Pay Pal credit card avoidance

[Riverkilt]

I use Pay Pal a lot buying kilts, especially for Canada. Like it. But notice they are incredibly manipulative in trying to avoid having me pay them from a credit card.

Whenever I do that a message comes up with a long pitch saying "Are you sure you wanna use a credit card?" and the choice button is already highlighted for "No."

Its a pain and I gotta be careful as I navigate through their various screens to get the job done.

Only reason I can figure that they'd care at all is maybe they have to pay a fee to the credit card company? Just seems like a lot of hassle...WHY can't they just do what I tell them to do in the first place and not question my judgement?

I use a credit card to order with because of the protection. Its a card with my bank so I can pay off what I just ordered from my bank account without exposing it to the Internet...or leave the charge on the card for a while.

Guess I really hate their implicaton that I'm stupid.

Ron

[David in Maryland]

What they really want you to do is give them your bank account number and such.

[davedove]

I don't want to put words in their mouth, but a big part of the reason is the very protection you talk about. If it's put on a credit card, you can always dispute the charge with the credit card company, possibly delaying the payment, or even avoiding it. With the bank account, the money is withdrawn immediately and is a lot harder to reverse.

Now if it were the individual vendors, I could understand that better, as they are often small businesses with tight cash flows. But this is Paypal itself doing this.

I feel the same frustration of always having to answer, "Yes, I'm sure I want to put it on a credit card."

[clancelt]

Actually there is a more evil reason for this. I have delt with Paypal on this issue before, and in fact I do believe they were sued because of their credit card antics.

See, when you by something via paypal they are acting as the seller's agent. Visa/Mastercard have VERY strong consumer protections and Paypal must agree to abide by them if they are to take them as a form of payment.

When you pay via credit card Paypal agrees that if for any reason(and there are a lot) you are not happy with the deal they will cover the cost when you do a chargeback through the card company(Evil term for vendors, I know)

Basically, as a buyer your butt is covered if you charge it. Paypal will have to go after the guy that stiffed you and you have your money back very quickly.

Now if you fall for that crap they feed you about using your bank account, guess who's court the ball is in if the deal goes sour? Paypal already has your money and you really have no way to get it back other than playing by Paypal's rules, i.e. making a claim via the paypal claim method, and even then they have a limit as to how much you get back.

Plus, you have to meet the requirements to even file a claim. Was the email you sent the money to the same as the ebay account? If not, too bad.. that is one of the rules, no money back for you!

USE YOUR CREDIT CARD IF YOU CAN!

If something goes wrong all you have to do is call your card company and in most cases you have your money back in a couple days and Paypal can worry about cleaning up the mess, not you.

[Graham]

I won't touch PayPal any more, they messed me around a lot trying to buy kilts. They kept telling me I was out of credit and had to use another card (I have only one) even tho' there was plenty of money in my card (I use a debit, rather than credit card).

Paypal stink, they are a waste of time.

[Bob C]

I've used PayPal for dozens of Ebay purchases. I've never encountered the problems you folks mention.

I DO tire of their pitch to "get verified" by giving them a bank account number. I'm not about to do that.

[clancelt]

I've used PayPal for dozens of Ebay purchases. I've never encountered the problems you folks mention.

I DO tire of their pitch to "get verified" by giving them a bank account number. I'm not about to do that.

Don't get me wrong, out of hundreds of dealings with them I have only had ONE issue. I had all of my bases covered and got my money back but only after being put through the ringer. They did everything to get out of giving me my money back(Paid via my bank account, last time EVER for that on a purchase for more than 50 bucks).

For a big purchase, like a kilt, use your Visa or Mastercard. If the deal goes south all you will have to do is call your card company. Not do the paypal paperwork dance.

My bad deal was with a "Verified" paypal member for a $400 canvas tent. Turns out he had more than one "verified" account and was screwing people left and right. He just kept sandbagging on the delivery until you were past the time to file a valid claim with Paypal. I was in contact with a few of the other people he hosed and they told me that Paypal basically told them "Too bad, you are past the time to file a complaint"

I think at the time it was like 60 days. (Most card companies give you a year), so on day 59 I filed my complaint. Long story short, after a threat to sue them I got my money back.

[David Thornton]

I have collected about 275 hunting related books for my liabrary. A lot of them over the net, through auctions, or from used book dealers world wide. It took me three years to get the base, still adding some of the harder to find ones. I have first edition Roosebvelts, Hemmingways, etc.
Without paypal this would not have been possible.
I did get on a first name basis with one dealer and used my credit card direct with him. When his system crashed a lot of charges were put on my card. Eventually got that corrected.
But, I never had one problem with paypal.
Sorry to hear about your problem, but I don't think it's malicious. They have been extremely helpful with me.
David

[David Thornton]

Admin, we need a spell check!

That's Roosevelt, sorry fat fingers

[LordDamax]

Paypal forces you to use a bank account for one reason. Money.

When they charge your credit card, they pay a 2.2% fee to Visa/MC/whoever. It's likely lower than 2.2% as they do such a massive volume (volume discount) but 2.2% is pretty much the standard.

Every time money is moved inside paypal to a Permiere or Business account, paypal skims 2.9% off the top. Now, for a credit card payment, I understand that. They pay 2.2% and want to make a profit. Thats cool. I'm all for capatalism.

Personal accounts have no receive money fees. But, personal accounts cannot accept credit card payments. Again, I get that. They'd pay 2.2% to the credit card company, and they'd not recoup that cost.

So, why 'force' a bank account transaction? Because paypal skims 2.9% off ALL money going to a Premiere or Business account REGARDLESS of the source. If you own a Primere account and a seperate Business account, and you move $100 from one to the other, you'll have $97.10. Move it back, $94.28, move it again, $91.54 - ad infinitum until you have no money.

So if they "make" you use a bank account they clear a cool 2.9% on every transaction. Every time you use a credit card you slam the hell out of paypal's profits.

Personally, paypal is the devil incarnate and I despise it with all passion I can muster. Unfortunately, they are THE online payment solution. There are others, smaller, unknowns... untrustworthy... (if its possible to be more untrustworthy than paypal) and no one uses them. Everyone uses paypal, so I suck it up and hate them while I do it.

I've been screwed so many times by paypal, to the tune of $1100 out of MY pocket and Paypal says "Oops sorry, too bad for you"

Bah now I'm just ranting. My only advice here: If you sell on ebay using paypal NEVER ship to an unconfirmed address. If you do, and the buyer is fraudulent, paypal's policy is short and sweet: They take the money back from you, and too f'ing bad. I had this happen to me, and I had the fraud's name, home address, home phone number, etc... gave it all to paypal, they actually told me "We're not interested. We returned the funds to the victim (the guy who's credit card was stolen). If you'd like to persue this on your own, feel free. We're done."