Paypal alternatives

That's simply a very clever affiliate site that's trying to push a merchant plan of their own which has it's own little quirks. I'm surprised that PayPal/eBay hasn't sued them for trademark infringement. Maybe PayPal isn't quite as evil as they try to make out, huh?

Where most people run into problems with PayPal is when they play fast and loose with their TOS, such as trying to take MLM, gambling, porn, pharma or 'investment' payments through the system. A lot of large size transactions or a lot of money moving through an account all of a sudden will raise red flags due to anti-terrorism/anti-drug financial laws, just like these things will with merchant accounts. It's not to say that PayPal can't be difficult to deal with at times but if you're doing something kind of dodgy, you're likely to have problems with other payment systems as well. And, there is a level of consumer trust for PayPal that simply isn't there for any other online payment service.

Thank you guys, I'll check those pages you suggessted.
The site 'Paypal Sucks' just confirmed my worries.

No, I am absolutelly not doing anything 'dodgy'.
I am selling normal and legal products online, that's all.

I never had a problem with Paypal so far (4 years), but
I'm thinking about the case of product launch when
sudden increase of number of payments happens,
and possible similar cases. What if they freeze my account?
Why risk being offer for such a humiliating and
costly situation?

I'd like to have a payment processor that doesn't
block user accounts when payment flow increases.


I'm thinking about 2CO, but it seems that I can have
only one sales site in 2CO vendor account, I'm looking
into that.

Do I have to open new vendor account for each new
sales site (minisite) with 2CO ?

.

Try using PayQuicker. They're a new one out there. free to setup free to send money and p2p and cheap to use. Google check out is good but they have a high percentage that they take out of a sale I think. I have used them before for eCrater sales and the cap a limit on how much you can withdraw to your account for a 1 month period of time. Payquicker gives you a ten thousand dollar monthly limit as soon as you open the account. And I'm guessing that they wont freeze your account when your sale volume rises because the only was they seem to make any money off of me is when I move the money off their platform and to my bank which costs me a dollar no matter how much I have in my PQ account, So they actually encourage you to make more transactions and sales. Don't know how to use them on ebay but I trust them more than any other thing out there with the exception of Google check out.

In the last week or so I've communicated with 4 Warriors where PayPal decided to limit their account. Everything from making too much money too fast to using a 'donate' button on a commercial site.

Ridiculous.

After looking at numerous options, to protect myself if anything, two were of interest to me:

Plimus.com
FastSpring.com

Both were of interest because they accept credit cards, AND PayPal, and have a wealth of reporting.

After checking out Plimus I have been moving ALL of my PayPal business I can to Plimus.

It's like stepping out of the stone age into modern civilization.

Yes, it is more expensive.

For me, easily worth it with all the extra options, ease of product setup, marketing features, and reporting.

It is also getting better product delivery. So far no Plimus customers have needed to complain about not being redirected to the product page.

FastSpring is not something I yet used on a site, but it has some very nice features not found elsewhere that, depending on your needs, may be very tempting.

Not only will I likely never go back to PayPal, but I will probably buy another script, such as membership site scripts, that are locked into only using PayPal. It is insane to put everything at risk with that company.

I'm with Alex. I use 2checkout in addition to paypal.

As a few people mentioned, beware of that paypalsucks site. They're just pushing services from Cardservices International and from experience, I can tell you that they are the absolute WORST merchant account ever imagined. I had to sue them in 2008 to get them to stop trying to bill me a monthly fee for services I had cancelled a year earlier because their payment gateway was not functional. I ended up getting a merchants account with Bank of America and have never had a problem since.

Alertpay - Stay away, they started in 2005 as nothing but a ponzi scheme processor (sutosurfs, hyips). If they were US based, they would have gotten busted just like e-gold.

2CO (2checkout) mostly handles adult (porn) sites. They are very solid but if you're not running adult sites, the high fees aren't worth it.

Moneybookers - as the name implies, they were a gambling payment processor before the US cracked down on internet gambling. So if you want to deal with organized crime, try Moneybookers.

Authorize.net is just a pass thru service for businesses with questionable credit ratings. Again, high fees but they will approve anybody.

Google Checkout - probably the BEST alternative to Paypal. I don't know why more people don't use the service but it's always done right by me.


That being said, Paypal is still one of the best options. Most of the people crying about getting their accounts limited, did something they're not saying which violated the TOS. Just remember, most petty scammers cry the loudest when their scamming is shut down.

Chris,

Not to put you on spot ... well ok, to put you on the spot ...

For the last month AlertPay members have been unable to withdraw their money using credit card withdrawals.

Now AlertPay members cannot withdraw their money using check withdrawals.

I want to use your service. But why should I entrust my money to your company?

Frankly, from this vantage point, it looks like the next press release will be dissolution followed by lawsuits and a receivership.

I'm sure you'll tell me I'm wrong. What I would rather read is why I am wrong.

Thanks.

I have to just re-state, that if you get a bad apple over there, it is a colossal waste of time trying to get it reversed. Ya, its possible, but I'm so busy scrambling to make money w/o Paypal, that it is a huge drain.

This guy David over there flat-out told me that anything in the make money from home niche is frowned on at Paypal, and his definitions were really screwy. He called things "pay per click" that weren't, and "MLM" that weren't. He was so off-base that I asked him for this all in writing so I could show it to all of you, as a group and he refused.

The bottom line is, ya, I would say at this time Paypal is essential for certain things, as affiliate programs are based on them. BUT a lot of those affiliate programs, we as a team, built ourselves!

From "7 dollar secrets" to Rapid Action Profits, Digiresults, Payspree (which I heard may have just had a similar Paypal problem), we actually developed these programs, that is.. marketers that we know. They came from us.

Derrick Van Dyke is working on an Alert Pay integration, but I'm not sure if it will be stand alone or just with his Surefire profit system. . . but with so many Warriors frozen in the past few weeks including extremely credible marketers like Jerome (Webmustang), and Spencer (Simple Spencer), and nearly a dozen more, the time is now to make some changes. Not later when we all get cornered. Now, before we all get hit.

The way it works, from what they told me, is that once a flag is raised (Like excessive refunds, a lot of money all at once coming in, etc), then they do a simple review of your account. Then, if you get that "risk" dept., and they look into what your selling, and you get one of these cranky ones... you get totally shut down.

And by the way, don't believe folks who tell you it is for 180 days that they freeze your account, it took Mark Lareau 13 months after a lot of hemming and hawing over there. It's 180 days minimum, more like a year.. meanwhile, they cancel all your residuals coming in, its a nightmare.

Who needs a nightmare?

We really need to get out from under their thumb and rebuild some of these affiliate programs.

The only company that scares me more than Paypal is Google. The Google Checkout horror stories are even worse. And as anyone who has lost an Adwords/Adsense/Youtube account knows- Google does not relent and they automate everything. I read a story where a dispute inside Google Checkout cost the guy his Google Checkout account AND his Adwords account.

I refuse to do any business with Google unless they make serious changes to the way they treat small business.

Good thread guys.

Seriously, I think WF marketers should really put efforts to look for payment gateway other than paypal.

I just got my account terminated and believe me that things like conversions, lesser fee, ease of use etc etc would mean NOTHING once you got your money froze and your account closed.

Below is a blog post by Derrick, I hope this can be a wake up call for all paypal defenders:
I didn't say that you should abandon paypal completely, but at least use another payment gateway too as your safety net. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket.

Heck - I certainly wouldn't trust Paypal to link to my bank account anymore - not after they took over $600 from my account regarding a false filed dispute that they did not even bother to notify me about (I had to contact THEM), and kept for over 60 days - (and a dispute which I won btw...) - that caused quite a bit of grief - their apology? Nope - "$h!t happens"...that was their apology...

Plimus... I only know them from the buyer´s side. The bugged me to distraction with one purchase.

I don´t want ever a client of mine to go through phone verification to be able to buy. That´s crazy.