OT: How many of you have Paypal accounts?

[George M]

as being generally slow to embrace 21st century technology :-) I still do not have a Paypal account but seems to be a growing trend for purchasing items on line, for e-bay etc. Thought I would canvas board members as to whether the general consensus is an account of this nature has a low chance of being hacked, i.e. what the security risk is etc. I am considering getting an account as it seems to be the way to go for future transactions. Any comments/suggestions for minimizing credit card fraud or is this really not a concern to most.
Thanks,
George

[winfred]

i have a account that i've used a couple times with no problems

[iliveinabox]

i have a paypal account i got for ebay so i can sell stuff

[Raz]

I have had an account for five years now and buy a lot of stuff on Ebay where a Paypal account is essential in my opinion. An alternative is called Nochex but this does not seem to be as popular.

There seem to be more retailers now who offer this as a standard form of payment too.

[Bimmer Nut Ed]

Been useing it for a couple years now, probably hundreds of transactions (prolly more like 1000 transactions), with no problem at all. It's a great resource. You know it's owned by Ebay, right. If you sell things on ebay it's the only way to go. They are integrated together and you can ship, pay for and track your ebay packages through the two sites. Makes doing business on ebay very, very easy.

[MBXB]

I've had Paypal for 5 years. No problems.
It's great! Customer Service is very responsive. I use the Business account with Visa/MC Debit Card. Fees may be an issue but I'll trade that for the transaction closing speed.
You can recharge your account from any number of accounts/credit cards, and conversely transfer funds to those named accounts. When an ebay auction closes, I can receive payment, and ship in hours.

[Dick Schneiders]

with no problems at all. I primarily use it for eBay purchases and sales, but have also used it simply to send money to someone else. I have used it for several hundred transactions, I would guess, and have not had a single issue with the system. I was a bit concerned about security, at first, but no longer. At first I used it only to pay with my credit card, but that costs the seller a bit more to cover the credit card fees. I then went to using my checking account, with what they call an e-check, but that took a few extra days to allow the payment to clear my bank account. Now I am using my bank account, but also using my credit card account as back-up. That makes the payment instantaneous, as the credit card would be used if the bank account transaction failed to clear due to insufficient funds. PayPal was an independent operation, at first, and they did have some growing pains with customer service as they grew so quickly. Now it is owned by eBay, I believe, and it has improved as a result.

I love the ease and speed with which I can pay somebody and am always disappointed when the seller doesn't use or want to set up a PayPal account.

Try it, you will like it.

Dick Schneiders

[Rick L]

I have been using PayPal for four years now with almost 100 transactions. I never had any type(s) of problem. I believe eBay owns PayPal now so they are backed by eBay. Credit card fraud is always an issue online. PayPal is more secured than some of the other services. Besides, your credit card company has your account protected so max liability is only $50 (by law). Most banks wouldn’t charge you a penny if a fraud occurred with your account. I wouldn’t worry… :)




as being generally slow to embrace 21st century technology :-) I still do not have a Paypal account but seems to be a growing trend for purchasing items on line, for e-bay etc. Thought I would canvas board members as to whether the general consensus is an account of this nature has a low chance of being hacked, i.e. what the security risk is etc. I am considering getting an account as it seems to be the way to go for future transactions. Any comments/suggestions for minimizing credit card fraud or is this really not a concern to most.
Thanks,
George

[Bill R.]

any problems with it, except for the fact that i get at least one scam email
a week looking like an official paypal document telling me that there's a problem with my account and they need me to log in and reenter all my info with a convenient link provided to go directly to the site...I send these to paypal each week without clicking on the link and they tell me each time that its a scam not real and they will try to track down the sender from the email that i forward to them.... This happens about once a week and I imagine if i was ever foolish enough to actually click on this fake link and fill out the info then I would have problems.... But I get the same mail from a fake ebay once a week or so also... But no never any problems with the accounts themselves and I use them all the time...












as being generally slow to embrace 21st century technology :-) I still do not have a Paypal account but seems to be a growing trend for purchasing items on line, for e-bay etc. Thought I would canvas board members as to whether the general consensus is an account of this nature has a low chance of being hacked, i.e. what the security risk is etc. I am considering getting an account as it seems to be the way to go for future transactions. Any comments/suggestions for minimizing credit card fraud or is this really not a concern to most.
Thanks,
George

[Mitch90535im]

We've been using ours for 4-5 years now with no problems.

I would say the biggest risk would falling for a "spoof" email that looks like is is from PayPay asking you to re-verify password and credit card #'s, etc. (my brother in law almost fell for an email like that) As long as you read their policy statement and understand that they will never ask you for that type of information via email and let yourself fall for would-be idenity theives, you'll be OK.

I haven't experienced it, but have read of folks who tried to work directly with their credit card companies to stop payment on a bad ebay transaction and faced negative concenquences from ebay for going outside their normal dispute resolution process, but I'm not sure of the details.

[winfred]

http://members.cox.net/kitlou/spoof.gif


any problems with it, except for the fact that i get at least one scam email
a week looking like an official paypal document telling me that there's a problem with my account and they need me to log in and reenter all my info with a convenient link provided to go directly to the site...I send these to paypal each week without clicking on the link and they tell me each time that its a scam not real and they will try to track down the sender from the email that i forward to them.... This happens about once a week and I imagine if i was ever foolish enough to actually click on this fake link and fill out the info then I would have problems.... But I get the same mail from a fake ebay once a week or so also... But no never any problems with the accounts themselves and I use them all the time...

[Bill R.]

http://members.cox.net/kitlou/spoof.gif

[kiNGMak]

Macintosh!!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[632 Regal]

Send your money to: jeff@thecitypress.com

any amount will do,

Thanks

[Bill R.]

:p









Send your money to: jeff@thecitypress.com

any amount will do,

Thanks

[winfred]

gotta problem wid dat


Macintosh!!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[632 Regal]

Bank of uncommon
acct # ********-****-*****
Password: **********
Cash deposits prefered!

Thank you for your patronage.

[gordon]

Have used paypal for a couple years... works well (a bit heavy service charge when selling on ebay) but certainly speeds ebay deals...
Have never had a problem however, i never answer any of those emails telling you to update account info no matter how real they look.
Transferring money out of paypal goes fairly quickly and have it linked to my U.S. account across the border... use it at work as well with just a credit card for buying stuff, again from ebay.

[AllanS]

I do, never had a single problem. I interpret "being hacked" in regards to paypal, more like "being stupid", ie. they got an email supposedly from Paypal admins requesting they go to a fake page and fill in their paypal information.

[Unregistered]

I, too, have used PayPal for a number of years, especially when I was in my "eBay" phase. I got over that and left PayPal behind, especially after reading some unsavory articles about the delay of payment to the seller (5 days after you press the button). Someone recently shoved a refund to me via PayPal (without asking) and I haven't gotten the use of my money after several months. I can't send it to anyone and I can't refund it to myself, even after I opened another account. I expect to triumph eventually but so far it has been an incredibly frustrating process. Customer service never answers the questions I pose, merely repeating the company line. If you are trading actively, there should be no problems.

[Mitch90535im]

Someone recently shoved a refund to me via PayPal (without asking) and I haven't gotten the use of my money after several months. I can't send it to anyone and I can't refund it to myself, even after I opened another account.

Could you give us a little more detail on this please? Are you saying there is no way to "cash out" and the refund you received can only be used for additional payments? That would indeed suck.

[Steven G]

Same here - have used Paypal for over three years and have had no problems (knock on wood).
Steven G.

[sbcncsu]

what, you don't have a paypal acount yet????

Come on in, the water's fine!

[Paul in NZ]

but a couple of personal transactions too.For my purposes I must be aware of exchange rates,and always verify the ammount first.Ussually the payment shows up on my credit card a few days later,prolly about the same time the "seller " gets the cash.I have never received money tho.... :(

[Dick Schneiders]

something unusual that happened to this account for him to have the problems he has described. You can certainly "cash out" if you receive money through PayPal. I'm not saying that he hasn't had a problem with PayPal, as there is no way they can handle the number of transactions without some. I, too, would like some details as to why this happened.


Could you give us a little more detail on this please? Are you saying there is no way to "cash out" and the refund you received can only be used for additional payments? That would indeed suck.

[George M]

Thanks to everybody for the great response. Its been educational not only relative to
the track records out there but the ubiquitous e-mail scam that seems to infiltrate anything related to stealing credit card nos. I think I need to step up and get in the game.
Appreciate you guys,
George

[Warren N.CA]

They will keep pressuring you to do this. They call it being "certified" or some similar eupemism, but it means your bank account is accessible to them. I gave in and did this, and now I plan to close the account to get rid of it. Then I'll open a new account without the link.

If you link your bank account, hackers are only a password away from your money. With a credit card, the card company is a buffer.





as being generally slow to embrace 21st century technology :-) I still do not have a Paypal account but seems to be a growing trend for purchasing items on line, for e-bay etc. Thought I would canvas board members as to whether the general consensus is an account of this nature has a low chance of being hacked, i.e. what the security risk is etc. I am considering getting an account as it seems to be the way to go for future transactions. Any comments/suggestions for minimizing credit card fraud or is this really not a concern to most.
Thanks,
George

[Bill R.]

500 in it so as to limit any possible problems, If i get something more expensive then I put the money in to cover it... but I don't give them access to the accounts and the bank that i use for most of my banking.
But like you I tried to use only a credit card for as long as possible, until i used up that limit...







They will keep pressuring you to do this. They call it being "certified" or some similar eupemism, but it means your bank account is accessible to them. I gave in and did this, and now I plan to close the account to get rid of it. Then I'll open a new account without the link.

If you link your bank account, hackers are only a password away from your money. With a credit card, the card company is a buffer.

[George M]

great advice Warren and Bill. I have one credit card with a very high limit that I wish was a bit lower actually...no debt. I do not want any linkage to my back account and if my credit card no. gets hacked they get a pretty good pay day...of course some recourse from the credit card company as Warren mentioned but a bit cumbersome if not time consuming to prove fraud. I like Bill's approach...a dedicated bank account with a low balance that can be added to if a large purchase is made. In the remote event it gets hacked...keeps loss to a minimum....seems like the best strategy.
Good discussion,
George

[Warren N.CA]

unwanted checking account link, and immediately opened a new account. When I get the the limit, I'll just start over...again.




500 in it so as to limit any possible problems, If i get something more expensive then I put the money in to cover it... but I don't give them access to the accounts and the bank that i use for most of my banking.
But like you I tried to use only a credit card for as long as possible, until i used up that limit...

[George M]

what do you mean Warren...when you get to the limit?

[632 Regal]

if a hacker gets into there all they will get is whatever I havent drawn out of it. The credit card is an idea but I wouldnt want to wait a month to find out that something is going on. I haven't had any problems at all but have read about problems in pay pals past, this issue was suppoidly taken care of. I think since Ebay purchased paypal that ebay would be responsible for any hacker activity and all transactions are supposed to be logged in their database.

any ways thats my 2¢

[Paul in NZ]

perhaps another credit card with a lower limit ?...account charges etc but no worse than a nother bank account?????

[George M]

bank account appealing is as Bill suggested you have much better flexiblity to establish a max amount a hacker would have access to versus setting up a separate credit card account for Paypal. If you wanted you could keep only a couple of hundred bucks in the account and then add money for larger transactions. With a credit card you don't have the same flexibility to keep adjusting your credit limit based upon size of purchases made so you would need to establish a limit high enough to encompass larger purchases making you a bigger target. Again...looks like the probability of having money sapped is extremely low. But with all creative people out there trying their hand at computer/identity fraud...busting into systems, writing viruses etc..best to err on the side of caution. So far I think Bill has the best plan.
George

[Mitch90535im]

With a credit card you don't have the same flexibility to keep adjusting your credit limit based upon size of purchases made so you would need to establish a limit high enough to encompass larger purchases making you a bigger target. George

I am under the impression that my card carries what amounts to a $50.00 fraud limit (a dedctible if you will). I decided to not certify my paypal acct. by linking it to my bank account, mainly for the same reason I don't use a debit card - no or little recourse once that checking account has been tapped, whereas at least I can still stop payment on a paper check. Of course I realize those days are certainly numbered with more and more brick and mortar businesses processing checks on the spot now. The difference might be that I seldom if ever sell anything - just buy, buy, buy.