Paypal...Get Verified...WTF... [Archive]

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George M

03-13-2005, 12:29 PM

Time to check back in with my E-bay enlightened friends on the board for advice relative to the dreaded Paypal verification process. Before I embark on it...any gotcha's or lessons learned? Against my will, I am reluctantly applying to get verfied which I don't want to do...give my bank acct info to anybody let alone Paypal since they already have my CC no. My thought is to submit my checking account no. only which I keep a modest balance in versus my main bank account. With each repeated Paypal/E-bay purchase I am getting that annoying repetitive e-mail from Paypal reminding me that I am running out of funds and will have to get verified...sucks. Many of you guys are likely or have been in the same boat. Now is the time. Any suggestions?...or is resistance futile? ;)
Thanks,
George

John B.

03-13-2005, 12:51 PM

There's not much to it George. Paypal will make 2 small deposits in your account & you tell them how much they were & you are verified. Takes about 2-3 days for the deposits to appear once you start the process.

Bill R.

03-13-2005, 12:56 PM

checking account not linked to my main checking account or savings account. This account is a cheapie free checking account through my credit union. I put 50 bucks in there and got verified, then i still use my 3% cashback credit card for all paypal purchases anyway.

Time to check back in with my E-bay enlightened friends on the board for advice relative to the dreaded Paypal verification process. Before I embark on it...any gotcha's or lessons learned? Against my will, I am reluctantly applying to get verfied which I don't want to do...give my bank acct info to anybody let alone Paypal since they already have my CC no. My thought is to submit my checking account no. only which I keep a modest balance in versus my main bank account. With each repeated Paypal/E-bay purchase I am getting that annoying repetitive e-mail from Paypal reminding me that I am running out of funds and will have to get verified...sucks. Many of you guys are likely or have been in the same boat. Now is the time. Any suggestions?...or is resistance futile? ;)
Thanks,
George

Jon K

03-13-2005, 12:59 PM

I have horror stories about Paypal. My friend paid me for web design services... paypal for no other reason than being able to, put the $400 transaction on "hold" on his account. Which meant that they "held" $400 from my account, basically taking it away from me... They told me on the phone they couldn't do anything about it and they were sorry. WTF. Eventually, a month later, it got resolved.

Scott C

03-13-2005, 02:24 PM

632 Regal

03-13-2005, 04:09 PM

I did the same thing as Bill, went and opened a seperate account just for paypal. I couldnt see myself allowing access to either of my main accounts.

gale

03-13-2005, 04:43 PM

Hi George, hope all is going well.

I did the same thing as Bill & Jeff & opened a dedicated token checking account just for that purpose. Besides, it makes for a good "sock in the drawer" stash of money that the wife can't get to :D

Cheers,

ET

George M

03-13-2005, 06:30 PM

Thanks guys...wondered what you did. Other question that comes to mind is...if you pay for an item on e-bay with Paypal after becoming verified...do the funds automatically come from your new bank account you have registered to Paypal or will Paypal draw from your credit card and the funds in your Paypal bank account are only a back up to Paypal if your credit card balks?
Thanks,
George
PS: I still don't understand Paypal getting a skim for transactions...not sure why they deducted a small percentage with a couple of transactions I had and not a couple of others.

Kalevera

03-13-2005, 07:31 PM

Hey George.

You can usually select the "source" for funding a payment....If you're verified, it defaults to "bank account" because (this is a theory of mine) PayPal would rather do an electronic funds transfer than a credit card transaction. I *usually* change the funding source to my credit card...for all of the obvious reasons. Like Jon K. said, they sometimes mess up: it's my understanding that, although transactions appear to be electronically processed, a person manually enters the numbers. This has resulted in, for example, people thinking that they're paying $600 for an item, but they actually get charged $6000 because somebody in an office somewhere hit an extra 0 when they processed the EFT.

If you've got a "premier" account, they'll skim that percentage off no matter what you do (I think). My "personal" account can't accept credit card payments and has a theoretical limit on how much money I can receive in a month (I get around it by having people send 'quasi-cash', which isn't counted against my receiving balance), both of which are hassles at times. Yeah, it makes sense that they'd charge a per transaction fee -- they're a for-profit company, after all. Despite all of the potential issues, I still find PayPal to be the most convenient service of its type that I've encountered yet, and I have no qualms with their customer support when there are problems....

best, whit

George M

03-13-2005, 07:54 PM

Hi Whit,
Hehehe...we are back to talking e-bay stuff again and you are still the man! I haven't been haunted with any dead beat buyers lately so grateful for that. I wanted to learn a bit before I went in "to get verified". Thanks for your comments. My intent will be to keep a very modest amount of money in a Paypal specific checking account as others have set up. Therefore I wondered if there was an option of setting the Paypal verified account up to draw money from my Credit Card as before versus the newly established bank account associated with getting verified. You confirmed that is the case. What you wrote makes sense...likely easier for Paypal to debit a bank account than a credit card account for a transaction. I will too set my verified account up to withdraw from my credit card for payment on purchases made.
Thanks,
George

winfred

03-13-2005, 08:39 PM

i've bought lotsa stuff with paypal and have ignored the get verified crap for a couple years, perhaps they got the message that i don't care as they don't bother me about it now

George M

03-13-2005, 09:04 PM

begs the question then Winfred...Paypal keeps counting me down with those pesky e-mails...believe I am down to $34 dollars or so. What happens when I hit the $2000 spent without being verified?...do I lose my Paypal account privledges? Sounds like you just kept right on ignoring their warnings...what happens when you pass the $2K spent?
Thanks,
George

632 Regal

03-13-2005, 10:05 PM

who cares? you pay they get their cut, if your unsure about it you can pay with other methods. Paypal in its past has gotten hacked and it let out everyones information, email cr card info etc. Follow your gut, if you dont like it then use another method.

winfred

03-13-2005, 10:12 PM

hmmm, i aint there yet $858 to go, most of the **** i buy is small and hasn't really added up, i guess you'll need to tell me, i wonder if they tell you to get bent or verify?

George M

03-13-2005, 10:37 PM

I am thinking they will shut me down...haha...once I hit the $2K mark...why I asked. I will probably verify versus test the system :p . Had you held them off successfully, I would have then followed suit.
George

winfred

03-13-2005, 10:43 PM

screw em, ill press

Paul in NZ

03-14-2005, 03:17 AM

for what itisworth geoge when i opened my paypal a/c there idnt seem to be any option but credit card.....I think two one dollar transactions went through,and i have made about four transactions...all however with people of forums similar to this.....

s.c.estes

03-14-2005, 09:46 AM

I personally went and got a checking account with a debit card attached to it at a credit union. I use this account for all of my online transactions and usually just tend to deposit money into it as I need to. I keep minimal amounts of cash in the account in case someone gains access to anything. I'd never give anyone full access to my normal checking or savings account. Just seems too risky even tho I'm only on the hook for the first $50.00.

Warren N.CA

03-14-2005, 11:43 AM

I just closed my account, then opened a new one. It's been working fine for a year.

Good luck George!

Time to check back in with my E-bay enlightened friends on the board for advice relative to the dreaded Paypal verification process. Before I embark on it...any gotcha's or lessons learned? Against my will, I am reluctantly applying to get verfied which I don't want to do...give my bank acct info to anybody let alone Paypal since they already have my CC no. My thought is to submit my checking account no. only which I keep a modest balance in versus my main bank account. With each repeated Paypal/E-bay purchase I am getting that annoying repetitive e-mail from Paypal reminding me that I am running out of funds and will have to get verified...sucks. Many of you guys are likely or have been in the same boat. Now is the time. Any suggestions?...or is resistance futile? ;)
Thanks,
George

granit_silber

03-14-2005, 02:05 PM

When I was in seminary, I worked part-time for a LARGE "discount" retailer. At that time I was a cashier and the new stand alone credit card scanners came out. We were told to encourage customers to use the default debit option as the retailer wouldn't be charged any fees for the transaction.

I suspect the reason Paypal is defaulting to EFT vs. CC's is the 5% per transaction fee they have to pay VISA, AMEX, etc... for each and every transfer of funds. Which means that they take a lower profit margin.

I say the safest way to get verified with paypal is open a seperate account with no ties to any other account you own. If you don't want to use Paypal, you could start using money orders (with which you'll pay the transaction fee up front and have no recourse should the order be lost or stolen).

-ashley

(OT: WHOO HOO! Now I'm a Big Time Poster!) :)

George M

03-14-2005, 03:38 PM

Thanks gang....great advice. And Warren...that is what I like to hear...hehe. May try your approach and nix the verified account all together as it takes me a while to work up to $2K anyway.
Appreciate all the great responses,
George