I ran into a problem this week when testing PayPal’s API with recurring payments in the sandbox. I kept getting a “DPRP is disabled for this merchant” response. After reading dozens of blog posts and forum threads, I did not find any useful answer.

I dug deeper and understood that DPRP (Direct Payment Recurring Payment) is only available to Website Payments Pro accounts. So my test account needed an upgrade. I hoped to find something in the account Profile but did not find anything. Event PayPal’s search did not yield any results. I finally found it through an obscure navigation path.

Here it is in 5 “easy” steps:

First, find the My Account Tools box on the bottom right of your dashboard. Click on My Business Setup.

You will be brought to a page with multiple buttons. Do not click on Start Now. Click on the Products and Services link in the first box instead.

On the next page with numerous links, click on Website Payments Pro in the second column.

The next page contains information about Website Payments Pro. What concerns you is the Getting Started box on the top right. Inside, click on Accept Billing Agreement.

Final step: click the Agree button.

If you did not get the API credentials yet, you can get them through you Profile page, in the first column.

That’s it!

Edit: If you’re unable to see some of the links I’m showing, it might be because PayPal changed something since I wrote this article or your account settings are affecting these screens in some way. I recommend contacting PayPal support beyond this point.