Paypal: Classic or Dud?

Used 'em for years without a problem, and most small labels/record stores I get stuff from rely on them constantly.

I transfer money to my australian bank account through paypal. I've never had a problem. I think you're worrying over nothing.

Paypal are implicated in identity fraud? Or did you mean to say that spammers who want access to yr bank accounts understand that pretending to be Paypal is a good way to get info from idiots?

I see it used more thesedays by small labels.

It's about the same cost as having an account with Credit card companies, transactionwise.

xpost yes.

What Laurel said. I have never had any problems (in the past). I don't use it anymore, but years ago, when I did frequently pay via PP, I never encountered any problems whatsoever.

xpost: Probably it sprung from that, but the chinese whispers of the internet have left me believing that Paypal aren't that secure when it comes to people's details. 'Paypal' and 'insecure' have twisted themselves together in my mind.

Sounds like I should rest easy, though. Thanks, all.

Paypal themselves are totally above board (if a little slow with customer service). Giving them your bank details is no worry at all (as long as you make sure it's Paypal you're giving them too, and not some link you clicked in an email you got, as Laurel says).

xpost, yes.

Years of hassle-free use here. It's getting easier to find online businesses that take Paypal too.

Be prepared to have yr funds locked at PayPal's whim. They can be bastards when it comes to dispute resolution.

Paypal is safe for transactions but it doesn't seem a good place to park your money for too long. this article mostly pertains to their money market account feature.

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2007/09/paypal-money-market-account-review-is-it-safe.html

what the fuck

http://www.facebook.com/shoptimist

Echoing that.

Welcome to PayPal's new social experience

So you can get straight cash from Paypal when you have enough in your account to make it worth your while, right?

With the debit card you can withdraw up to $400/day, $1 fee to your account when you do, no other fees at a Chase bank
they'll also cut you a check or wire it to your bank account

does anyone use PPL to sell regularly?

yeah, it takes 3-4 days for it to actually show up in my account when I do a transfer... I don't have a card though.

(just did 2 transfers from ebay this week)

you are satisfied w/ the service? I don't think there are many alternatives, tho tbh...

yeah the charges suck, but getting and/or giving refunds has been pretty painless for me the few times I've done it.

only alternative really is sending money orders which gets problematic w/international stuff.

right. this is v useful info, so thank you. do you sell on ebay or etsy?

ebay, for around ten years now - since before they bought PP. my sister also uses etsy w/no major complaints from her.

again, it's pretty easy to just do money orders in the states but getting into other currencies is such a pain that Paypal is worth the minimal hassle and fees.

i've heard that the debit card is hell if it's lost or stolen--customer service sucks. i still have one, but i don't use mine much.

alternately, you can have paypal transfer money directly to yr bank acct.

i sell on etsy. getting paid/paying for stuff thru paypal is pretty straightforward, though fees add up. if you're making a transaction that's less official than ebay/etsy, you can have the other person mark it "personal" and avoid the fees.

(agreed about the ease of refunds--love that)

also, ppl who don't have accts can still pay thru paypal with a credit card. most ppl seem to have accts tho, and the my one customer who didn't wasn't sufficiently computer-literate to figure it out, despite my step-by-step instructions.

I use paypal all the time, no complaints.

I use Paypal all the time too - to such a degree that it's actually a damn good thing some sites (like Forced Exposure) don't take it.

I've heard way too many horror stories of people getting their accounts locked/frozen - so I always make sure to wire my balance to my bank account after a sale. other than that, no complaints

holy crap:

http://www.regretsy.com/2012/01/03/from-the-mailbag-27/

don't know which is more wtf, paypal forcing someone to destroy an antique violin, or the apparent relish with which the buyer performed the task.

don't get the impression they (or one customer service dipshit) were especially forceful tbf

which isn't to say that Paypal don't suck balls, or that a T&C clause that just says you might be asked to destroy the item without considering what it might be is really dumb

isn't really dumb - got tangled up in double negatives

ok strike 'forced', still nutso in the extreme.

Class act by Paypal, screwing up a Doctor Who book raising money for Alzheimer's: http://www.regretsy.com/2012/03/12/paypal-does-it-again/

considering closing my account.

So, someone bought a Starbucks card for $20 using my account last Friday. I know this because the Transaction History said so. They also set up a preapproved ongoing agreement with Starbucks to reload the card after it ran out of money, at the same time. I know THIS because the transaction History said so.

Paypal not being a bank, I looked up their dispute procedures (while at a Yes concert, no less), and reported it, making clear that I was not the person behind this purchase, nor had I ever bought a Starbucks card. But there wasn't a lot of room in the field to explain the situation, and, well, I was at a Yes concert. I updated my password, set up 2FA, and also turned off the ongoing agreement with STarbucks. so I figured they'd follow up with me for any questions.

They email the seller (Starbucks) twice, then without reaching out to me, close my case today, saying no fraud was committed because I set up a preapproved payment agreement with Starbucks, suggesting this was part of an 'ongoing' purchase that simply renewed on schedule. Even though their own transaction history shows that said agreement originated last Friday at the same time the card itself was purchased.

Had to rewrite the email I sent to them imploring they re-open the case because I kept inserting the phrase "dumb motherfuckers" into it.

thinking of closing my account a) because now I see it's fairly easy to get ripped off and b) I don't need Paypal anymore other than for Stubhub.

I used my paypal account last week for a political donation only to get two (presumably anti-fraud) phone calls from them, both of which of course I missed.

So I called them up, and to confirm my identity they asked me to give me the last four digits of the bank account I linked with my paypal account. Well, I was on the road, not at home, and I opened the paypal account more than 15 years ago so I laughed at the rep. Of course I don't know that offhand.

But she was serious, and had no other alternative for me.

She suggested I log into my paypal account -- which of course requires the same credentials as the original charge required -- and read off the digits from the account info page.

I did this. It was tedious but it worked.

But taken together, with the above post, it seems clear that their security policies are both annoying and ineffective. And should anything go wrong, you have no recourse.

timely. while in mexico last week I purchased tickets to a cenote park via paypal but used a credit card as the funding source. something got fucked because the park charged me twice: one in USD and one in Pesos. So I wound up with like, $600 in charges when it should have been $300. Tried to contest as a 'duplicate' charge but they wouldn't let me because they weren't identical; one was in pesos, one in dollars. Ok, so I contested it as unauthorized. Today they locked my paypal account down as a result and I have to go through all kinds of contortions to get the restrictions limited (uploading documentation, changing password, etc) which is a pain since I need to withdraw cash from out of there. They make it pretty fucking difficult to sent them an email complaining too, but I did eventually find out how to do that.

it's like they're set up for shit never to go wrong.

I read horror stories from people like yours for years akm and wanted to believe they weren't terrible but they probably are, I just don't use Paypal enough to notice.

TBH this is the first time I've ever had a problem but it's massively annoying.

so...after I kicked up a fuss for a week and then reported them to California's Business Oversight Board, they "re-open" my case and in what feels like 10 minutes, determine it was fraud and said they had refunded my $20.

It's been 7 days - they didn't refund shit. The $20 came from my Paypal Balance, which as of right now is still $0.

Probably a good time to reconsider using this shit anymore.

they resolved my issues after 7 days after I repeatedly reponded to their emails with ALL CAPS DEMANDS. I don't think my emails had anything to do with it though.

http://www.aprilwinchell.com/

was not expected from

holy crap:

http://www.regretsy.com/2012/01/03/from-the-mailbag-27/

are you on the wrong thread? what is happening

"Winchell ceased updating Regretsy on February 1, 2013" according to wiki

Got my 20 bucks back.

Paypal said it was a one time courtesy.

NO YOU FUCKS YOU WERE RETURNING MY STOLEN MONEY

why does paypal even exist in a world where all banks offer electronic payments - just for ebay?

i got a refund from an ebay seller on 16 April. it went into my "paypal account" yet my balance was still £0. i was like.... wtf where is this money. i looked in my bank account. it wasn't there either. finally TODAY it hits my bank account. so paypal had my money for like a week. doing.... what with it? investing it all over the world i guess?

needless to say it caused an overdraft which i scrambled to cover yesterday.. and now the money hits.

No classic or dud thoughts, just a dull, specific question/observation...

Has anyone noticed any odd behaviour with Paypal's currency conversion lately?

I'm in the UK, but currently have a bill to pay which is in $ USD. For ease I was going to do this via Paypal, but Paypal seems to be converting the $12.47 USD to £120.74 GBP.

This is despite PayPal's conversion rate being 1 GBP = 1.25309 USD, stated on the transaction page.

I thought it was just a temporary glitch, but it's been consistently the same for several days now, which seems odd as I'd expect someone as big as Paypal to fix issues pretty quickly.

Just very glad I didn't blindly click the 'pay now' button the first time, as I often would!

!

Hey Sylwester Młyński from Poland, stop trying to use my email address for your paypal account. I've now deleted about 10 emails with confirmation codes. (how doesn't he get "this email address is already in use" ?)