Any Others Had Paypal Problems?

[Big Bobs Domains]

Just Wondering if others have had any problems with them, i have an account that i guess is going to be closed by them simply becasue i sold an adult domain/website and used them for payment, i had a large sum of cash in there and i would hope i will get it returned.
Bob

 

[GT Web]

I thought they charged a $500 fee to anyone that made an adult sale and recieved payment with their service...

In my experience with them, if your account gets closed then you wont get you money back...that is why I always transfer funds to my bank account and never leave over $100 in my Paypal account

 

[doubledee999]

never leave over $100 in my Paypal account

agree with this

 

[alldig]

You guys are getting me paranoid. I just did a paypal withdrawal back to my bank account :approve:

 

[GiantDomains]

Never leave money in an account that is not FDIC insured.

 

[Domagon]

And never link PayPal to any REAL bank account...

PayPal will withdraw funds from a linked bank account if one has a negative balance, especially if one has recently withdrawn money - the ACH (Automated Clearing House) system allows reversals, and the sender of the ACH is given the benefit of the doubt - most folks (speaking of the U.S.) who withdraw funds electronically from PayPal into their bank account don't realize that such transactions are NOT final for 60 calendar days; don't think that changed - time for disputing checks changed, but that's not ACH, but I digress.

Some may think ok, a separate linked bank account is the solution ... not exactly ...

1. often folks mistakengly believe having a separate savings acct, etc at the same bank and/or at a different bank branch of their bank protects them ... NOT!

--A seperate account with a totally different bank will offer some additional protection, but not much more in the whole scope of things ...

2. mistakeningly believing maintaining a low bank account balance will prevent PayPal from doing an ACH withdrawal (and/or via other methods - read the fine print in PayPal's TOS!) ... it's possible to end up with a very negative bank balance ... when that happens one has to fight for the transaction to be reversed ... good luck, for like I said above, the sender is given the benefit of the doubt - an ACH can most always be easily reversed ... that's quite different from an ACH withdrawal; both do a similar thing, but an ACH reversal may go through even for bank accounts in which ACH withdrawals are blocked.

Rambled on there ... in summery, one should not ever give PayPal their bank account information - giving PayPal a credit card is a bit safer, though that comes with its own pitfalls. Or better yet, avoid PayPal all together; use for only "small" transactions in which one can afford to lose the money if things go bad - more likely than not the more one uses PayPal.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I don't use PayPal ... LOL!

http://www.paypalsucks.com/

Ron

 

[GT Web]

yup, I use Paypal for any transactions under $500 unless I am very comfortable with the buyer

 

[Luc]

They will probably freeze your funds, they'll unfreeze them in 6 months, if
you get in touch with them. They may conveniently "forget".

Or they may just slap you with a $500 fine and you'll be good to go.

Good luck,
Luc L.

 

[Cash Is King]

I agree with GT about keeping $100 or less in your paypal account.

Echeck is a safer process because it is transaction driven from your fdic insured bank account. Paypal then only serves as a pass thru.

 

[alldig]

I agree with GT about keeping $100 or less in your paypal account.

Echeck is a safer process because it is transaction driven from your fdic insured bank account. Paypal then only serves as a pass thru.

I paid for a $XXXX domain name through paypal with an echeck and they hammered me with fees! I thought the receiver of the payment only has to pay fees not the sender!

 

[Domagon]

...Echeck is a safer process because it is transaction driven from your fdic insured bank account. Paypal then only serves as a pass thru.

Ahh, the wonders of marketing ... "pass thru" ... you referring to PayPal's so-called "FDIC pass-thru" insurance ... there is no such thing ... it's just marketing mumbo jumbo that gives people a false sense of security ... do some googling and one sees it's a fiction.

Echeck, if it's what I think it is, is ACH - see my reply a few posts up about ACH ... if one is concerned about a transaction going "bad", a regular paper check is actually much safer, assuming one waits 10 business days after deposit for the deposit transaction to become final.

While on ACH, how do echeck processors know a Echeck is good or not ... beyond a reverse database of known problem account numbers, etc, they basically have no idea; all one needs is a valid routing number and any account number - even one totally made up ... while echeck works great for some merchants, the fraud rate overall for echeck (ACH) is among the most fraud-prone on-line payment methods there is.

What people don't know about on-line payment methods can be very costly! Bank wire (not ACH and other nonsense) is among the safest and surest ways - if trust is an issue, use escrow.com or similar well known, trusted escrow service.

Ron

 

[Steen]

I have not had any recent problems, however I always try to use abbreviations should the domain have any adult uses. Paypal recently stopped processing "gay" transactions too! Sounds like a(nother) legal battle waiting to happen. Read a story about a guy who ran a book store for gay people, nothing adult what-so-ever.

 

[Cash Is King]

Heres the deal. Everybody that uses Paypal knows they do not offer an FDIC insured bank account. I like most other U.S. citizens put my money in an FDIC insured bank account. Now, alot of online companies accept paypal as the only form of payment they will accept. I will never keep more than $100 in my paypal account because the money is not insured. However, I will do an echeck with paypal, which debits money out of my FDIC insured bank account and then credits the money to my Paypal account, as only a quick temporary pass thru, because it goes directly to the vendor I am paying. This is why the echeck system is transaction driven. Most U.S. Banks charge $20 to $30 for a domestic wire transfer, in which I agree is one of the safest ways to do business. However, when I send a vendor money directly from paypal using echeck, i do not get charged any fees whatsoever. Paypal only charges when you receive money.

Paper checks is such a slow and outdated process. Nowadays, wire transfers and ACH transactions is huge business.

I agree with GT about keeping $100 or less in your paypal account.

Echeck is a safer process because it is transaction driven from your fdic insured bank account. Paypal then only serves as a pass thru.

 

[cwsteam.com]

Use it, but don't store your money there. Don't count it as a Bank

 

[GT Web]

Eexactly, keep $20-$40 in the account to pay for expenses such as website hosting or a quick domain reg, but if you are looking at making a bigger purchase just transfer the funds into the Paypal account and pay the seller quite quickly afterwards.

Paypal is a great company as long as you dont trust it - its only when you start trusting them too much you might get into trouble.

 

[JMJ]

They still won't return the funds after 6 months. I have had an account froze for over a year. There was a recent classaction lawsuit filed against them which they settled and I'm sure that they still came out on the winning side with all of the money they have locked up.

My uderstanding is you can refund the money to the other party as long as it was within the alotted timeframe. If you can do this and have them make payment another way.

 

[Domagon]

...Paper checks is such a slow and outdated process. Nowadays, wire transfers and ACH transactions is huge business.

I agree, but as you acknowledged in your reply, bank wire is among the safest way to transfer money. ACH (echeck) on the other hand, while similar in function, is no where near as safe...

Example: say you receive an "echeck" (ACH) today ... it won't be final until around Feb-3-2005!

So anytime between now and then, it could be reversed regardless of your account balance ... or even if you no longer have a bank account with the bank - the bank in that case will send a bill / sue you for the funds.

Ok, what I describe above is rare, but it can and does happen ... just because the funds appear in a person's account (be it PayPal/bank, etc) doesn't mean the funds truly yet belong to the person - this is something very few people realize - here's a real world example of where folks get scammed by not knowing this ...

1. Scammer sends a forged/stolen money order/cashiers check, etc

2. Person deposits money order/cashiers check, etc

3. After say 2 or 3 days, the person sees the funds are available in their bank account

4. The person ships product/transfer domain or whatever they sold to the scammer...

5. A few days later the person is surprised to see the funds gone/negative bank balance ... and thinks whoa, where did the money go!?

6. ???

7. Profit!

Opps, ignore 6 and 7 - an inside Slashdot.org joke

* The funds (speaking of U.S.) aren't truly theirs for up to 10 business days after deposit - that's how long they'd should have waited to be sure as opposed to relying on when the check "clears", which is meaningless in regards to the money order/cashiers check, etc being legit.

That above scam example happens literally all the time, such as on Ebay.

Ron

 

[Steen]

Ron, that scam is popular on eBay in a different form.


The buy sends a certified cheque/cashier's cheque (fake) for an amount above and beyond the item cost and asks for the difference to be sent back.

 

[Domagon]

You're right ... that variation is definitely more popular and often catches folks off guard...

A similar scam is often done with PayPal payments ... a person will "accidently" send someone funds (or too much) in PayPal and then ask for a refund via Western Union, Money Order, e-gold, or even another PayPal user account ... illustrates again the numerous variations of this scam.

And folks using "echeck" (ACH) can easily be scammed too ... all one needs is a routing number and an account number (most any made up number will do) as I've explained previously.

Ron

 

[Jernet]

geez, i have had tens of thousands of dollars go thru my paypal account, and have been with them for 4+ years. I have never heard of any of this stuff before :huh: