8mm Forum: PayPal. Help!!!!

This is topic PayPal. Help!!!! in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on January 05, 2005, 12:06 PM:

Being old fashioned i'm always reluctant to open up a paypal account because of problems friends of mine have had,ie, money moving without the permission of the account holder. In two cases i know my friends did lose out. I myself have no idea of how the paypal system works so i thought i'd ask all of you? [Confused]

Being a relatively new comer to the WWW i obviously want to be careful but also want to ensure i dont get left out in the cold. So tell me my mates, how does it work and how secure is thiere system work. How easy is it to get sorted? [Confused]

Posted by Mike Peckham (Member # 16) on January 05, 2005, 12:38 PM:

Tom

I actually had to ask a friend that knows about these things to sort my account for me because, like you, I'm not too good on the WWW. thing. But fingers crossed, I've used it loads and have had no problems whatever other than a scare with an email pretending to be from Pay-Pal telling me I had added a new email account.

I say go for it [Smile]

Mike

Posted by Tony Milman (Member # 7) on January 05, 2005, 02:26 PM:

Tom,

Paypal I think acts as a sort of bank. Basically, you register either a credit/debit card and /or your bank details. Paypal handle the transfer of funds between email addresses and act as an intermediary. They make their money from a combination of fees and the interest they can make on holding large credit balances. they also screw you on the exchange rates if you go from your home currency to another.

You can elect to pre-fund your paypal account with cash from your bank account or to allow them to debit your credit card. Equally, if you receive funds you can elect to leave them on your paypal account or have them sent to your bank. If you leave them on your paypal account, the next time you make a payment they will debit this surplus first before taking any shortfall from your credit card.

The risks you face are mainly

Paypal goes insolvent. If you have cash sitting in their account you will have a lot of hassle to get this out again.
If you have made a payment it is possible that the insolvency got in the way of the transmission to the recipient and so you may have to make a second payment by another means and try to cancel the first.

Paypal claim back a payment made by someone to you. I have no experience of this but it can happen if there is a dispute that is upheld

Basic rule I would say is register and use a credit card with paypal for all transactions and never use a debit card or your bank account. In this way you have a second line of defence against the credit card company. Never allow your account balance to rise too high before spending it!! (Never a problem for me)
Consider getting a credit card that is friendly towards overseas purchases such as the one I think by Nationwide Building Society- check the Saturday Times for best buys-this can make a real difference to the exchange rates.

Tom. I have used paypal for over 18 months without any problems so far and I think there are so many users now that it is unlikely to be going this long if it were iffy. The access control is a standard user name and password over a secure server and is not the strongest in the world but as I say so long as you ignore the spoof emails you should be OK.

But then, I am in no position to advise.....

Tony

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on January 05, 2005, 02:43 PM:

Appreciate the advise from both thank you. Oddly enough the problem you mention about possible payment back to the other person without knoledge of the seller is what happened to both my freinds, i shall have some thoughts first. [Wink]

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on January 05, 2005, 02:44 PM:

Appreciate the advise from both thank you. Oddly enough the problem you mention about possible payment back to the other person without knoledge of the seller is what happened to both my freinds, i shall have some thoughts first. [Wink]

I understand a company called no cheques which is similar but is british therefore use British law protection is another option, dont know any one who has used this one thoough.

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