PayPal Skandalis bastards

[Robert Butler]

Hey people, I've had enough of paypal and there fine print so that they can screw with your money.  Before, I made too much money so they limited my account to be sure i wasnt scaming people.  Took care of that.  Now they are putting a limit on the money for 21 days to be sure people have a chance to do refunds if they want.  There such skandalis bastards.  Is there any alternatives to paypal? 

[Derek]

The only reason I use them is because there is no alternative! When I was 17, I made an account not realizing you had to be 18.. I had the account for months and made hundreds of dollars and then they randomly froze my account. I called and argued with them about 10 different times. All I wanted to do was delete my account and take MY money and they wouldn't let me. I had to wait half a year to get my money I earned because I accidentally made an account when I was 17. Screw you payola.

[Kanped]

http://www.worldpay.com/
http://www.moneybookers.com/app/
http://www.webdistortion.com/2010/07/28/paypal-alternatives-e-commerce/

There's lots of (IMO, much better) alternatives.  I think PayPal is a scam.

[munro159]

They put any payment I recieve from ebay on hold also.  Either wait 21 days, recieve positive feedback, or after they confirm the order has been delivered(assuming there is no problem with the order) before my money becomes available. I have no idea why they did this. I have a 100% approval rating.  When I called to ask them why, The only response I got was "they periodically place payment holds on accounts that have alot of activity" and "they will review my account in the future and may take the hold off".  In other words..."We're not going to tell you anything".  IMO this all has something to do with them keeping more funds deposited in paypal.  I'm sure they invest the money somehow you have deposited with them.

[Robert Butler]

 Yep!  My point exactly!  They love to put a hold on money for almost any reason.  A good scam IMO would be to hold it so you can earn interest with it.  Making money off of some one else's money.   
 
 Fucking irritates me to death
 

[munro159]

I don't understand why they just don't set a minimum account balance to take the hold off your account.  Keep a minimum of $250 in your account and get your money immediately. If you drop below that or recieve complaints, your money gets held for a length of time.  In other words, sort of like the banks are doing now with their free checking.

[Robert Butler]

Well that would be useful but eco card clips are producing money beyond 250$ and this simply is not a solution

[munro159]

Yeah I was just brainstorming. If they are holding all payments into your account, I don't understand because they only hold money that comes into my account from ebay.  For instance, If I sent you an invoice through paypal they wouldn't hold the money you sent to me. Strange!

[xela]

Upgrade to a business account so you have no limits. The only real problem with PayPal is that their buyer protection is ridiculous. They do NOT encourage communication with the seller, and do not try and resolve the problem civilly. Instead, they just refund the money to the buyer and let the buyer keep the item.

Hence why I only sell on PayPal when I know who I am selling to so that if a scam occurs, you can actually make people aware of a scamming buyer.

[Evan]

I had one problem with them and they had to review some payment... for a week!
But other than that, I've had no problems so I don't think they are unreliable

[Joshua Robinson]

For me, because i have my Debit card connected up, it takes 1 week to transfer it over then another1-2 weeks to clear and i can spend it!!

[moonexe]

Five, the transfer time is normal. They can't let you spend money you don't have, so they need to compelte the transfer before letting you spend it. If you had a credit card linked to it, though, the transfer would be instant because the credit card would give them sort of a guaranteed backup source in case your bank refuses the transfer or you just don't have the money.

As for the hold on the earnings, as Alex said, you can have a business account. Making a lot of money on a "buyer" account is actually pretty suspicious, so they obviously need to verify that the money doesn't come from a scam.

Oh yeah, and it's spelled "Scandalous", not "Skandalis".

[Don Boyer]

Oh yeah, and it's spelled "Scandalous", not "Skandalis".

I was wondering when someone would point that out!

In simplest terms, PayPal makes money from "float" just as banks and any company issuing gift cards, transit cards, etc. with a cash value.  Float is interest earned from short-term loans to other financial institutions and businesses.  The longer they keep unspent, unwithdrawn cash value, the more money they make off the float from that money.  From there, it's a natural progression for them to create policies that either hold up your money for assorted reasons or "encourage" you to upgrade to a paid Business account.  Why do you think Free Checking with no minimum balance or payroll auto-deposit went the way of the dodo bird?

[Kanped]

http://www.nochex.com/

Looks like a very good alternative.  MagicNevin.co.uk use it as an alternative to PayPal for UK customers (but it seems that they can do international as well).  IMO, WorldPay still has the best reputation but I think that's just because they're relatively popular.

[John B.]

i only made a paypal account for ebay and when i buy stuff it takes it straight from my debit card. but i dont like paypal either. just seems like they want to be linked to your bank account and i feel that would be to easy to just take your money.

[Don Boyer]

For basic, ordinary use - paying for eBay and the odd purchase elsewhere, and once in a while, collecting a few bucks - I've had no problems with PayPal.  But if I was planning to do a lot of sales in eBay, I might get a pro account, judging from the hassles others have had.

And yes, I have my checking account linked to my PayPal.  It makes me a Verified user, as in I'm not some creep running a scam from Justanotherstan with a shell account, but I'm a real person with a real and known identity and credit history.  Perhaps linking your checking account will smooth over some of your transactions?