PayPal Online Payment System Review

July 21, 2008

Paypal is becoming a more-ingrained part of the Internet. If you’ve ever been worried about security problems using Paypal, keep reading. The service is pretty invaluable, but it’s also had some ups and downs.

What exactly is Paypal: it’s a online payment system allowing payments online without having to deal with money orders, checks, or inputting your credit card on a new site. More and more vendors are incorporating Paypal into shopping carts. For vendors, this is a cheaper and easier system than creating a merchant account for credit card processing. For spenders, it’s easier to have one type of payment system. Paypal users enter in a credit or debit card number and the funds are taken out that card. This is a free service for the majority of users, but people with a very active account, such as top eBay sellers, will need to get a higher-end Premier account to process additional transactions.

Paypal also accepts payments for individuals, rather than businesses. Each user can be paid through an email address – though basic accounts are limited to 5 debit card transaction and $500 per month. Once the funds are uploaded to Paypal, the user has a number of choices. Most commonly, users transfer these funds directly to a bank account. This is free, though a bank could charge for the transfer.

There are some fees associated with Paypal – but these are normally associated with online vendors selling a product, rather than people making purchases. There can be increased fees depending on the country of origin, type of currency, and the amount of money sent. Currently, Paypal has 164 million accounts and operates all over the world in 190 markets.

Problems with Paypal

Paypal is not without its problems, as exemplified by the site, Paypalsucks.com, which is on a crusade against the money transfer company. Their main complaints against Paypal are:

  1. Limited fraud protection. Unlike credit cards, if someone uses your Paypal account, you could be liable to those charges. However, if the Paypal account is connected to a credit card, you could dispute a purchase directly. In addition, Paypal offers increased anti-fraud and chargeback protection now than when these types of charges were first made.
  2. Paypal is vulnerable to identity theft, such as phishing scams, in which scammers set up dummy, look-alike sites to get financial information. If you’re the victim of one of these scams, Paypal has limited protection for users.
  3. It is at Paypal’s discretion to freeze or unload your account if they feel there has been unethical or fraudulent activity. This has happened to people who were entirely innocent, or they were penalized because someone paid them with a stolen credit card, which is entirely out of a person’s control.

This post doesn’t mean to shill for Paypal, but none of these issues appear to be too drastic. Take #2: any web surfer should be well aware of phishing and spam email schemes, so the surfer does bear some responsibility. A couple of years ago there were a lot of spam Paypal emails phishing for info, but these have fallen back a bit recently. A way to avoid #3 is to transfer funds as soon as their received in the account. However, if you’re using those funds to buy things, rather than attaching the Paypal account to a credit or debit card, then you’re going to have to leave the funds standing. The recommendation: attach the Paypal account to a card with some consumer protection.

Finally, a MAJOR caveat to those complaints. The PaypalSucks site links to a Paypal alternative called National Merchant Bancard, so there is something slightly duplicitous about the site itself. That said, the site does raise some issues that you should look out for. Generally, you should feel pretty secure using Paypal. The value in Paypal is that it is actually more secure: instead of plugging in sensitive financial info on an unverified website, you can pay through Paypal and feel more secure about the transaction.

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Henry
Henry is a financial writer living in Los Angeles. He's written about most any financial topic under the sun. He also writes some fiction, but rarely about the world of finance. Go figure. He's also been known to write a song or two - but he doesn't write songs about personal finance either. There aren't too many catchy songs about the stock market. Though maybe it's a niche market worth exploring...

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Comments

38 Responses to PayPal Online Payment System Review

  • mrbi11

    Paypal Buyer Protection is a scam.
    I bought a new computer or so I thought. In part because they accepted Paypal, so I believed I was protected.

    The computer was BROKEN, and NOT AS ORDERED. Seller disputes neither of these facts.

    I filed a claim after weeks of trying to resolve with the seller. Paypal never contacted me.

    The claim was “resolved in my favor” but I was only refunded $1000 of the $1430 purchase price.

    Now Paypal is non-responsive.

    So if you buy a broken ANYTHING, count on losing money. Paypal’s guarantee is a bald faced lie.

  • Kenneth

    I based a purchase I made from a Chinese vendor on the fact that I could, and did, use PayPal to pay for the transaction. Bad mistake. The item was not shipped for 12 days after the order. I did cancel the order but the vendor did not honor the cancelation. The item shipped was not the item I had ordered. I contacted the vendor and received a return merchandise authorization. According to their return policy, they were suppose to pay for the return shipping. After many emails back and forth, I applied for my money back from PayPal. PayPal initiated a request to the vendor in order for me to get my money back. Bottom line, PayPal was not able to get me my money back. I would warn everyone using PayPal to be very careful.

  • Jennifer D

    Perhaps when this was written less problems had been occuring with Paypal. I have been a seller on ebay for several years now, and I now an appalled by Paypal’s policies. For absolutely no reason whatsoever (I have 100% positive feedback, never had a return, never filed any sort of claim) they are now going to put a 21 day hold on any incoming funds! This is ridiculous!!! Not only are they holding MY money hostage, if I sell an item I will have to now pay for shipping out of pocket because PayPal will be holding that money hostage too! I know this article is old, but I want to reply for those that might just come along with the same problem. Try to find some other solution besides PayPal, I am not sure what option I will find, but I know I want nothing else to do with PayPal!

    • Chris M

      I know how you are feeling. Paypal has done the exact same thing to me. I will no longer be using paypal. Someone mentioned paymate as an option. I know nothing about paymate but intend to check then and their reviews out. Best of luck
      Chris

  • Kyle Morley

    I think the big problem with Paypal is it started out as a consumer-strength hobbyist service, and has grown into a major business player (especially as PCI compliance makes it impossible for small inet merchants to process cards themselves) but hasn’t grown an industrial-strength customer service yet. They have a great product in many ways, but what is the point, if one bad transaction can get you frozen out of your money, and it takes 6 mo to straighten it out?

    • dh

      The biggest/sadest problem with Paypal now is they are freezing out long time customers accounts trying to force them to give a bank account (no way with all the acking going on) OR require them to get a PayPAL Credit card. This is a big ripoff. There are some people that might not have a back account OR qualify for a CC card also. What a scam!!!!

  • Mark Hamil

    PayPal is a fraudulent company tied to the Ebay Monopoly. Ebay forces you to use paypal. PayPal froze my account, stole $423 out of my account, and periodically froze my account. They are absolute thieves. They are under investigation by the Dept. of Justice along with Ebay. I do hope something is done about this,….. Never use PayPal.

  • Alison Burns

    I first used paypal in November 2010 I thought it would be an easy process and that I would get the results I was hoping for, but unfortunitly this was not the case. I had organised to buy 2 tickets to a concert from a woman whom I had met through an add on GumTree. We arranged that she would send me the tickets and I would send her my money through PayPal.

    Four months went by after the transition was made and I had still not recieved the tickets, it was a week before the concert and I was very concerned that she had not responded to my e-mails.

    I went to enquire on PayPal about reporting fraud, and I was extremley dissapointed that they were unable to help due to the 45 day legal agreement. I was never informed of this agreement, and it was never made clear. I am extremly upset about the lack of support I revieved from PayPal and now I have come to realise that PayPal do not live up to the high standards that they claim.

    My expectations were very high and now I will never concider using this site again becasue the lack of support and general misguidence. PayPal have been very dissapointing in their reaction to my case and I would like to warm others not to place their trust in thier hands.

    Paypal should make their legal agreements clearer and constantly remind you of the risks you are taking using the site.

  • Dorn Kile

    PayPal – The Grinch that stole Christmas

    Jim …., of ………., TN, had been collecting gold and silver coins – for fun and as a hedge against inflation – for decades. When the 88 year old former WW II army veterinarian had to be admitted into a Veteran’s home in ………., TN last year he decided to sell off his collection – since gold and silver prices were skyrocketing -to supplement his social security and military disability income.
    After about a month of successful selling, Scrooge showed up. PayPal decided that Dr. …… was making too much money. When he was unable to provide the documents of coin sales that had happened decades earlier, PayPal decided to act as judge, jury, and executioner. For months now, PayPal has denied access to Dr. ……. to thousands of dollars of his own money – simply because they have decided that he was doing something wrong. The only thing he has done wrong was to have faith in this dishonest (ever heard of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ PayPal?) on-line ‘service’.
    PayPal, why don’t you do the right thing and stop ‘stealing’ money from 88 year old World War II veterans?!

  • Tiffany McElhaney

    This may be a nerdy thing to say, but they offer no protection off intangible goods/virtual. In the days of wow, guild wars, and second life they should come up with a way to do this. Recently i was taken for some money and they were unable to do anything, it was ridiculous.

  • Rick

    eBay and PayPal act as a conduit to fraud. Scammers very easily setup fake accounts on both systems, use stolen credit cards and defraud identity theft victims, sellers and credit card companies. Everybody lose except ebay and PayPal in this. Identity theft victims agonizingly deal credit card and credit reporting agencies trying to clear up their good name. Sellers are out their product and the charge back from PayPal 2 months later. eBay and PayPal? They lose nothing and still keep many of the transaction costs unless you somehow can navigate through their horrible customer service. Typically though they have their terms of service tightly constructed so that they can keep the transaction costs despite the fact that fraud occurred.

  • Anonymous

    I requested a check for $50 from Paypal. After two months had gone by and I still hadn’t received it, I filed a dispute. They responded by freezing my account. It has been 3 months and it’s still frozen because they “have reason to believe my account was accessed by a third party”.

  • Jose

    I have a few words to say.
    Pay Pal SUCKS. DON’T USE IT, THEY ARE ONLY A BUNCH OF SCAMMERS WHO PUT CHARGES WITHOUT EVEN TELLING YOU. THEY HAVE CAUSED ME A LOT OF TROUBLE AND I AM DONE WITH THEM.!!

  • Anonymous

    So within the last two months i have usedpaypal twice. After the first time my bank called me and asked if i have made a charge of $1268 to Sprint wireless. I have never had sprint wireless. I canceled my card, got a new card and the bank reversed the charges.
    I use paypal last week with the new card and now i have 5 $10 charges to skype.com through my paypal account. I havent used skype since 2006 and when I did I payed the company directly. Now I am trying to reverse the charges, have canceled the card and will never use Paypal and or eBay again after:

    “eBay requires a waiting period of approximately 180 days before closing your account.”

  • screwedbypaypal2

    I had a paypal account for years that I used to purchase things online and make donations to charities online. I recently decided to start selling preowned clothes on ebay and chose paypal as my only payment option for buyers. I jumped through paypals hoops and got verified, etc., etc. I made my first few sells on ebay and easily transferred funds from my paypal account to pay for shipping, supplies and a little new inventory. Then I applied for their debit card-because it offered instant access to funds and I wouldn’t have to wait for transfers. Two days later, I received an email from paypal stating my account access is limited, they need more info from me to verify identity. I immediately provided all that was asked of me and the agent I spoke with said my account should be restored to good standing within 24 hours because I provided everything so quickly. That was several days ago and my account is still limited. Every time I call I get the runaround and different excuses of why this review isn’t finished and why my account is frozen. I can RECEIVE payments, but cannot send or withdraw and paypal WON’T give me an explanation as to why, except that it’s because I applied for their debit card. I have several auctions ending soon with many bids and I don’t know how I”m going to afford to ship them or have my inventory tied up when Paypal won’t give me access to the money I EARNED. I’ve received 100% positive feedback from my buyers and have no complaints. I sent them a copy of my drivers license, my social security card, and a utility bill—they have all my banking information and a cc on file! This makes no sense—-PAYPAL IS A SCAM!! They are unjustly holding people’s money–basically stealing it! They do not disclose many things before you open the account. They just freeze with no warning and no explanation! As soon as I can get this mess straightened up, I’ll NEVER use paypal again for anything! They need to be investigated. It is my understanding there is a class action lawsuit in progress now…..

  • Adam

    Paypal is complete garbage, I had a business account with them inwhich they wanted to hold 25% of my gross sales i only make an 8% profit margin so this is IMPOSSIBLE! They were unwilling to tell me in advance this was going to happen or anything I could do to prevent it. I called them and they said they couldnt do anything. After about 6 months I called to get my money out, not only do I have to wait another 2 months to get it out they closed my account because i didnt use their service, WHAT BS IS THAT?!!

  • manny

    i though i am safe with paypal to buy something from ebay its was my missunderstanding. i bought something 3 months ago from ebay through paypal till now i didnt get this. after that i send email to seller and he said its was game u didnt win paypal naothing gonna do for me so it means paypal and sellers are playing together and ripp us.(good game) BE CAREFULL ABUT YOUR NEXT TRANSACTION.

  • S. R.

    At first, I was very ANGRY with paypal, and I decided to never use paypal again but only to use google checkout.

    THis is because I had discovered paypal had put something delinquent on my credit report but I had never used their credit card.

    Before, I had spoken with a paypal rep who was less than helpful

    However, I just called and spoke with two people at paypal and they explained the situation. Apparently when buying something with the cash in my account, somehow the “credit” option is what paid rather than what I had intended, which was my cash account. This wasn’t ok with me, I prefer not to have the credit card at all if it’s not clear how I am paying for things with paypal.

    So I explained the situation and I asked them to take the late charges off and clear up the account, letting them know that my intention had been to pay with the cash in my account, NOT with the paypal credit and it had not been clear. also that I never had the intention to NOT pay them, and it was disturbing to see it bringing down my credit score.

    to my surprise, with NO hassle and NO extra attempts to sell me on anything, they immediately took away all of the late fees and reduced it back to the way it was supposed to be on the original purchase. they took it off my credit report!

    maybe the google checkout competition with paypal has forced them to get much better customer service?

    In any case, I ended up VERY happy. whereas before I was going to eliminate my account completely and never deal with them again (I love google checkout), I’ve now decided to keep my account open at least, for some transactions.

    thanks paypal! great complaint resolution.

  • Paypal Victim

    Paypal gave a customer 1,000.00 out of my acct, because the client said they never received the item. The problem is a custom website does not have a proof of delivery, so paypal would not help me. The client bought the website 6 months in advance and was trying to get 4 more websites at a ridiculous price. When I said no, the client charged back my paypal. Thanks Paypal, You Suck!!!

    YOu give the crooks the upper hand!
    Will never use you again!

  • Ray

    If your a seller and have had any issues with paypal STAY AWAY! Paypal is the WORST COMPANY EVER! If you make too much money they will limit your account. Withdraw too much money per week limited account follows.

    Just want to gain interest on your money…

  • Matthew Fothergill

    Paypal is very convenient for buyers. I however am a seller. This last 2 months I’ve been using paypal. I make over a certain amount, they freeze the account. I send them my details, proofs of address, scans of photo id, parcel tracking numbers, ebay buyer feedback – nothing. I’ve called the customer services hotline (ha-ha) to try and resolve each of the issues as they’ve arisen. I still have limited access to my account and when I say limited, I can’t buy or sell anything or put money into my regular bank account. It’s been nearly a month. I finally get to talk to one of the operators today and the guy tells me all the previous agents have and I quote : “Yes, ooh well I’ll be honest Mr Fothergill we have missed some opportunities to expedite your case into review” which is Paypal NewSpeak for – we didn’t do anything with all the id and transaction proofs you provided. So finally, the 5th operator I’ve spoken to in the last 2 weeks gives me something resembling the truth. Finally paypal have deigned to treat me like an adult and communicate with me. They failed during a stint where I wrote 5 separate requests to have them call me about individual issues relating to the limitations imposed on my account. I got one call that was never followed up. They seemingly refuse to make outbound calls to mobile phones as I never once received a call from them on my mobile despite numerous requests as I am not near my housephone for the majority of any given day and have called them so many times I thought – you know what? I’m due a bit of consideration. This has been the worst banking or online transaction experience of my life so far. My bills are late, I have very little food left in the house. Paypal have effectively brought my life to a standstill. I will be closing my paypal account once this shambles is resolved and making a point of publicising my case as widely as possible to note to sellers and buyers alike the dangers of using this unbelievably inept and unhelpful service. Legal action is not beyond the realms of possibility at this point. I can’t think how anything else will make them wake up and behave professionally.

  • John Ralston

    I wouldn’t use PAYPAL to buy a piece of bubble gum, they SUCK, they are only for the buyer NOT the seller, EXAMPLE: I sold a person( whom I thought they were who they said) something for $150.00 and they filed a complaint to there credit card company and the charges were reversed on my PAYPAL account so now I have a NEGATIVE balance for 72 days and they keep reassuring me that they will fight the case in my favor, WHATEVER that did not happen so now I have been out $300.00 with PAYPAL and they DONT GIVE A CRAP!! There MANAGEMENT TEAM ARE VERY RUDE, I hope everyone reads this before the decide to USE PAYPAL!! HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE

  • jasonbourne

    After almost 5 years, it finally happened. A buyer succeeded scamming me.
    On Nov 27th 2009, I sold a iPhone for $745 on Paypal. Sure-thing, verified buyer and confirmed address. Jan 22nd 2010, I receive an email from Paypal claiming that a chargeback was filed against this transaction.

    This link Understanding Chargebacks has it written, every seller should know this… https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/securitycenter/sell/ChargebackGuide1

    Excerpt from paypal website:
    “Chargebacks and sellers.
    Sellers who accept credit card payments run the risk of receiving chargebacks. Most sellers factor potential chargeback losses into the cost of doing business. ”

    Paypal seller protection is a joke, but so is every transaction that is done with a credit card. The buyer has so many options to file a chargeback. I ‘wish’ paypal would cover this, but I also wish that I was a billionaire :D. Seriously, if paypal ever covered Chargebacks, they would be bust already by now… There is too much Fraud… with the FBI would crack and follow the leads…

    Or if only FedEx or UPS had a shipping service that used Photo ID’s to match the receiver at delivery…. I would gladly pay an additional $10 when I am shipping something worth over $500…

    Anyway, as it is.. I cleared my negative balance in paypal, I have less than $5000 total sales anually… and margin is slim as it is… That scammer wiped all of my earnings from 2009 and then some… but I am moving on…

  • GU

    One of the nice features that PayPal offers was being able to email my customers a copy of the invoice that we gave them when we serviced their location. And the emailed invoice had a “PayNow” button. But there appear to be challenges when the customer does not have a PayPal account.

    Has anyone found a similar feature/function?

    Thanks!

    • Terry Lane

      I should have read the articles on and reviews about PayPal, after using my Paypal account to buy stuff that was fine no problem, but as soon as received some money for something sold it took days to transfer the money to my bank so I decided to apply for their debit card to be able to have access to my cash for future sales. I was notified my paypal my account is now limited, talked with several agents, a number of hoops are required, send them this and that, they have all my info my bank account, how dare them request more,had this been told to me in advance I would have opened my own merchant account.I am self employed for a reason, to be my own boss, Paypal wants to be my boss, I do not need any credit from them, it a simple matter a debit card to receive my own money for my sales, The Bacra Massa style with pay pal treats you like a criminal, they start playing detectives, we need to verify, we need more information, for what, I am not having a problem, I do not need them, Google pay and others can do what they offer with less pain, they are prejudice and want security of more than you are allowing them to keep, I hope that class action law suite shuts them down, to avoid their rotten treatment of almost everyone, for absolutely no reason they put restrictions on your account, reason, you applied for a debit card we have to do this. I think their motive is to put you out of business, They make most people sic.

  • Col

    After my recent dealings with Paypal I can promise them and anyone else I will NEVER deal with them ever, ever, ever again – not even if I had to crawl over ten miles of broken beer bottles to pay an account by another method. I had my account “limited” for some reason I have yet to be informed of (despite requesting they give me the reason on numerous occasions) and I even had to pay THEM to go through some bizarre rigmarole to reinstate my account. I was made to feel like a criminal and it was an experience I will never repeat with Paypal. I have lost count of how many of their staff wrote emails to me (after much delay and always a different name!) and there was never any apology nor reason for my account being “limited”. They still owe me a few dollars but I find it difficult even to write their name without feeling furious, let alone go through any more dealings with them to extract what they owe me – completely, absolutely, shocking experience. Anyone with any doubts should consider how any company can survive with web pages devoted to their shocking service, namely http://www.paypalsucks.com. and http://www.aboutpaypal.org and others. I only wish I had done the research before I used them.Get lost Paypal

  • Mike Jones

    PayPal is ridiculous. I cannot wait until ACTUAL businessmen (and not scam artists) come up with a smooth alternative that all can benefit from. It also doesn’t take a genius to figure out the little trick eBay is pulling by first purchasing PayPal, and then almost forcing people to use it. eBay might own PayPal and Skype, but as long as there are moral, motivated, educated people out there, their expansion and law-bending will be short lived. I wouldn’t invest in them. Don’t let the “PayPal revenues to double by 2011” headlines influence your judgment. After all, PayPal doesn’t have a good track record for being honest or ethical. All it will take is a law suit that they cant get out of by paying a measly $9.25mil.

  • Sean

    OMG!!! I wish there was a legitimate alternative to Paypal. I completely agree with what many above me have said. Paypal blows!

    They have a resolution department that is simply a joke. I purchased something on ebay. They seller didn’t keep up their end of the bargain so I disputed it. Told them that I never received the information that was supposed to be sent to me. They get back with this douche in China who says that he sent it to me. There is no tracking information possible but that he did it and they should take his word for it. They complete the dispute and agree with the seller. I am out $5. Fine, lesson learned. I should have checked everything out more. I have used paypal and ebay for 8 years, but I messed up on this one.
    I then get an e-mail from PP about 2 weeks later informing me of a buyer disputing an item that I sold 2 MONTHS prior. Seriously? You are going to wait 2 months to notify that you didn’t receive an item that you paid $90 for and on top of that you aren’t even going to contact the seller to verify that it was shipped? HA, scammer! Now, I learned that you have to have tracking on anything that you sell with PP. PP tells me if I can’t provide a tracking number for the shipment then I have to payback the money. Wait a second, you are telling me I have to have a tracking number or refund the money? Okay, what happened on the transaction I disputed and there wasn’t a tracking number. You still found in favor of the seller? You change that and I will gladly pay this. You can’t tell me both….what morons. Gladly I didn’t have any money in my PP account at the time so they are waiting for me to send them the money. HAHAHAHAHA!!! Like that is ever going to happen. I will french kiss a horses butt before that happens!! Luckily I have a friend from high school that is an attorney. The moment they try to take the money out of my account, the suit gets filed. Bring it PP. I promise you will receive a counter suit for expenses and so much more!

    BTW, if anyone knows of a truly legit alternative to PP, please post it here for all of us to look at.

    Happy Holidays

  • Marcus

    I was working on building a website and decided I would give PayPal a try since they will process credit card payments. I did two test runs to see how the transactions would process. The first time I got a fictitious email saying that someone was trying to access my account and to click on the link in the email to resolve the issue. That one was a phishing scam. The next time I tried internet explorer shut down because there was a possibility that malicious software was trying to download onto my computer. Needless to say I will have to find another alternative to PayPal.

  • Tia

    Yes paypal is awful! I used to not think so until they recently let a buyer screw me over. I have a no returns policy (sorry, but it is in black and white on the auction before buying) and yet I buy insurance out of my pocket to guarantee against any damage in shipment. An item was damaged, the buyer told me how much it would cost to fix item, so I told her I would pay it…WITH proof of course. An estimate was all I needed to that I could claim it on the insurance. The buyer then threw a fit and filed a dispute with paypal. She won. Though I have my policy AND was willing to work with her so that she didn’t have any money out of pocket to get the item fixed. Now I’ve sent three different emails to paypal and all I get back are automated responses. NO ONE there will talk to me, no one will pay attention to their lack of seller protection. So now I’m out $500 because of paypal. Oh, and THEN the buyer starts to claim that she is willing to do anything so that I cannot claim the damages! So a vindictive lying b…buyer is the one that paypal helps, not the seller that has had a paypal account since they where FIRST online. Seriously.

  • Stewart?

    Here are some facts about PayPal that you may all know, by now.

    1) PayPal does not provide it’s Business Customers with any Credit Card Merchant ID’s, which in turn means that any Business using PayPal as the Card Processor, will not be able to contact American Express, Visa, and MasterCard, to verify billing and shipping information.

    2) PayPal’s Confirmed addresses, are not always verified addresses, and can be checked out, by using any of the free tools on the Internet, such as Whitepages, proving that no such person ever lived at the given addres.

    3) PayPal Merchants do not have the option to participate in the Verified by Visa, and MasterCard programs, thus hindering merchants from gaining an additional layer of security, which benefits Customer’s the same way as it does Merchants.

    4) PayPal does not provide any information, when a Chargeback is received, unless, a Merchant pursues a Court Order/Subpoena, thus ensuring that most Merchants, will not pursue any legal action, especially if a Chargeback amounts to less than a couple of hundred dollars.

    5) PayPal treats all chargebacks, the same, be it; Non-receipt, Received not as specified, or Unauthorized Charge, although an Unauthorized is something that no Merchant can fully protect themselves, no matter what measures are set in place.

    6) PayPal does not include a Address Verification System tool as a standard free tool. Merchants have to pay an additional Monthly fee + Charge to each transaction,

    Any Merchant, that feels that they were wronged, by any of the above mentioned issues, should contact their local and State Representatives.

  • Antoinette

    Paypal is great for buyers..and paypal USED to be great for sellers.. someone stole a credit card and purchsed an item from me on ebay and boy did i suffer for that..they froze my account and held $700 from me for 6 months over the whole thing..even though I wasnt the one who stole the account.. so in the meantime i took my losses for that and opened another account and thought all was jolly..was selling my behind off sending everything out then for no reason 1 month after tallying up all the money in the account paypal freezes me again for no reason at all. try to call them and sometimes you get an american whos great and helps you out the other times get some foreign who cant even spell paypal let alone work for it. i hate they only allow you to withdraw $500 a month unless you do this or that…paypal has literally stolen over $2,000 from me, i am out my product i shipped and my money.. i truly hate paypal and it really sucks that they are the only site that works so well with ebay..boy do i wish someone made an alternative to paypal that was just like them without all the freezing like they are the IRS. man i can just imagine how much money they have stolen from there loyal customers..yeah so paypal sucks and any idiot who dosent think so than needs to see the kinda crap they are pulling on sellers these days.

  • Henry

    Valerie, having info on the Paypal site is secure – as secure as storing your credit card info on Amazon, though you’ve got to do stuff on your end like set up a firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, and the like. The main complaint people have about Paypal is that accounts get frozen, seemingly for no reason. This is actually a safety net to ensure that the site is secure by weeding out illegal activity, but innocent people have had their accounts frozen. This is not a rampant problem, however, and all the Paypal scare sites (Paypalsucks, Paypalwarning.com, Aboutpaypal.org) are set up to shill for another online payment provider. Basically, you should feel just fine using Paypal.

  • Valerie

    I have heard pretty good reviews about Paypal but is it really safe having an account online with all your information on it? I feel like it would be too public!

  • Eden

    PayPal can be very handy and makes life easier when using Ebay. However, I am not a big fan of the negative issues with PayPal, therefore I try to never have more than a couple of hundred dollars in my PayPal account. I do like the cash back bonus for using the PayPal debit card and the small amount of interest you earn on your cash. Too risky to be a bank replacement or a place to keep lots of money though.

  • Ryan @ Smarter Wealth

    There is no site out there that is perfect, however PayPal comes pretty close. The fact that someone has a site out there bagging on PayPal is funny but sad. They do a really great job and have helped my business make some money.
    As a struggling (I mean budding) entrepreneur they offer a great free service (though they charge you for your transactions with people).
    I would recommend them to anyone and would shun anyone who was against them. As they would say on Charlie The Unicorn off Youtube
    “Shun the non believer”
    “Shun”
    “Shunnnnnnnnn”

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