Paypal-are you happy with it?

[dennis thompson]

Are you happy with Paypal?
Thanks
Dennis

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

It's my understanding that Pay pal gets sued with great frequency becase of allegations of mis-handling money and taking money they shouldn't.

They have settled out of court every time. I have seen only one "reported" case with Pay pal as defendant and it was as to a problem with the settlement. If I recall they were not paying it or something.

The reason they settle is I should think obvious: public relations.

The UCC and it's state law correlatives regulates banks.
Entities like Pay Pal are not regulated nearly so well or rigidly.

The rules regulating entities like Pay Pal is Regulation E.
Get a copy read it and realize that Reg E is the wild wild west of financial regulations.

All that said there are plenty of folks who use it and haven't had problems. I'd take some measures to ensure that they couldn't simply start taking money from me like have a small separate account just for Pay Pal transactions keeping only the funds needed to do the business I want to do and no more.

[mike holden]

I use paypal backed by a credit card - that way I have the backing of the card company in disputes. But I have never had an issue, and I signed up way back when they gave you $10 bucks for signing on! Buy most of my woodworking books thru abebooks.com and paypal, getting books from US, Canada, and England without a hitch. I did not, and will not sign up for the service where they ask for your savings account number - dont trust them that much (grin).
If you are concerned, buy a debit card from your bank, credit union, whatever; put 50 or 100 bucks on it, and use that number for paypal - then your loss is limited. When you get more confidence, change to a different account.
Mike

Oh yeah, memory lane - when paypal first started it was like a deposit account, you put some money in from your credit card or whatever, then spent it online through paypal - obviously, that model is long gone.

[Steve Clardy]

Happy with them.

[Rob Russell]

I've been using Paypal for 5 years and have had no problems. I have filed two disputes and they were resolved to my satisfaction (against non-shipping Ebay sellers).

I would agree with Cliff and advise a bit of care if you're setting up a Paypal account that you plan to use for a lot of sales. It's my understanding that Paypal will try to deduct stuff from your bank account under some circumstances. I would want to have a standalone account that I used for Paypal if that's true.

Our account was setup a long time ago and is tied to our normal accounts. As I said, I have had no problems. If I start to do a lot of selling, I'll consider opening a separate credit card (like that's really hard to do these days ... :rolleyes: ) and potentially a separate checking account just for Paypal.

[Tom Veatch]

Are you happy with Paypal?
Thanks
Dennis

I use it with a linked bank account for most ebay transactions (not very active in that venue) and infrequently for direct purchases from on-line merchants. I've never had a single concern, problem, or complaint.


...It's my understanding that Pay pal gets sued with great frequency because of allegations of mis-handling money and taking money they shouldn't.

... I have seen only one "reported" case with Pay pal as defendant ...


Cliff, I don't understand that. The two statements, "gets sued with great frequency" and "seen only one 'reported' case with Pay pal as defendant" seem to be somewhat contradictory.

[Clint Jones]

As a verified premier member with over 800 transactions I would have to say....cant live with em ...cant live without em. Its great if youre a buyer not so much as if youre a seller. Real convenient but a few bad apples can make it a pain. -Clint

[Bruce Page]

Never had any problems with them myself.

[Ron Dunn]

I use it as a necessary evil, only because some vendors don't offer other payment methods.

That said, I'm not a heavy user (1 txn per month, maybe) and I've never had a problem that needed resolution by Paypal.

[Joe Pelonio]

I use it from both sides, selling and buying and have no problems but one. I have a regular credit card processor too, because PayPal's system from the website will sometimes "randomly" require people to become a member to make a payment or will require a lot of additional information from them.

[Rick Gifford]

I have no problems with Paypal. I have used them for years.

[Steve knight]

the squeaky wheel gets noticed. the bad things get noticed far more then the good things.
been using it for years and got hundreds of bucks in referrals. 8 years 16 days. taking payments is really no worse then a cc card account. neither will back you up.
hell look any what most backs do to their customers that never get known about. no big corporation does it customers good.

[Mark Patoka]

I've been using them for 5-6 years, primarily as a seller, and haven't had any problems.

[Jeff Cybulski]

I've only bought but no problems in 60+ transactions

Jeff

[John Bailey]

Oh yeah, memory lane - when paypal first started it was like a deposit account, you put some money in from your credit card or whatever, then spent it online through paypal - obviously, that model is long gone.

Hey Mike, this old guy still uses it like that. When I by something I transfer money into my PayPal account. That way, PayPal's not taking money out of my account, I'm sending it. I also have a separate account that I keep very little money in just in case something funny happens.

Never had a problem with PayPal.

John

[Justin Grow]

I'd say that they are fine for small purchases. Anything larger than $200 and I'd look into using an escrow company. The fees probably wouldnt be much different than paypal. Also I think I heard google offers similar services.