “global chargeback protection”. This is a list of known bad actors which they use to prevent malicious donations.
Much like Streamlabs, StreamElements has full chargeback protection when donations are made through their own payment processor, SE.Pay, but you will be on your own if the chargeback was for a PayPal donation.
(Optional) Setting up a Business PayPal
I would recommend setting up a PayPal Business account. This is because, when using regular “Personal” PayPal account, people who donate to you will be able to see your real name that you have linked to the account. I would also recommend making a brand new account for this, as there is no way to convert a PayPal Business account back into a PayPal Personal account.
However, just setting up a business account isn’t enough. There are some additional things you will need to do to ensure your privacy.
First, you need to go to Home > Sales > Invoices.
From there, you should see a preview of what your current invoice looks like on the right side of your screen. If it shows any identifying information such as your real name, address, phone number, etc., click on the “More actions” button on the top right and click “Edit business information”. From there, make sure any personal information is removed or select “Don’t show on invoices” if it is a dropdown. Once you are done, scroll down and click “Save”, then refresh to page to ensure everything was saved properly.
If you want to be extra safe, you can ask a friend to donate $1 to see what information shows up on their account when viewing the transaction.