Should I be leery of PayPal?

I too have heard similar stories about paypal. As a matter of fact my husband and I were talking about it just this morning and were wondering who else could be used to collect payment if not paypal. Maybe some more experienced Warriors could give us some idea who else is out there and more reliable? Thanks in advance.

If you follow the rules and don't go off making get rich quick schemes your paypal account with be find. I have had my paypal account since 2002 with no issues what so ever. If you expect to get a lot of charge backs or jump into bad programs that is when you are going to get hurt. Run a honest business your fine nothing to fear

Other options if you want credit cards would be 2checkout.com which has a small set up fee that is under $100 to get started. Will accept all major credit cards.

Thanks Sabine, I feel a lot better knowing that someone else shared my concerns.

And thanks, SeanSupplee. I agree in that if you don't violate their TOS or otherwise have any problems with how you operate the business, everything should be fine.

I have accounts with both Clickbank and 2Checkout and never had a problem with either. The majority of the sites I visit seem to have PayPal set up for their payments. I think that's fine for being paid quickly.

I've read somewhere that if there is suddenly a large influx of cash into your account, PayPal may temporarily freeze the account until they review the situation. There are at least 2 books that heed doing business with PayPal and a website called "PayPal Sucks" devoted to posts from people whose accounts have been arbitrarily limited, suspended or otherwise shut down...with little clear explanation.

My concern is that there was absolutely nothing to be concerned with my account for. Yet, my account was limited. So I ended up registering a credit card with them just to have limitations removed. Then I canceled the account in frustration.

SeanSupplee's experience gives me some hope. But are there others out there who use PayPal for a business account and have nothing but good things to say?

Been setting up online companies for some years now and I cringe every time my client wants to use paypal. Their customer service is rubbish and I don't like their API. My personal favourite is paypoint.net because customer service is excellent and their api is great. But I'm not sure if they only cover the UK and you will need a merchant account from your bank to use them.

Don't believe people when they tell you that if you run an honest business and follow the TOS, and are not out there scamming people then you have nothing to worry about. That is just totally rubbish.

PayPal is pretty easy to use, and almost everyone has an account, so it is very convenient. My best advice is NEVER leave money in there. Download the money to your bank at least every day. They are not regulated, like a bank is, even though they act very much like a bank. They can lock up your account for no reason then they get a feeling to do it. And they have done it. I got my account locked up, and it took me about a month to find out why. And it turned out that it was over my complaining about a merchant not delivering my merchandise, and they asked me for a few documents, and I didn't send one of them in. I got my money back from the merchant, and everything seemed fine, and then one day I found my account locked up and my attempt to find out why was like talking to a telephone pole. Now why I needed to supply so many documents was beyond me, especially when the issue had been resolved.

That is just one story, there are many others worse than that. Fortunately I had downloaded my money the day before they locked it up. It wouldn't have been so bad if I could have found out the problem and so taken steps to resolve it, but it took me more time to find out the problem than to get it resolved.

I don't suggest not using PayPal, but just be careful and don't leave any money in there. You don't have to do anything wrong to have a problem. And customer service SUCKS, big time.

I've never had even ONE problem with Paypal in over eight years dealing with and many thousands of transactions.

Regards
Bobby

Paypal is to expensive and restrictive.

The advice I have had around this is if the pattern of incoming revenue changes drastically and you haven't notified them that your doing a product launch etc, then they may freeze your account (fearing you are conducting illegal activity). Treat Paypal like a trusted advisor - communicate with them and often these problems disappear.

Paypal Problems, Information, Issues, Class Action Lawsuits - PayPal

PayPalSucks.Org, Home of the PayPalSucks.Org Cartoons & critical commentary on PayPal.com

ina696,

I've never had any problems with it but when a site gets big enough they get bolder about abusing this power.

If you don't like what they're doing getting your own merchant account is another solution. Those merchant providers can be as much of a bear as any other payment processor.

Basically, look at em as a necessary evil and do what you can to stay on their good side.

Every new account has a limit until you verify some information. This is normal and nothing to worry about.

The reason should be obvious- they want to know who you are, and they don't want you using their service for money laundering or other illegal activities.

And those phishing emails do NOT come from Paypal- if they did, they wouldn't be phishing. Not sure why you would blame Paypal when someone else impersonates them.

Just get a reakl merchasnt payment processor like authorize.net. The fees are cheaper, the chargebacks are fewer and are resolved much quicker.

I run a private membership site. All of the payments are handled through paypal and all payments are automatic recurring monthly payments as well.

There are hundreds and hundreds of transactions per month. I've been doing this since last May without a problem.

I've also been a full time Internet marketer for over 7 years and have had a paypal account since 2002, and have never had a problem with paypal.

Also, because I started doing so much business with paypal, they emailed me one day saying I have my own personal line for support and can call whenever I have any problems.

Of course this doesn't mean there couldn't be problems, but I haven't had any and I've had a lot of experience.

I find the argument that to avoid them because they are not regulated a little bit silly. Lots of people have problems with banks even if they are regulated.

My 2 cents,
Dan Ho

Kay is absolutely right- I don't know why anyone gets upset at PayPal wanting them to provide documentation (unless the person is trying to do something outside the rules). Try getting a merchant account or opening a bank account without doing that.

PayPal does have phone numbers for support, since plenty of people have reported calling them. You might have to poke around their site to find the numbers, but they do exist.

I've been with PayPal since before they were owned by eBay. I'm not a large account. I've had many problems with the over the years. But, they are what a lot of people want to use. Besides, all payment methods have some kind of problem.

I recommend having two bank accounts, one of which is the one you use with Paypal. Every day, take any $ out of Paypal and transfer it to Account#1. Then immediately transfer it into Account#2. Keep Account #1 as empty as you can. That way Paypal can't automatically take money out of your bank account. This has saved me several times when Paypal has decided to randomly freeze my Paypal account.

I've used PayPal for 5 year never had a problem. I wouldn't use the Merchant Service there are better and cheaper ones out there

Hi All,

I don't know if you've seen this thread:

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-me-today.html

It highlights exactly the problem that ina696 was asking about....

-John.

nlfast that must not be a business or verified account then. In order to pass more money though you have to go though a verification its to protect buyers.

Look its simple if you are going to sell some crap and rip people off money so they do charge backs then dont bother using paypal they are going to freeze your account. If you use it right you wont have any issues its as simple as that