PayPal

[Jerry Thompson]

It has been years since I sold anything using PP. How does the buyer use the service for payment remission?

[Rich Riddle]

You go the the website, sign up, link some type of financial account (bank or credit card), and then get the recipient's e-mail address. You then type in the recipient's e-mail address with the amount you want to pay. Fairly simple.

[Jim Becker]

Sellers need a PP account which is setup as Rich indicates. Buyers are not required to have an account, particularly for credit card transactions. Seller presents an invoice electronically or provides their email address as registered to their account to the buyer who in-turn accesses the PayPal site to complete the transaction. PayPal does charge a small fee to the seller but it's nominal in the scope of things.

[Rich Riddle]

Just a side note.....PayPal protects buyers far more than sellers. If a transaction is with a party the seller doesn't know, it's far safer for the seller to insist on a United States Postal money order. US Postal money orders protect both parties. There are too many buyer scams that utilize PayPal and then a seller finds himself out of both the product and payment.

[Mike Henderson]

Just a side note.....PayPal protects buyers far more than sellers. If a transaction is with a party the seller doesn't know, it's far safer for the seller to insist on a United States Postal money order. US Postal money orders protect both parties. There are too many buyer scams that utilize PayPal and then a seller finds himself out of both the product and payment.
Unfortunately, a United States Postal money order does nothing to protect the buyer. The seller could cash the money order and ship trash to the buyer and the buyer would have no recourse. The system that PayPal provides to arbitrate disputes between buyers and sellers is not perfect but it's better than no recourse. If I were a buyer, I'd insist on making payment via PayPal.

Mike

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Just a side note.....PayPal protects buyers far more than sellers. If a transaction is with a party the seller doesn't know, it's far safer for the seller to insist on a United States Postal money order. US Postal money orders protect both parties. There are too many buyer scams that utilize PayPal and then a seller finds himself out of both the product and payment.

Curious to know- how does the USPS protect the buyer/seller? I thought it was more of a way to savely send money to people that don't take a check. I wasn't aware of a buyer/seller protection offering.

As for the OP question, you do not need to be a PayPal member/account holder to BUY from a seller. PayPal lets you use a credit card and they act as a third party vendor, and then, of course, they charge their fee and I assume also the Visa fees. I have a love-hate with PayPal. They are making a killing off low-risk transactions, but they make life easier for me as a buyer and I don't have to trust anyone with my card number.

[Bert Kemp]

Best case Buyers use Paypal your protected

Sellers have the buyer send you a check or money order don't send till it clears

Sellers get little protection from buyers who complain

[Michael Weber]

If one sends money via PayPal to someone without an account, how does that person withdraw the money without providing some kind of account information to PayPal? Is it even possible?
As an aside, I began using PayPal at its start up. At that time PayPal was free for buyers and sellers. "We make our money on the float" they claimed and people believed that. Then when they started charging a fee the internet (as it existed then) was awash with outrage over PayPal's lying ways. Everyone was swearing they would never use PayPal again. LOL. What a great business plan.

[Bert Kemp]

I don't think you can send money to someone that doesn't have an account. Pay uses your email address as your account along with a password. If you don't have a password and email username you can't get money out-


If one sends money via PayPal to someone without an account, how does that person withdraw the money without providing some kind of account information to PayPal? Is it even possible?
As an aside, I began using PayPal at its start up. At that time PayPal was free for buyers and sellers. "We make our money on the float" they claimed and people believed that. Then when they started charging a fee the internet (as it existed then) was awash with outrage over PayPal's lying ways. Everyone was swearing they would never use PayPal again. LOL. What a great business plan.

[Garth Almgren]

I don't think you can send money to someone that doesn't have an account. Pay uses your email address as your account along with a password. If you don't have a password and email username you can't get money out-
Close. From their FAQ:
Can I send money to someone who doesn't have a PayPal account?
Yes! All the recipient needs is an email address. However, the recipient does need a PayPal account to access the money. PayPal will send the recipient an email with instructions on how to set up a PayPal account and receive the money.

[Rich Riddle]

The way buyers are protected with a postal money order is that if the seller doesn't send what is advertised then it's a charge of fraud. Since a postal money order was used, the Postal inspectors investigate and it's literally a federal case. The scam of sending a box of rocks that some folks do with PayPal will land you in hot water with a US Postal Money Order. There are far too many buyer scams associated with PayPal to accept it from someone you don't know or trust. There is too little protection to the seller. The postal money order protects both parties.

Van and I belong to a wrist watch forum. I sold off a few of my vintage watches. Someone wanted to pay via PayPal and had been a forum member for years but had zero posts in the forum. I refused. There is now a very long thread about how other members sold to him via PayPal and lost their watches and had the funds reversed. First off, he could not have accomplished that with a postal money order. Second, if the sellers didn't ship to him, they would be the ones in trouble.

[Rich Riddle]

Bert,

You can get your money out but they will still charge you the fee to remove it unless the party who sent the money forwarded it as a friend. They aren't particularly fast about making the funds available though. PayPal is rather notorious for that.
I don't think you can send money to someone that doesn't have an account. Pay uses your email address as your account along with a password. If you don't have a password and email username you can't get money out-

[Ken Combs]

The way buyers are protected with a postal money order is that if the seller doesn't send what is advertised then it's a charge of fraud. Since a postal money order was used, the Postal inspectors investigate and it's literally a federal case. The scam of sending a box of rocks that some folks do with PayPal will land you in hot water with a US Postal Money Order. There are far too many buyer scams associated with PayPal to accept it from someone you don't know or trust. There is too little protection to the seller. The postal money order protects both parties.

Van and I belong to a wrist watch forum. I sold off a few of my vintage watches. Someone wanted to pay via PayPal and had been a forum member for years but had zero posts in the forum. I refused. There is now a very long thread about how other members sold to him via PayPal and lost their watches and had the funds reversed. First off, he could not have accomplished that with a postal money order. Second, if the sellers didn't ship to him, they would be the ones in trouble.

That is all true. But, the resulting prosecution for the scam would not result in the scammed party being made whole, just the imprisonment of the scammer.

I have over 1500 Paypal transactions as both a seller and buyer. absolutely no issues!

[Mike Henderson]

The way buyers are protected with a postal money order is that if the seller doesn't send what is advertised then it's a charge of fraud. Since a postal money order was used, the Postal inspectors investigate and it's literally a federal case. The scam of sending a box of rocks that some folks do with PayPal will land you in hot water with a US Postal Money Order. There are far too many buyer scams associated with PayPal to accept it from someone you don't know or trust. There is too little protection to the seller. The postal money order protects both parties.

Van and I belong to a wrist watch forum. I sold off a few of my vintage watches. Someone wanted to pay via PayPal and had been a forum member for years but had zero posts in the forum. I refused. There is now a very long thread about how other members sold to him via PayPal and lost their watches and had the funds reversed. First off, he could not have accomplished that with a postal money order. Second, if the sellers didn't ship to him, they would be the ones in trouble.
I'm afraid it's generally not that simple. In most situations, the seller ships the product but the buyer is not satisfied with it. In that case, if you report that as "fraud" the police will tell you it's a civil matter and you need to pursue relief through the civil courts.

And that's generally the problem. In most PayPal disputes, the buyer feels that he did not receive what was advertised and the seller feels that he shipped what was advertised. I expect PayPal generally favors the buyer.

In most cases, the buyer would have to show that he had returned the item to the seller - by giving the tracking number of the shipment - and once it was received by the seller, PayPal will refund the buyer his money.

Yes, there are ways that system can be exploited but it offers some level of protection for both parties in a transaction. I would think that someone would have difficulty running a scam through PayPal more than once or twice. The PayPal people have records of past disputes. If someone is disputing every transaction, they will quickly get banned from PayPal.

Mike

[I had a problem with a seller on eBay one time and that was the process. PayPal asked me to write out my position and then asked the seller to respond to me (he didn't). At the end of the time that they gave him to respond, they credited my PayPal account for the full amount (I had sent the item back to him and had the tracking number to prove it). If I had paid by money order I would have be out of luck.]

[Tony Pisano]

I've used paypal for years for both buying and selling without any issues. In 2015 I bought a tablet and signed up for "paypal here". They send you a card reader similar to the "square" you can use to take credit cards. We found out that when you are selling at a college, the students prefer to use a card over cash, so it increased our sales tremendously, and even at some craft fairs it helps if you take credit cards. Paypal takes a small fee, (less than square), and you just transfer the money into your account. At any time you can go online and review all of the transactions you have made. And they have good by phone, customer service to help deal with any issues. I rea
lly like it.

[Bert Kemp]

But to get your money out you have to open an account


Bert,

You can get your money out but they will still charge you the fee to remove it unless the party who sent the money forwarded it as a friend. They aren't particularly fast about making the funds available though. PayPal is rather notorious for that.

[Bert Kemp]

Paypal protects the buyer doesn't care at all about the seller. If you remember about 2 years ago I sold a motorcycle seat to a guy in Canada. His wife disputed the charges with her cc company and Paypal locked my account till I paid them the money back. It Didn't matter to them that I had all the tracking info, a note from the post office saying he picked it up and I even had an email from him saying he got the seat and how happy he was with it. None of that mattered. Paypal would not unlock my account till I paid then the 2 or 3oo dollars .I was 100% right I did nothing wrong and yet I still got screwed.