Sandbox buyer account with balance not working (PAYER_CANNOT_PAY) - php

Question

I'm using Paypal's PHP SDK, but I'm having trouble with executing payments (400, error code: PAYER_CANNOT_PAY ).
Sandbox setup:
Created a business sandbox account
Created a developer account
Created an App
Created sandbox buyer accounts with balance and linked credit card
Code:
Create a payment with Paypal SDK
$cred = new OAuthTokenCredential("$clientID", "$secret", $sdkConfig);
$cred->accessToken = $cred->getAccessToken($sdkConfig);
$apiContext = new ApiContext($cred);
$payer = new Payer();
$payer->setPaymentMethod("paypal");
$item1 = new Item();
$item1->setName('Ground Coffee 40 oz')
->setCurrency('USD')
->setQuantity(1)
->setSku("123123") // Similar to `item_number` in Classic API
->setPrice(7.5);
$item2 = new Item();
$item2->setName('Granola bars')
->setCurrency('USD')
->setQuantity(5)
->setSku("321321")
->setPrice(2);
$itemList = new ItemList();
$itemList->setItems(array($item1, $item2));
$details = new Details();
$details->setShipping(1.2)
->setTax(1.3)
->setSubtotal(17.50);
$amount = new Amount();
$amount->setCurrency("USD")
->setTotal(20)
->setDetails($details);
$transaction = new Transaction();
$transaction->setAmount($amount)
->setItemList($itemList)
->setDescription("Payment description")
->setInvoiceNumber(uniqid());
$redirectUrls = new RedirectUrls();
$redirectUrls->setReturnUrl("http://test.dev/paypal?success=true")
->setCancelUrl("http://test.dev/paypal?success=false");
$payment = new Payment();
$payment->setIntent("sale")
->setPayer($payer)
->setRedirectUrls($redirectUrls)
->setTransactions(array($transaction));
$request = clone $payment;
$payment->create($apiContext);
App redirects user to Paypal sandbox login page
Login with sandbox account (Pay with section is empty)
User is redirected back with token, paymentID, payerID and status(success)
Execute the payment <-- response from API 400, PAYER_CANNOT_PAY
$paymentId = $request->all()['paymentId'];
$payment = Payment::get($paymentId, $apiContext);
$execution = new PaymentExecution();
$execution->setPayerId($request->all()['PayerID']);
$payment->execute($execution, $apiContext);
Error:
{
"status": 400,
"duration_time": 156,
"body": {
"message": "The combination of payer and payee settings mean that this buyer can't pay this seller.",
"debug_id": "debugid",
"details": [],
"name": "PAYER_CANNOT_PAY",
"information_link": "https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/payments/#errors"
},
}
Any idea why this is failing?
Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Perhaps payment is declined by buyer's card bank. There is no integration issue. Try by another account to confirm your integration.

Answer 2

Are you sure you aren't trying to login and pay with the same developer account that is acting as the seller? You need to make sure you're using separate sandbox accounts for buyer and seller.