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PayPal opinions?

CelticRose

Graduate Poster
CelticRose
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
1,617
Location
Mesa, AZ
I'm thinking about setting up a PayPal account to receive payments for doing online surveys (if the survey company checks out -- I'm still researching them), and I'd like to hear opinions on the safety and reliability of PayPal. I plan to link it to a bank account (one that I set up just for iffy transactions that I keep almost no money in), transfer any funds received in PayPal to the bank account.

I'm finding differing opinions online. Some people have used the for years and find them reliable, and others have had bad experiences with PayPal freezing their accounts. I've also noticed some sites devoted to bashing PayPal, but they all seem to have the same verbiage and have convenient links to another service. :rolleyes:

What does everyone think? Any issues I should know about?

Thanks. :)
 
I've casually used PayPal for years to pay eBay and certain other sites. I've never had any issue with them.
Interface warning, though -- although they will let you pay a retailer through a credit card, they always default to paying through your bank account.
 
CelticRose said:
I'm thinking about setting up a PayPal account to receive payments for doing online surveys (if the survey company checks out -- I'm still researching them), and I'd like to hear opinions on the safety and reliability of PayPal. I plan to link it to a bank account (one that I set up just for iffy transactions that I keep almost no money in), transfer any funds received in PayPal to the bank account.

I'm finding differing opinions online. Some people have used the for years and find them reliable, and others have had bad experiences with PayPal freezing their accounts. I've also noticed some sites devoted to bashing PayPal, but they all seem to have the same verbiage and have convenient links to another service. :rolleyes:

What does everyone think? Any issues I should know about?

Thanks. :)
Click to expand...

Yes. The one I underlined. This has scam written all over it.
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
CelticRose said:
I'm thinking about setting up a PayPal account to receive payments for doing online surveys (if the survey company checks out -- I'm still researching them), and I'd like to hear opinions on the safety and reliability of PayPal. I plan to link it to a bank account (one that I set up just for iffy transactions that I keep almost no money in), transfer any funds received in PayPal to the bank account.

I'm finding differing opinions online. Some people have used the for years and find them reliable, and others have had bad experiences with PayPal freezing their accounts. I've also noticed some sites devoted to bashing PayPal, but they all seem to have the same verbiage and have convenient links to another service. :rolleyes:

What does everyone think? Any issues I should know about?

Thanks. :)
Click to expand...

Yes. The one I underlined. This has scam written all over it.
Click to expand...
Yes, I just finished checking that site out. They require you to sign up for their advertisers offers before they will pay you for the surveys. :rolleyes:

I've met people who are actually making money from online surveys, so there are a few legit ones out there, but obviously this wasn't one of them. Don't worry, I plan to check everything out thoroughly before agreeing to anything.

I'd still like to hear about PayPal though, in case I decide to use it in the future.

JWideman said:
Don't link paypal to your bank account. Ugh.
Click to expand...
Why?
 
I've used PayPal for years, had it hooked to my bank account, and have few complaints. I've been using them since the days when they were just a side project of the online bank X.com, which I was also a customer of.

Regarding account freezes; I've had this happen exactly once. The reason for it is that PayPal is extremely paranoid when it comes to the possibility of fraud; they take the "freeze first, ask questions later" approach. (This is not limited to PayPal; my first TAM was temporarily interrupted when Bank of America froze my debit card because of the "unusual" transactions in Vegas.)

That approach has its good points and bad points; I'm happy to know that if my account were compromised, there's a good chance PayPal would limit the damage post-haste. On the other hand, when they get a false positive, it's a mild PITA to get through to someone and have your account un-frozen.
 
Paypal in itself I find secure, and use it often to receive and make payments. Have done so for several years.

The potential danger lies with you, the user. Phishing attempts, site hijacking, etc need to be understood and avoided. Someone with your username and password could use Paypal to transfer funds from your bank account into Paypal, then make a payment to themselves or a third party.

Paypal does use email confirmation to notify all transactions, so that needs to be monitored. Gmail (Settings, Labs) has an "Authentication icon for verified senders" option that helps identify Paypal messages. Even then, good practice to never click on any links in email to your account, only go directly to the site (via Favorites or typing into address bar).

Good policy is to set up a Paypal-specific account at your bank. Transfer funds into it just before making a payment online. Anyone getting your Paypal details then would only get access to extremely limited funds, if any.
 
From what I have heard, the hassles people have with Paypal are no worse than the hassles people have from banks.

And, from my point of view, Paypal is much more secure than a bank. When you receive or send money through paypal, the only information that the other party has is your shipping address and email address. They never get to see your Credit Card Number or Bank Account Number. And no one can receive money from your Paypal without explicit authorization.

When dealing with potentially shady types, it's the best way to go that I have found.
 
I have had a Paypal account linked to my bank account for many years and use it frequently without any problems. There are always horror stories from other though.
 
I have also had Paypal linked to my bank account for years, and have absolutely no complaints. In fact, they frequently phone us for verification whenever they think they see something unusual; we've never had our account frozen.

One really convenient feature is an add-on which lets you use Paypal to charge purchases to one-purchase-only virtual Mastercards, for buying from outfits that don't accept Paypal. I use thiis feature all the time.
 
I have an account for as long as I can remember (around 10 years?) I started early because at that time I was busy buying tradable card game cards and this was an excellent way to do US - Europe payments.

I have no complains. Got ripped off once by an Ebay auction, but Paypal mailed me that they thought the seller was a hacker, even before I could complain that anything fishy was going on. Got my money back.
 
I've had an account for about 8 years and I've never had a problem but I only use it to sent payment not receive. For what it is worth here's a site that might give you some insight into what people don't like about PayPal.

http://www.paypalsucks.com/
 
We use PayPal to process credit cards for our online business and have no complaints.

When I first started using PayPal, I kept a chunk of my "liquid" savings in my PayPal account because the interest they paid was higher than my money market account at my credit union was paying.

With interest rates so low right now (.05% at PayPal and 0.00% at my credit union) it's not worth the slight inconvenience.

-- Roger
 
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Thanks for all the good information, folks. :) If I find I need a service like this, I'll probably use PayPal, bearing in mind the caveats, of course.

Hlafordlaes said:
The potential danger lies with you, the user. Phishing attempts, site hijacking, etc need to be understood and avoided. Someone with your username and password could use Paypal to transfer funds from your bank account into Paypal, then make a payment to themselves or a third party.

Paypal does use email confirmation to notify all transactions, so that needs to be monitored. Gmail (Settings, Labs) has an "Authentication icon for verified senders" option that helps identify Paypal messages. Even then, good practice to never click on any links in email to your account, only go directly to the site (via Favorites or typing into address bar).
Click to expand...
Yes, that's always good policy to follow, and I do. There are too many scams out there.

Good policy is to set up a Paypal-specific account at your bank. Transfer funds into it just before making a payment online. Anyone getting your Paypal details then would only get access to extremely limited funds, if any.
Click to expand...
I'm ahead of you on that one. I've already got a bank account set up for iffy transactions. I keep very little money in it, so if anyone decides to clean it out they won't get much. ;)

GanipGnop said:
For what it is worth here's a site that might give you some insight into what people don't like about PayPal.

http://www.paypalsucks.com/
Click to expand...
Good grief! That site looks like some of the woo sites: lots of exclamation points make it true, you know. :rolleyes: It also has convenient links to www.merchantinc.com. :rolleyes:

Here's a couple more sites I found that are like that one. Notice the same "note from the editor" on both sites and the convenient links to alternatives to PayPal. :rolleyes:
http://www.aboutpaypal.org/
http://www.paypalwarning.com/

See why I came to JREF for good information? :D
 
I use paypal for my business (and also for ebay purchases) and have had no problems. They appear to err onthe side of caution a lot more than my bank does and their communication is a lot faster.

steve
 
I've had a PayPal account for years, and had my account frozen in 2003.

I was in breech of their terms and conditions because I was living in Malta while my PayPal account was linked to a bank account in Australia. I ran an Internet business at the time, and PayPal was my main payment processor. They were holding significant funds, so I was forced to return to Australia, get proof of address, and fax it to them. The funds were released on the same day I sent the fax.

I don't understand why PayPal objected to my desire to travel the world while using their service and linking it to a bank account in Australia - but there you go.

I've read all sorts of horror stories about PayPal. Given my experience, I suspect some of them may be exagerrated.
 
I've used PayPal for years to make and receive a variety of payments (including from online survey companies and various other similar activities), and never had any difficulties. I've had it linked to my checking account for most of that time.

The biggest problem I have is when my son sends me the rent payment and doesn't click the right options, and I get nicked for their stupid 3% fee. But that's not their fault, it's my son's fault.
 
megaresp said:
I don't understand why PayPal objected to my desire to travel the world while using their service and linking it to a bank account in Australia - but there you go.
Click to expand...

I'll bet you didn't give them advance warning of your move and, when they saw something unusual... I don't expect to use Paypal on TAA5, but you can bet I'm going to notify my regular credit card company ahead of time.
 
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