PayPal is clumsy

[pecunium]

I just set up a PayPal account. It wasn't all that hard, but there were a couple of annoying hoops. To recieve money (at least as it looked to me) I had to do the verify your account dance.

But, as I found out when I got paid for the prints I've sold (and many thanks to those who have bought them) I found out the money doesn't go directly to the bank, but to a holding account at PayPal. Which has a $500 limit on withdrawals per month.

To get past that limit you have to give them your social, or a credit/debit card number. What that actually does, I have no idea.

That's not the clumsy I am concerned with. I would be surprised to discover any of you who haven't had a "phishing expedition" to your email claiming to be from PayPal, and asking for your information.

PayPal, when you do each of these steps tells you to never give your password to anyone. It also tells you to never click through a link, but to always open a new tab/window, and type in the URL.

So what did they do at east step of these procedures (which require you to give them information from things they do with your bank account. To set up the account they send you about $.50, and to raise the limit they borrow $1.95)?

The included an URL to PayPal.

If they were being smart they wouldn't do that, and people wouldn't be so inclined to click trhough. Which would reduce the effectiveness of the phishing expeditions.

Comments

[rubin110.livejournal.com]

Watch out what you sign up for to get over that $500 limit per month. Switching your account to something that has some buzz word like premium or pro attached to "account" means they take a percentage away from your incoming cash flow. They don't to word this out in ways where you wont even notice, and when you do it's incredibly hard to find the page on Paypal that'll revert your account back to normal.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

No, it's actually pretty simple. (I looked at, really carefully).

If you have a basic account, they don't charge for PayPal to PayPal purchases. Which is fine, if you, or your customers, are doing a lot of PayPal/e-Bay. (I say fine, because if you actually want to use the money to do something like buy food, or more supplies; it's not doing you any good in the PayPal account).

So, if you switch to a Business Acc't (which is what I set up), you pay 1.9-2.9 percent (+$.30 per transaction, which is really annoying at lower value sales, but you make your choices and live with the results) on everything.

If I didn't have a business acc't I could only accept 12 credit/debit card purchases per month, and the rate would be 4.9 percent (+$.30) per transaction.

Which is a much larger bite, and hurts more at larger sales.

All in all, I can live with the smaller (but accross the board) bite.

Not least because I figure the money is doing my business more good in my Credit Union, where it collects interest, and makes me look better when I apply for things like Business Loans, or a Car Loan, or a Mortgage, or some such.

Instead of PayPal collecting that interest, on my money.

[ms-tek.livejournal.com]

I really hate pay pal.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

"you have to give them your social, or a credit/debit card number."

They want to be able to claw back the money if there's a credit-card chargeback or a dispute.

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

Oh! Does this mean that my (still late, sorry, I KNOW I suck) payment can be paypal-ed? Then you'll get it TODAY.

I really love those blue feet.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever had a single phishing email purporting to be from PayPal. Ebay, on the other hand...

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'd say about 30/70 PayPal/eBay. The eBay ones tend to be dumber (with a capital UMB), telling me they've not receieved the thing, or that they will leave bad feedback if I don't talk to them.

And they have a link.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yes, we can do that. It's on the way now... I finally got to the framer to have him pack it for shipping.

I'll send you an invoice.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

How does my social make it possible to recoup the money?

I'd figure they'd put a clause in the contract which allows them to garnish payment, with interest, until disputes are resolved.

With a clause about binding arbitration, and fees to be paid by the loser, etc..

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I don't know. If I were them, though, I'd use your social to file a complaint in your credit record about a bad debt.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Maybe. I don't know enough about that to be sure. If it was the buyer dicking with me, I'll wager I could get it expunged.

I'd also wager, that so long as I was careful, I could get my lawyer to make them pay for it if it weren't my fault.

But that's a bunch of stuff I hope never to have to worry about.

What cracks me up

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

is getting PayPal phishing emails to my yahoo mail account. Which I don't use for PayPal...

Seriously, except for notice of a sale/payment, I ignore pretty much any email about PayPal and go directly to my account if I think it might be important.

Just saying. I''m pretty small peanuts, AfterHoursStudios, my new Etsy account, has only sold supplies so far.

And the KC in 2006/2009 bid, our accountant would do the transfer before the amount got over the $500. Still, we did not have that much PayPal usage there.

Re: What cracks me up

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am more amused. I got them before I had an account.

Then to accounts I didn't have linked.

But the 500 is a monthly cap, so doing it early, or late, is all the same.

TK

[iggyspawn.livejournal.com]

I'd wager the SSN request is a tax and or money laundering issue. Much as a bank will report large cash deposits to the IRS.

Paypal has no trouble pulling money IN instantly so I find there's no good reason to maintain a balance in my account. When I get money in I immediately transfer it to a checking account. It still "costs" me a couple days interest since money OUT is decisively not instant but my loses are trivial. Paypal seems to have a profit model built around milking the interest on transactions in flight, thus the pay out delays.

I use two separate accounts, it's a clumsy solution but I use paypal infrequently enough that it's not a deal breaker. I default to using my personal account so that I don't get dinged for every transaction and only give people the pro account when they want to pay via credit card. Accounts are based on email address, and it's not like it's hard to get new email addresses. The only sticking point here is that bank accounts attached to paypal must be unique. It's also not impossible to have multiple bank accounts, though I some times end up needing to physically transfer money from one account to the other as part of my Paypal hassle SOP, bleh.

[(Anonymous)]

As I understand it, when the volume of money or transactions gets high enough, either ebay or paypal sends you a 1099 at the end of the year. For that, an SSN is needed.

Whether or not thats the reason they want it or what else it gets used for, I dont know. I've never had enough transactions to need to upgrade. I have however had to do the authorization dance; for a PO box address. Bloody hassle that was....

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

What I don't see is how (apart, perhaps, from the SSN) is how that really works to do anything. I thought that was it, but... all those things link to things the bank in question already has.

I'm actually going to have to open a new account with my credit union, so I can keep the books from getting tangled. I can move money inside the credit union with no problem.

And yes, for all they blame my bank, so far as I can tell (from how my bank behaves with all other deposits, I think PayPal is delaying to get interest, and I take it out as soon as it comes in.

I also think they take advantage of being international to milk the difference in exchange rates to get money both ways, and the 2.5 percent fee.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

But for that, they'd need it when the need for the 1099 surfaces, not when I've built up more than $500 in a month.

I really do wonder what they are getting out of it.