OT - Pay Pal - Pros and Cons

BlackSpinner wrote:

Heavylids wrote:Like everything else in the Internet horror stories of eBay and PayPal are exaggerated and faked for effect.

It always happens to a friend of a friend or some other person four degrees away and can never be verified.

I'm sure both businesses, like every business we deal with in real life, make errors occasionally. Just don't fall for the urban inter-web legends! PayPay is perfectly safe. If you do decide to violate their TOS then expect problems.

They are far worse then what you actually find on the web, it is just the tip of the ice berg. Most companies that are the victim of the payment processors are small and some go under because they survive on a narrow margin.

Oh and these aren't friends of friends, I know some of them very personally.

By the way the TOS can change on a whim. Most of the TOS violations aren't and are not illegal business practices. They are attempts to control social and political activity.

The I've had 12 years of being lucky. Hundreds of transactions and not one hiccup.

Some comments based on my experience and knowledge of how PayPal works.

1. As has been said, just to be extra cautious, do not link your primary checking account to it.

2. I always use a credit card to pay, mostly because I can always go back to the CC company for an adjustment in the event of a bad transaction. This happened once. I didn't realize I had been sold counterfeit razor blades until well past the PP 45 day limit. PP response was "Sorry, you're too late." Amex reimbursed me for the transaction per their internet purchase protection policy.

3. You have to manually change the payment method every time you use PP if you want to pay by CC. They will not make a CC account the default account to charge against.

4. MOST IMPORTANT!!! As has been said, PayPal is an eBay operation and as such is tied closely to your eBay account. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, use the same password for both your eBay and PayPal accounts. Your eBay account can be hacked much easier than can your PayPal account, and once your eBay account is hacked the hacker may well have access to your PayPal account. My eBay account was hacked one time but since my passwords were different my PayPal account was not touched. It is quite possible there are tighter security measures in place now than 8 years ago, and maybe a hacker can't access your PP account directly, but don't risk things needlessly.

For what it's worth, which to me is pretty much nothing, you can use your PayPal account to buy stuff at Home Depot, although I don't know the specifics of how you do it. You can use it at the self-serve checkouts and regular checkouts.

Heavylids wrote:The I've had 12 years of being lucky. Hundreds of transactions and not one hiccup.

That's what the drunk driver said. "I've been driving home after 3 beers at the bar several nights a week for 10 years and I've never had an accident."