How to set new account creating optional in PayPal Express Checkout? - paypal-sandbox

Question

Is it possible to define creating a new PayPal account in PayPal Express Checkout as not required?
I'm try this my code and getting two different results - once new paypal account as optional and the other time as an essential.
METHOD => SetExpressCheckout
MAXAMT => 4.50
RETURNURL => https://...
CANCELURL => https://...
REQCONFIRMSHIPPING => 0
SOLUTIONTYPE => SOLE
NOSHIPPING => 0
LOCALECODE => EN
LANDINGPAGE => Billing
HDRIMG => http://.../logo.jpg
PAYFLOWCOLOR =>
CHANNELTYPE => Merchant
ALLOWNOTE => 0
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTONAME => Stephan K Schwartz
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOSTREET => Heiligengeistbrücke 76
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOSTREET2 => Freistaat Bayern
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOCITY => Windsbach
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOSTATE =>
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOZIP => 91575
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOCOUNTRYCODE => DE
ADDROVERRIDE => 1
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPPINGAMT =>
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_CURRENCYCODE => EUR
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_PAYMENTACTION => Sale
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_DESC0 =>
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_NAME0 => Product name
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_NUMBER0 => 4260568520853
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_AMT0 => 2.50
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_QTY0 => 1
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_ITEMURL0 => https://....
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_NUMBER1 => tax
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_NAME1 => VAT 20%
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_AMT1 => 0.50
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_QTY1 => 1
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_ITEMAMT => 3.00
PAYMENTREQUEST_0_AMT => 3.00
Guest checkout is turned on, of course, in both cases. Version 109.0.

Answer 1

Ok after a few hours of trying I found out it's question about amount of order.
If a customer is paying small order under about 200 USD or 500 EUR (I couldn't find exact limits), the customer will be promped to get registered. (right side of the picture in question)
But if a customer is paying more than the above estimated amount, the registration is not required. (left side of picture in question)
Makes this sense or am I wrong?

Answer 2

I had a similar issue, and there was no answer to it. I even contacted PayPal several times, my problem was that when the user used a mobile device the guest checkout wasn't available, however exactly same page, same product did show a guest checkout when opened from a desktop.
To add to this, the code was running for a while and guest checkout was available on mobile, then one day it disappeared, while nothing was changed on my code.
All I learned from countless calls to tech support is that it's something which is decided at server (PayPal) level and you as a developer don't have too much influence over it.
Yes there is an option to enable guest payment: (See https://developer.paypal.com/docs/integration/direct/payments/guest-payments/# ) but it's not really guaranteed it will work.
To add to this, after a period of time (again without changing the code) the guest option appeared again on the mobile versions.
As a footnote and slightly off topic:
This (and the very high fees) where the reasons I decided to dump PayPal checkout, bite the bullet, set up a PCI compliant server, sign up for a gateway and merchant account, and start taking card payments directly.