Paypal Rant! Giving Access To My Bank Account!

[Jayba]

Well I went to make a purchase to an online fish suplier today. It came to roughly $261. I went to pay it with my Pay Pal Account and appearently this transaction puts me over my SENDING Limit, not credit limit....a sending limit. My account is set up through a credit card, therefore as far as PayPal is concerned has a $0.00 balance. Why should they limit what I spend? Frankly it's none of their business.

I contacted customer service and was told that I would have to "Link" a bank account to verify my identity. Frankly, who cares as my account has always been paid, regardless if it is verified or not!

I proceeded to close my PayPal account. Why do I need to loose the protection my credit card gives by using it? Not to mention reward dollars. PayPal simply is the go between me and the seller, and as a matter of fact has been useless when it comes to disputes.

I made an online purchase for $140 to buy some fish related stuff, needless to say it didn't arrive. PaypPal was able to recover $4.26 for me. (Wow, thanks for the help guys....I could have gone to work for 4 minutes and saved myself the trouble of dealing with PayPal!)

If Mastercard charges PayPal nearly 3% and they charge the seller 3% for the transaction, that is where they make their money. Seems like they want to make up that margin they are giving away to the credit card companies. If they aren't making enough to keep the stakeholders happy they should diversify, make some aqusitions etc.

Now they want to directly take the money from my bank account, cut out the middle man and pocket the profits. A quick Google shows plenty of horror stories, of charges, holds etc. There is little recourse if this happens, as you give them permission to debit your account as they see fit, and frankly I give NO ONE pemission to debit my bank accounts without a signed authorization form with the amount to be debited. Sure this would be a rarity, but hey, its the principle of the matter. Especially someone not regulated by the government, it is a business agreement between you and them. It's like being a bank with no regulation governing your actions.....nice.

They are now on my list of Companies that can screw themselves......along with Air Canada.

What are your thoughts?

Edited March 7, 2013 by Jayba

[SuperGuppyGirl]

Have no desire to use, to many horror stories. I prefer email debit myself if they can't accept a prepaid m/c or visa.

[rodsboys]

I could add a few horror stories, but I don't have the time right now. They are greedy bastards hands down. Ebay owns them so when you sell on Ebay you have Ebay fees, fees on the shipping you charge, paypal fees to receive the money, and another Paypal fee to transfer to your account and heaven forbid they have to "exhange" the money for you before they transfer it to you. Their exchange rates are significantly lower than they should be.

[Tigs]

Hmm I've used them quick successfully for some time, might have to take a closer look

Cheers,

[blink]

Eh, paypal isn't all that bad, compared to the alternatives (from both seller and buyer sides)

In my opinion if a business is big enough to directly take a major credit card WTH would you use paypal?

But what happens to Joe Ordinary and his home business when he can't afford the monthly charges to accept major credit cards?

Well, there is paypal, which is standardized and fairly safe

There is email debit, which has ZEEEEROOH buyer protection (just ask me how I found that out)

There is money order/cheque via mail, it's slow as hell but USPS and Canada Post will typically get it there eventually AND if someone does rip you off they will go after them for mail fraud... it's a pain in the butt, but it can be done.

I've tried all of the above and I still keep my paypal account open, granted, it's linked to a bank account that never has any significant balance in it, but it works and they will at least try to get your money back in a dispute.

Once you verify your paypal account by linking it to a sacrificial bank account they remove your sending limit so you can use credit cards to your hearts desire.

I guess what I'm trying to say is get along by going along... play by the rules and guidelines and paypal is a fine service. Sure you pay for it, but name me a similar service that works and is free or cheaper??? I pretty much guarantee you won't find anything as universally accepted and as functional that costs less and operates better.

[ckmullin]

I've used paypal for years and never had a problem with them. There have been 3 instances where product has not arrived and I received 100% full cost + original shipping charges credited back to my account with quite a helpful attitude. I don't use the bank account as payment but a credit card as a payment as I've found it's another layer if something goes wrong with a transaction...both paypal and the credit company can be contacted so it will double your chance to get a full refund. I assume paypal wants a bank account because it is too easy to create a credit card and commit fraud...they want 100% bonafide proof to show who you are as they want zero risk.

I do mostly agree with blink as this is a world wide tested system of payment...it will a very long time before there is anything close.

[t-man]

I too use paypal and never had problems as stated previously by "BLINK" if you "play by the rules and guidelines then paypal is a fine service"

I use paypal as it's safer then buying with a credit card for me as I have never done a transaction without suppling the 3 digit code on the back to the seller. Which is scary and not safe what so ever!! Now you are at the seller's mercy to charge you when,how much and you are just hoping they aren't going to screw you.

I just had this happen to me a week ago so here is the story.... I have ordered a couple times from a fish food supplier in the U.S. using paypal and money just comes out of my bank account via paypal. Seller doesn't see any of my banking info! Now after a couple orders I think everything is safe and the guy is honest so I put in another order this time using my credit card over the phone to make it quicker. I give him my information off my credit card including the 3 digit security number on the back. He says everything is in stock so I am expecting my order no later then 2 weeks. So far everything has gone good on my last 2 orders so what could go wrong??? Well 2 weeks passed and no food! I tried phoning him and emailing him with no luck. Left messages about how I am out of food and need this order ASAP. Finally I just phone and leave a message to cancel my order if he can't ship it out ASAP. After, I was thinking to myself and I realized I have no invoice and everything was done over the phone so what's stopping this guy from just taking my money without sending anything. So I get my wife to call one day when I was at work. She got a hold of him and asked if my food has been shipped. The guy said I thought your husband cancelled his order and she replies only if you can't ship it ASAP. She expalins to him that I haven't been able to get a hold of him to see what's going on with the order. He tells her it's going out and he will call back with a tracking number. Well he didn't phone back, go figure!! I call him the next day and he tells me the order was already been shipped and that he would send the tracking number to my email account. I get the email the next day and enter in the tracking number on USPS website and this is what it basically said,"The shipper has notified USPS that they will be dropping off a parcel". I wait a couple more days and they same message keeps coming up so this is turning out to be a bogus tracking number. I go back to phoning and emailing him and this goes on for another week. I finally get a hold of him and explain the tracking number isn't working and where is my food. He proceeds to give me another tracking number over the phone which isn't the same as the first one he gave me. So I make him hold on the phone while I check it out and the same message comes up on USPS. I asked him what's going on with this order as the tracking numbers aren't the same and the package hasn't even left yet!! He basically has no explanation but insists it's on the way. Well the light bulb is starting to come on for me!! LOL This guy is just stalling for some reason. Well after I hang up I wait one more day to give him the benfit of the doubt but still no progress on the new tracking number so I phone him back and leave a message to cancel my order as the tracking numbers are bogus. I then have to cancel my credit card as this seller has all my info to charge me as he sees fit. Thankfully in the end nothing was charged to my credit card. I was just lucky this time around!!

Next day I source a new seller and order my food and pay via paypal and within a week I receive my shipment.

SCORE!!!

I am never again giving my credit card info out over the phone!!!!!!!!!!!! I will continue to use paypal until it deems fit not to be a wise choice.

Edited March 8, 2013 by t-man

[ckmullin]

t-man, glad you had no trouble with that guy since you gave the csv code.

To anyone and everyone DO NOT EVER give that 3 digit code over the phone!!!

[t-man]

I have never really done any transactions over the phone with my credit card until this episode as I have always used paypal in the past. I never really had the need to order anything online with my card until I realized everything to do with fish keeping is cheaper online!! So now I hardly ever go to the lfs as I can just order fish,food and equipment online as it's cheaper.

I have been told by sellers that they can't charge the credit card without that code. So how is a credit card transaction supposed to be done over the phone?

Edited March 8, 2013 by t-man

[Jayba]

I have a problem after 10 years of perfect service would I have to give permission to anyone to debit my bank? I can appreciate risk, for the last few years my job is to evaluate risk on a corporate level.

I originally started to use PayPal as a buffer between me and a seller. My personal information for the most part is mute ooint as i pay with a credit card. Paypal gets paid immediately, My address is forwarded to the seller. Simple.

My banking information with regard to the situation is irrelivent. All PayPal is doing is leveraging to gain the losses back from the credit card companies.

I play by the rules, have exceptionally good credit and pay up immediately. There is no reason on my end to forfeit any information. More and more credit card companies are pushing the online purchase protection, so that you use their card, and potentially not Paypal. I will go this route. I appearently have bought almost $12k worth of crap I didn't need off EBay. Lol.

Just for giggles I looked at a bunch of sites I frequently order from and they all have alternative ways to pay. Ken's fish, angelfins, and others can look after my needs. Also in Canada we have interac transfer to send money so it's all good. I will deal with real companies and avoid the little guy making a buck out if his living room.

As far as going with the flow because that's the way it is, nah. The only fish that go with the flow are dead ones.