Pay-pal

[Chief Grey Bear]

I know this is not the correct forum for this question but, could be maybe but, has anyone here had or have any experience with Pay-Pal?

How does it work? I mean, its not like a credit card machine that you swipe a card through or punch in numbers from what I can tell.

What are the fee's?

I have noticed that some on Ebay won't use Pay-Pal. Can you enlighten on the Pro's & Con's?

Thanks

[Dutch]

Are you talking about using it to pay for stuff or using it to get paid. If you are buying stuff there is no fee. You just click on it and your info comes up and click again and they pay the bill and it comes off your card. The fees would be on the seller.

[Terry Beeson]

Chief,

I've had really good experiences with PayPal myself. I've bought and sold on eBay and other sites using PayPal to pay with. One thing you can do is set up a PayPal secure "credit card" that is only good paying through them. Makes it nice that you don't put your personal number out there on the net.

The way it works is you set up and account and how you are going to transfer funds to PayPal. I have mine set up with a credit card (for "emergency" things) and my bank account. When you pay with PayPal, you basically tell PayPal where to get the money from and they pull it from your account and send it to the person you are paying via their PayPal account. Basically, it's a EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) service to make small payments more efficiently between users. It made eBay even more popular.

I've used it for eBay, selling products to friends, buying products on other sites that take paypal, and sending money to someone instead of using Western Union.

Receiving payment is easy as well. PayPal basically puts the payment in your account. You can do one of three things, use the money for PayPal transactions, or have them cut you a check sent in the mail, or transfer the money to your bank account.

The only fee I've encountered is for a check mailed to you instead of a direct deposit to your account.

I did have a compromise of my account one time about 4 years ago, but PayPal made everything right and did not take too long to do it. They are enhancing their security all the time which is a good thing too.

I've been using PayPal for several years now with no complaints. I'm using it to take payments for my book and will let you know if there are any problems there.

I'm sure someone will have a horror story, but my experience has been great.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Ahhh crap guy's. My apologies. I was typing what I was thinking without giving enough info.

Thanks for all the info Terry, that does help.

I myself have been a "member" of pay-pal for a few years now. But only on the purchasing side of things. And I can say that I have never had any problems.

I meant to ask about for when people purchase from you. Like if I was selling on Ebay, which I do have some rods and reels to sell for my dad. Anybody interested in a left handed AMBASSADEUR 5000?

Sorry for the confusion. I am looking to set up so people can send me money!

Do any of the guides here use it?

[denjac]

Chief, we use Pay pal at our store. We have sold alot of furniture through Ebay. If you have a pay pal account you are set up for selling to. The buyer that wins your item just clicks on the pay for button and takes them to pay pal. They enter your email address and poof it goes into your pay pay account. You can let the money lie there or transfer it to your regular bank account. By the way I have a bunch of the h@s spinners that I think I read somewhere that you like that I would like to sell cheap (brand new) . Bet I have a 100 of them, say .40 apiece. I think they sell for a $1.19 apiece retail.

[fishinwrench]

One "con" to paypal is that if anyone who has paid you ever has a descrepancy, they can file a claim and you will loose access to your money until the descrepancy is resolved. Which would be all great and wonderful, BUT, they are bias (favorable) towards the buyer, so depending on the situation you can really get screwed.

I had a person order an outboard part from me (fuel pump/vapor seperator for a FICHT). Almost 2 months later he contacted me and said that the pump I sold him was bad. I knew better and was suspicious that he had mis-diagnosed his engine problem (his pump/seperator was fine), and wanted to send it back for a refund. It was specifically stated on the listing that returns would only be accepted for 14 days after the sale, so I said "sorry but NO", and suggested he list it himself, sell it, and get his money back that way. He filed a claim with paypal and they froze my account until I agreed to refund his money. I was forced to refund him BEFORE I even recieved the part back, and when I got it back I figured out what he was up to.....He had swapped the pump out (you could tell the screws had been tampered with, and the bushing was in crooked) so what I got back was MY seperator with HIS old (bad) pump attached to it. I filed a counter claim with paypal, but he never responded to it....so 10 days later THEY closed the case and told me if I wanted to pursue it further I'd have to file suit through my local law enforcement agency.

Just telling you this so that if you ever have a similar issue, you'll know what to expect from paypal. I still use them, but I never leave any more money in there then I have to.

What ever you do...DO NOT link your paypal account to your bank account if you only have one personal checking account.

[Brian K. Shaffer]

It is no secret, thats for sure, that honest sellers get the shaft with PayPal due to dishonest people. Granted 99.6 percent of people are just doing good business... but here is always some way that someone will figure out a way.

Back when I sold on VFS, which started in 1998, I never had one PayPal issue. There was one guy who didnt recognize reeleasy enterprises on his CC statement and launched an investigation. But it was quickly figured out by his CC company once they called me.

Do a google search of ' why i hate paypal ' and you can read for days. There are always some drawbacks ... but with the 99.6% of deals that come off without a hitch - its great!

I do really hate the 2.5% they take thought -- cheers, Brian

[strangercreek]

I agree with Brian, any credit card setup can have draw backs. There are times when people can make claims and start investigations with regular merchant accounts also. However just for using Ebay, I guess you wouldn't need a full merchant account and could avoid any problems by doing cashier's checks and money orders, but Paypal helps you get your money quicker and opens you up to additional buyers. I know I don't buy anything on there unless I can use Paypal. As stated above some businesses use it for their e-commerce exclusively.

I think it is better since they made changes allowing buyers to pay you without needing a Paypal account of their own (this has been quite a while ago).

I have never had a problem and use it quite a bit but I am sure I'll encounter a headache at some point.

It also makes purchases really easy and gives you another "paper trail"

[Chief Grey Bear]

Wow! Thanks for all of the info guy's!

Denjac - I will get with you on those spinners.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I think the bottom line is it isolates your source of funds. No one, except Pay Pal, gets your account numbers.