PDA

View Full Version : What's the big deal about stores taking Pay Pal?



Rich Engelhardt
04-23-2013, 5:21 PM
Am I missing something here?
I just got an email flyer from Hartville Hdwe. and they now take Pay Pal.
A while back, I saw that Wally World also takes Pay Pal.

Both stores take the credit card I use for Pay Pal - so - what does using Pay Pal instead of just putting it on the credit card do?

Am I looking at the trees here and missing the forest?

David Weaver
04-23-2013, 5:23 PM
It lets you answer "yes" to people who want to pay with paypal accounts instead of credit cards.

Kevin Bourque
04-23-2013, 5:41 PM
I wonder if they get a better deal from Paypal than they get from Visa.

Rich Engelhardt
04-23-2013, 5:46 PM
Does Pay Pal offer credit?
I was under the impression the Pay Pal account had to be backed up by a credit card.

Larry Browning
04-23-2013, 5:55 PM
I have pay-pal set up to make a direct debit to my checking account, no credit or debit card needed. I use it about once a year to make a donation to SMC! I suppose if you didn't have a debit card you could setup pay-pal to act like one.
It is just one more option used to pay for stuff.

John McClanahan
04-23-2013, 6:13 PM
If I'm buying from someplace for the first time, or maybe only once, I use Paypal so I don't have to give out my credit card number to them.

John

Robert McGowen
04-23-2013, 6:40 PM
I have an on-line business. I took only credit cards for a long time. I had several people ask about Paypal and since it did not cost me anything to try it out beyond the transaction fees, I started accepting it. I would guess that orders are now about 60% credit card and 40% Paypal. Like John said alluded to above, I think that people have some sort of inner trust for Paypal, instead of the individual merchant. I personally always use my credit card. If there is a problem, I get to talk to a real person and it has always been taken care of during the first and only phone call. Try calling Paypal and speaking to someone.

Rich Engelhardt
04-23-2013, 7:08 PM
Ok - I see now.
It is a case of me not seeing the forest because the trees get in the way.

I keep fogetting there's other ways besides a credit card.

Chris Rosenberger
04-23-2013, 8:38 PM
Another reason I like using PayPal is that I do not have to enter my name & address for each online vendor. Just click to checkout with PayPal, confirm payment & I am done.

Brett Robson
04-23-2013, 10:10 PM
I like Paypal for larger purchases. In my case, I don't use credit cards anymore, just a debit card. My debit card has a +/- $350 daily purchase limit - anything larger and I have to call the bank to have it pre-authorized. Paypal has no preset limit and just debits my account same as my bank-issued debit card.

Don Morris
04-24-2013, 4:23 AM
My American Express Costco credit card has a 1.something (up to 2.0) rebate on all purchases. I try to use it whenever I can. I do have a PayPal account, but have used that rarely, or when I'm in a hurry and just want to get the transaction over quickly. The point about using the PayPal account means you don't have to give out your credit card number is a good point. So it the point about try talking to a PayPal customer service rep. I had a problem with my PayPal password once, and tried to contact them to solve the problem. Never happened. I wasn't in the place the password was saved and had to go there to get it to finally solve the problem. My credit card company has called several times when I made a large purchase not in line with our normal purchases and once when there was a sale in California one hour after a sale on the East coast. Obviously the number had been copied and used. They sent us new cards immediately. You don't need a credit card to use PayPal, but if the bad guys ever got a hold of your password, my experience would be heaven help you getting in touch with PayPal quickly to clarify the issue.

John Coloccia
04-24-2013, 4:45 AM
I think the main reason is that people do a lot of buying a selling through PayPal now, so they have money in their PayPal accounts, almost as though it's a bank (and it really is a bank, and one day they'll have to start acting like a bank...but I digress). It's convenient to simply use that instead of:

1) make purchase on credit card
2) transfer PP money to bank account
3) pay credit card

And in my case, I have a separate bank account just for PayPal, because I trust them about as much as a I trust a rabid raccoon, so I have yet an additional transfer I have to make. It doesn't sound like a big deal, the PP->bank account transfer takes a couple of days. Sometimes, the account to account transfer takes 24 hours. It's just a pain in the butt process that takes days to complete, and I have to leave little notes to myself to remind me to log back on in a couple of days and complete the process.

Much simpler just to pay from the PP account. That said, I never do that. LOL. I guess I'm just turning into a stubborn goat.

Rich Engelhardt
04-24-2013, 7:43 AM
I think the main reason is that people do a lot of buying a selling through PayPal now, so they have money in their PayPal accounts, almost as though it's a bank (and it really is a bank, and one day they'll have to start acting like a bank...but I digress). Now that's something I really never even considered.
I believe you may be on to something there.

Brian Elfert
04-24-2013, 4:04 PM
When I sell something and take an Paypal payment I immediately transfer the money to my bank account. If I do use Paypal to buy something I always use a credit card and never money from my Paypal account. There is much less recourse when using Paypal money than when using a credit card.

I bought an item on Ebay using my credit card through Paypal that had a 15 day return policy. The item was far larger than I thought so I asked to return it. It took the vendor more than a month to issue me an RMA to return the item. I returned the item and never got a credit. I called the company and they no longer answered the phone and appeared to be out of business. Ebay's buyer protection policy is only 45 days. I contacted my credit card issuer and they initiated a charge back after I sent them the tracking information for the return. I got my money back from the credit card. If I had paid with Paypal money I would be out the money since Paypal buyer protection is only 45 days.

Chris Padilla
04-24-2013, 4:43 PM
I'm not sure if policies recently changed but I did a $500 transaction several weeks ago and was able to immediately transfer the money to my bank account. A week ago I received $30 and for some reason, there was a 4 day hold on me being able to transfer the money. That was a first. I asked the gentlemen tranferring the $30 to me if he did something different on his end but it sounded fine and dandy to me...just a transfer from his bank account. I dunno.

Eric DeSilva
04-24-2013, 5:19 PM
The idea that businesses are more broadly taking PP is odd to me--although maybe I'm behind the times. My recollection was that PP was very buyer-friendly when it came to disputes--basically they would pull the money out of the seller's account at the hint of a dispute. They also used to take 3%, which is pretty high. Are these policies specific to ebay transactions? My recollection was that there were a lot of people that wouldn't take PP for those reasons.

David Weaver
04-24-2013, 5:29 PM
They take 30 cents plus 2.9% of the transaction as far as I know. I'd imagine vendors taking it is completely related to people demanding they do.

As a buyer, the one nice thing about it, other than the fact mentioned earlier that I don't have to fill in address information for the vendor if they are fully integrated with it, is that when I pay a vendor with paypal, there is zero chance that they will add charges later, something some vendors and retailers have tried to do to me.

Rick Christopherson
04-25-2013, 12:41 PM
The biggest difference is that the merchant will never see any of your credit card information. The entire transaction takes place on the PayPal server, so you don't have to worry whether the merchant's checkout system is secure or not. Or worse, you don't have to worry whether the merchant is unscrupulous and would sell or reuse your credit card data later. The only information the merchant receives is that the sale is complete and where to ship the goods.

Harry Hagan
04-25-2013, 2:59 PM
If you’re concerned about your credit card information being stolen (and you should be), check out virtual credit cards. I use the Visa card ShopSafe feature for internet transactions and have no worries about giving out my credit card information since it’s only good for one transaction and limited to the amount I specify.

Brian Elfert
04-25-2013, 5:52 PM
Paypal has reduced rates for high volume merchants. 2.2% for a merchant with over $10,000 a month in transactions. A merchant doing more than $100,000 a month in transactions has to call Paypal. I imagine a merchant like Home Depot has a special deal with Paypal that costs no more than processing credit cards themselves.

I have no idea why anyone would use Paypal at Home Depot on a regular basis. I'm personally not that worried about Home Depot processing my credit card. I did use Paypal at Home Depot once because I got $10 off for doing so. No plans to use it again there.

Jim Matthews
04-25-2013, 6:21 PM
Not stubborn - aware of the fact the PayPal operates in the nether realm of unregulated funds transfers.

You have exactly ZERO recourse to get funds out of a "frozen" PayPal account.
The primary advantage is peer to peer transactions when neither party owns a merchant account.

If you're using PayPal to purchase through an existing purveyor, you're adding a layer of obscurity to the purchase.
Unless you think HH is likely to be hacked, and your CC # compromised, it's pointless.

It bears mentioning that any purchase from a PayPal balance will not be covered by any protections, if the sale goes wrong.
With a credit card, you at least have a chance to force the agent to satisfy the contract.

PayPal is nearly useless in that regard - once the money is out of the seller's account it's gone forever.