Question about PayPal

Haruko · Post by **Haruko** » 2007-12-19 03:09pm

I'm wanting to purchase a vBulletin license (you know, vBulletin, that message board software). Anyways, one of the ways to pay is by credit card, but I guess it has to be through such services as PayPal. I chose to go with PayPal because of a personal account. Anyways, I was wondering if I should have to bother "verifying" my account with my bank account info?

CorSec · Post by **CorSec** » 2007-12-19 03:13pm

Based on perspective, this can either be a benefit or a hurdle. With a verified bank account, should your PayPal reach zero dollars it can pull from the linked account automatically. I also believe it transacts immediately, or at least very quickly and not 4 - 6 business days.

It works like an online debit card so the usual precautions would apply. Don't spend money you know you don't have.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-12-19 03:30pm

CorSec wrote:Based on perspective, this can either be a benefit or a hurdle. With a verified bank account, should your PayPal reach zero dollars it can pull from the linked account automatically. I also believe it transacts immediately, or at least very quickly and not 4 - 6 business days.

It works like an online debit card so the usual precautions would apply. Don't spend money you know you don't have.

It only withdraws money from your bank account if you authorize it though. If it's from someone attempting to withdraw it without your approval it won't do anything. The big benefit here is that if you run low on money in your Paypal account you can just authorize the purchase and it will take it out of your bank account, so you don't have to constantly keep putting money in. Also, a lot of merchants who take Paypal won't accept payments from an unverified account.

Haruko · Post by **Haruko** » 2007-12-19 04:02pm

I believe this is going to sound quite notably stupid, but I also believe--if I may borrow the Chinese proverb--that it's better to look stupid over something for five minutes than to remain stupid about it forever.

I've been reading FAQ and the User Agreement at PayPal, but, likely because my reading isn't yet complete, I'm still confused about this: let's say I verify my account (which I'm leaning more towards doing now thanks to the responses in this thread, and the benefits listed at the PayPal website), and I want to use Credit Card to purchase a vBulletin license. Well, as I said, I just want to use Credit Card, and that's not putting money into my "PayPal account" (whatever that is), but, from what I've gathered, you need to put money into your PayPal account, even if you're paying by Credit Card. So my wonder is, is this the case, and, if so, how do I add money to my PayPal account (is it drawn from the bank account)?

Perhaps the above makes it seem like I'm drooling at the mouth going "durr", but I'm not exactly sure how to frame my question more satisfactorily.

Haruko · Post by **Haruko** » 2007-12-19 04:06pm

And, just to make sure, using my Credit Card to make an online purchase, does PayPal charge a, say, yearly free for such service? If so, will they be automatically taking from my bank savings for that?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-12-19 04:22pm

Haruko wrote: I've been reading FAQ and the User Agreement at PayPal, but, likely because my reading isn't yet complete, I'm still confused about this: let's say I verify my account (which I'm leaning more towards doing now thanks to the responses in this thread, and the benefits listed at the PayPal website), and I want to use Credit Card to purchase a vBulletin license. Well, as I said, I just want to use Credit Card, and that's not putting money into my "PayPal account" (whatever that is), but, from what I've gathered, you need to put money into your PayPal account, even if you're paying by Credit Card. So my wonder is, is this the case, and, if so, how do I add money to my PayPal account (is it drawn from the bank account)?

I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but I've never been asked to put money into my Paypal account. The only time it's necessary is if you want to send someone money or buy something and don't have a debit or credit card attached to the account itself.

And, just to make sure, using my Credit Card to make an online purchase, does PayPal charge a, say, yearly free for such service? If so, will they be automatically taking from my bank savings for that?

I've had my account for years and I've never been charged for having it. The only possible reason I could see any type of charges being set up at all is if you were using it as a merchant account.

Haruko · Post by **Haruko** » 2007-12-19 05:06pm

Thanks, that helped.

I'm a community college student, making just enough money to pay for my expenses and to help pay for some of my family's expenses. I have a shared bank account with my mom, and I discussed the matter of PayPal with my mom, and she won't trust her bank account info with PayPal, and I can understand that. I don't know how I'd give assurance against such a concern. I wouldn't want to make a decision I wasn't entirely sure about either, considering the importance of such information, so I wouldn't do it even with just her consent.

I suppose I can still make the purchase using credit card but without verifying the account. I wonder why vBulletin or Jelsoft (the name of the company for that board software), requires such a "medium" as PayPal, or other, anyway, for Credit Card transactions? I'll ask them about that.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-12-19 05:15pm

The other benefit to Paypal is fraud protection. I've been burned twice by assholes on ebay who didn't ship the items I bought and got refunds each time. So in case anything fraudulent actually does occur you're pretty much guaranteed a safety-line.

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2007-12-19 07:56pm

Paypal is fine. I sell online all the damn time.

Don't fear Paypal.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2007-12-21 04:05am

General Zod wrote:The other benefit to Paypal is fraud protection. I've been burned twice by assholes on ebay who didn't ship the items I bought and got refunds each time. So in case anything fraudulent actually does occur you're pretty much guaranteed a safety-line.

Paypal doesn't offer any superior fraud protection over any other payment mechanism, nor is it particularly easier. Their dispute manual reads almost identically like the ones from Visa, Mastercard, NYCE, etc (it should because it's based on it) and you have the equivalent of chargeback ability, but the payor really doesn't get anything you can't get from any card issuing bank.

The real benefit to Paypal in fraud protection is on merchants since Paypal does some superior levels of verification on their users at the time of purchase to lessen the risk of account takeover fraud. Contrary to popular belief, the real problem with account takeover fraud is not actual account takeover but people making transactions with their credit cards or through ACH payment systems and then going into their bank and saying "I didn't do that!" which almost always gets them a refund. This is why retailers check your signature and ID before most purchases; they are actually liable for any fraudulent transactions, not the credit card companies or your issuing bank.

The benefit Paypal has is that because they do things like IP address checks, device identification (Iovation) and IVR/live callbacks they can severely lessen this kind of fraud and help with merchant chargebacks. But there really isn't any benefit to the consumer that I am aware of.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2007-12-21 04:10am

Superman wrote:Paypal is fine. I sell online all the damn time.

Don't fear Paypal.

Don't fear them, but don't think you are getting a deal either. The fees they charge receiving merchants for credit card transactions are okay, but they rob you blind on ACH. You'd be better off getting a credit card gateway like Cybersource for processing credit cards and pushing people into a Check 21 payment system to avoid the huge fees if you want to take check payments. E-check based Check 21 systems provide fully insured payments (something Paypal does not do) for a third the cost of a Paypal payment.

Granted I realize that no one has built a good system for this for tiny online merchants but for anybody with decent volumes Paypal is a ripoff.

Rightous Fist Of Heaven · Post by **Rightous Fist Of Heaven** » 2007-12-21 08:12am

Until a few months back when my credit card was automatically renewed after it expired, I was quite happy with PayPal. After that though, the fuckers really showed their wits. After I got the renewed card (same card number but new verification number), they refused to accept it to their system. They didnt mention any actual reason for this, but invited me to try another card. Frankly, at that point I told them to go fuck themselves. Having no problems whatsoever anywhere else with my current credit card, I told them rather pointedly that I wouldnt get a new credit card and pay for it just to use PayPal.