*OT* PayPal

[W.C. Turner]

Anybody out there use the "Verified" feature of PayPal?

If, so, had any problems? I've been reluctant to use it as yet.

Thanks.

[Chris Damm]

I have been verified for a while now and no ploblems. It sure makes selling on Ebay easier. Chris

[Craig Honeysett]

Same here, frequently sellers will only allow paypal to verified paypal accounts.

[Steve Hooper]

Good Morning:

I have been verified for a good while now and no ploblems. I prefer it to taking personal checks

Steve in Rainy NC

[Ken Salisbury]

I have been using PayPal verified for a long time. I use Pay Pal as the preferred payment method on my Web Site Store items. I have never had any problems with the Pay Pal process.

[Randy Miller]

Never had a problem with Paypal, been verified for over a year. Only issue I had is that by default it wants to use my checking account for payments and I can't figure out a way to set the default to my credit card. So, every payment I make I have to remember to hit the "other payment options."

Not a big deal, and I really love the convenience of Paypal.

-Randy

[Richard Allen]

Hi W. C.

I read this and decided against being "verifyed"

http://www.paypalwarning.com/

If someone doesn't want my "un-verified" money then I will gladly go elsewhere.

Thanks

[Chris Oakley]

I was a little apprehensive, so I set up a savings account at a local bank to fund my paypal account. I've never had a problem and have used it both to pay and receive money.

[Bart Leetch]

I didn't like the sound of it to start with. Now I wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole.

[W.C. Turner]

Richard,

Those horror stories from the paypal warning link you provided is much worse than I would have imagined. Everyone should read this.

We received an email the other day, supposedly from Ebay, requesting a lot of personal information that wouldn't ordinarily be conducted over regular email. I deleted it, and found out later that somebody has been scamming folks with this type message. They have all the Ebay logos and everything so as to extract credit card numbers, bank account numbers, etc, from unwary Ebay customers. We all have to be on our toes these days. Can't let down your guard for a moment!

[Mike Evertsen]

I've used a verified paypal account for 2 1/2 years not one problem,,I use a checking acct. that is seperate from my main checking account,,

[Richard Allen]

Hi W. C.

PayPal works wonderfully for many thousands of people, millions of times a year. I would suggest being careful. Because if it goes bad you won't care how many times it all worked great.

I very much like the way Chris dealt with it. That should be the model I will use if I am overcome by the urge to be "verified".

Thanks

[robertfsmith]

I've been verified for about 1yr and used it for about 2yrs now, and I love it! I haven't had one single problem.

[Steve Clardy]

It is great for paying and also receiving moola. No problems. Steve

[Bud North NJ]

Could someone please explain exactly how Paypal works.
Do they charge a fee/take a commisssion or use your credit card acct

[W.C. Turner]

Bud,

You set up your account using a credit card. I'm not sure exactly how Paypal makes their money from the transactions. Im sure that some of the others can chime in with that info.

[Terry Hatfield]

Paypal charges the seller a percentage of each sale plus 30 cents for each transaction. 2.9% of each transaction +30 cents if you sell less than $1000 per month and 2.2% of each transaction +30 cents if you sell more that $1000 per month.

I use Paypal on my site and I have had no trouble with it all. I believe the price is fair for what you get. Great tracking and they even provide very nice looking packing slips for each pruchase. I use my bank account and all I do it point and click to move money where I want it to go.

I have been totally pleased with their service. The transaction fee is no more than anyone else charges just for using a credit card and I believe that I get more from Paypal than the others.

The horror stories on the warning site concern me but I will continue to use Paypal.

Just my .02,

Terry

[Bart Leetch]

I think if I used paypal I would use an account set up for this purpose & only put enough money into that account for the 1 transaction I was going to do at a time. This way if something goes afoul the only money lost is that amount. I just don't trust anything money connected over the internet.
I use a banking program to keep track of my checking account but do not hook to the internet for it & the account number isn't in the computer & neither is the name of the bank. I have a fire wall. But feel safe is better than sorry.

[Terry Hatfield]

Bart,

I agree. I transfer money from web site sales ASAP to my bank account. That account was set up specifically for Paypal and is used for nothing else. I then transfer the money from that bank account to another.

Better safe than sorry!!!!!!

Terry

[Rob Russell]

Hold on folks – there are some misconceptions about Paypal that are contained in the above posts. I’ve been using Paypal for at least a year now, have had no problems and view it as my preferred method of paying for things I buy on ebay.

Misconception #1 – Paypal has to cost money.

There are different levels of Paypal service. It’s always free to send money or transfer money from your Paypal account to your bank account. I have the “personal” version which means it’s free for me to receive money too. The major restriction of personal accounts are that they can’t accept credit card payments. The fees that Terry H. posted only apply to the premier or business accounts. Bottom line – if you don’t need to accept credit cards – Paypal can be free.

Misconception #2 – Verification doesn’t give you anything.

To the contrary – it increases the limit on how much you can transfer via Paypal during a month.

Problems with Paypal – Hoaxes.

There have been a number of hack attempts to gain people’s Paypal passwords. I received a fraud email that I quickly realized was a hoax. Paypal transactions are ALWAYS “secure”. If you are doing anything that involves your account, it will be via an “https://www.paypal.com/…” web address and you must see the “lock” icon on the bottom on your screen. If you don’t see those 2 things and they want passwords – it’s a hoax.

[W.C. Turner]

Rob Russell

Thanks for shedding much light on the Patpal situation. I think I mis-spoke about setting up Paypal acct. with credit card, I was thinking of something else, sorry. Thanks for the correction.

I got an email that claimed it was from Ebay. It had all the logos and everything. The email said I had 24 hours to update information, or/and I forget the consequences they mentioned. They wanted information that would not ordinarily be conducted through email. Like Rob said, personal info if not a hoax, will be conducted over a secure site. It really pays of to be Wary.

So, Rob, have you looked at the paypalwarning.com website? Who's responsible for that site? And, is the horror stories listed on that site a hoax also?

Thanks.

[Rob Russell]

W.C. -

As further info, the hoax email I received was something about being selected for a random account audit. The "sender" was something like "Paypal Technical Support" and when I clicked on the link in the email, the login page that came up <i>looked</i> pretty Paypal official. It had the logo, they used the right fonts and all that stuff and it wanted my Paypal id and password. The things that made me do a double take were:
<ul><li>the web address was not secure, it started with "http" instead of "https".</li>
<li>the web address was not www.paypal.com - it was more like www.paypalsupport.com or some other, similar variant.</li>
<li>the lock icon was in the middle of the page (really obvious blunder on the hoaxer's part, if you ask me) and there was no secure/lock icon at the bottom of the screen, above the system tray.</li></ul>
I briefly browsed the paypalwarning website. Some of the links seem to lead off into dead ends. A couple of the things on there seemed like they could have been valid stories. I guess my opinion of that site and it's contents is that anything to do with the web will have its warts and problems. Anyone who's bought more than a couple of items on ebay has probably had some sort of problem or disappointment, myself included. I've had sellers who inflated shipping charges or forgot to ship (although in that case, they went out of their way to make good and I ended up with a real deal). I believe that Paypal probably went through some "growing pains" in the early days of building their service. I'm sure there are people who legitimately had problems that were Paypal's fault.

Am I worried about Paypal and the potential for problems? No. Will I continue to use Paypal? Absolutely. Will I be careful about where I type in my id/password (Paypal, ebay, etc.)? Absolutely.

One last opinion. You should <u>always</u> sign in to sites like ebay using the secure option.

Rob

[Terry Hatfield]

Rob,

You are totally correct and I should have worded my reply differently.

Paypal charges the fees to the seller on each SALE ONLY not on transactions such as transfering money to bank accounts , those are free of charge.

Sorry if I confused anyone with the word "transactions". Obviously should have been "sales".

Woops,

Terry

[Ed Weiser]

It was my understanding that Ebay now owns Paypal. If so it would be very important that Paypal remain solvent, avoid any appearance of impropriety and maintains the trust of users, on both ends of the transaction. I can't imagine Ebay would want anything less. I have limited but positive experiences with Paypal myself.
...Just my 2 cents worth...

Ed Weiser

[W.C. Turner]

Ed,

I do know that Ebay now owns PayPal now.

I think I failed to mention that I've used PayPal and the other one, BillPoint or something like that, without any problems. I was just wary of the "Verified" feature.