Pay Pal--is it safe?

[V7Goose]

It is unbelievable to me that such a company feels they can insist on having access to their customer's bank accounts! And it is even worse because of their unethical behavior in unilaterally deciding who to give money to. What is really beyond my comprehension is that people actually bend over and ask for more from them! Oh well, to each his own.

 

I do agree with the concerns about just giving out a credit card number on the internet. Even though all the banks have guarantees that they will protect you 100% against fraudulent usage, I just don't want to deal with that risk. But I have a solution that is 200% fool proof and so much better and safer than ripoffpal that I can't even exaggerate a percentage:

 

One of my credit cards is from CitiBank. They have a nifty little way to allow their customers to create virtual credit card numbers that absolutely prevents fraud. And it couldn't be easier to use; in fact, it is even easier that pulling out my actual card and typing in the numbers! There is a neat little TSR applet I downloaded from their web site that just sits in the tray on my computer. Any time I open a web page that asks for payment I get a little popup asking if I want to generate a new virtual number for that transaction. I simply sign in and specify the max dollar amount and expiration date if I wish, and it automatically fills in the details for checkout on the web page! Since I usually specify the exact charge amount for the virtual number, including shipping, it is totally impossible for the vendor to ever over charge me or use the number a second time. Even better, if I set up a recurring payment using a virtual credit card number, I can stop those charges at any time by simply closing the virtual number, completely preventing any additional charges from the company without affecting my other accounts in any way.

 

I just can't see any reason to give in to the irrational demands of an unethical company when there are so much better solutions available!

Goose

[FozzyUSN]

I have been signed in with PayPal for several years now and have never had anything negative happen on the money side of the transaction. A few of the sellers tried to scam me, but PayPal stepped in and returned the money almost instantly.

[timgray]

Paypal is safe IF you never EVER click on a link to get there but you type www.paypal.com by hand in the address-bar of a fresh browser window OR follow it from a real ebay listing you won from your my.ebay.com page.

 

Also get the security dongle they offer. it makes it impossible for someone to get into your account without it.

 

Finally Paypal will never send you an alert like that. you always go to the paypal site directly for anything like that. I also do the same with ebay. I ignore any email I get from ebay and only go through the ebay control panel at my.ebay.com.

Edited December 9, 2008 by timgray

[greg_in_london]

One of my credit cards is from CitiBank.

 

Sounds good but I don't think my bank does that.

 

It is unbelievable to me that such a company feels they can insist on having access to their customer's bank accounts!

 

I find it's handy because it allows me to pay from my bank account or credit card without giving out those details. I don't know if USA PayPal is different to European PayPal, but they don't get access to my bank accounts beyond being able to do a direct debit, which has certain legal safeguards.

I signed up years ago, so this could be out of date, but back then you didn't actually HAVE TO verify the account, but could continue with less functionality. I have begun to bank with Egg and they need to have the same access so I can add funds, although if I was concerned I could ringfence a feeder account and go through that.

[BigBoyinMS]

First, a link for you... http://www.nopaypal.com/

 

I was almost ripped off by them after almost 7-8 years of no problems. I say almost because, as a seller, I would always empty the PP account as soon as the money hit it and that saved me. Long story short, I got back a damaged phone (seller swapped a damaged one for a good one) and PP wanted me to reimburse them for refunding him. They are still waiting.

The biggest issue with PP after my dealings with them is that they have inexperienced and brainless employees making these decisions for them.

[pegscraper]

Thanks for that link. Preypal does indeed suck.

 

BB, I'm surprised that they didn't try to debit your bank account for the refund.

[BigBoyinMS]

Thanks for that link. Preypal does indeed suck.

 

BB, I'm surprised that they didn't try to debit your bank account for the refund.

 

I kept expecting that but I think that I learned that they can't debit; you have to initiate it.

I also learned that they will attempt 'collections' but it's all talk. THEY made the decision to refund the guy money; not me.

[pegscraper]

Wow. I wish I had known that last spring. I would have done it. I'll for sure remember it. That will be my modus operandi if I ever decide to sell anything on ebay again, as ebay is now forcing sellers to take preypal. It's a great little racket they have going for themselves.

 

My heart really bleeds for all you who get peeved at sellers who don't take preypal. I'll guarantee you'd be peeved if you got screwed the way I did. They have great protection for buyers. But who is protecting the seller??? It is evident that nobody is going to protect me but me.

[Bob Myers]

I have been buying the majority of my perishable tooling via ebay, and used paypal for almost every transaction. Over $75k in the last 3 years according to their records. I have no clue as to how much previous to that. Only one problem in that time, and that was a seller refunded my money and I repaid, only I did not wait long enough for the refund to be redeposited so it came out of my credit card balance. I missed the transaction until end of month statement and ended up paying interest on the buy.

[Ozark]

I'm sure everyone has had good and bad transactions but I like what PayPal did for me last week. They saw three fairly large charges to my account in a short time span and called me before they would accept them. The charges were mine but I definitely like their safe guards on this one.

[Snarley Bill]

pay pal is the least of my worries. i found out last week someone went christmas shopping on the net with my credit card, to the tune of over $4000.00. then when the credit card company calls me the guy is in india or some place and i can't understand a thing he says. i pay the card off every month. and i am sitting on pins and needles waiting for the bill to see if i got it fixed. i am dead in the water can't buy nothing on the net , reserve motel rooms, got to prepay on gas, etc. never realized how much i depended on a credit card. i went and got another one at my bank but haven't got it yet. and my wife is running out of her prescription medication. ya you guessed it on the defunct credit card. what have we come to as human beings?. bill

[BigBoyinMS]

pay pal is the least of my worries. i found out last week someone went christmas shopping on the net with my credit card, to the tune of over $4000.00. then when the credit card company calls me the guy is in india or some place and i can't understand a thing he says. i pay the card off every month. and i am sitting on pins and needles waiting for the bill to see if i got it fixed. i am dead in the water can't buy nothing on the net , reserve motel rooms, got to prepay on gas, etc. never realized how much i depended on a credit card. i went and got another one at my bank but haven't got it yet. and my wife is running out of her prescription medication. ya you guessed it on the defunct credit card. what have we come to as human beings?. bill

 

Since eBAy owns PayPal, here is another story for you... 4-5 years ago I was browsing around on eBay and something I wanted to see was in the 'Adult' section and they required a CC# as proof of age. Hmm, ok, it's eBay. I can trust them. So I pulled out a CC that I never used and typed it in. A few weeks later I get a note from the CC company asking that I call them. (No, they didn't call me.) It seems someone had used that card to subscribe to some porn site and to book a cruise! Of course, I explained to the CC people about using it to verify on eBay and at no other time was it given out. So, even though eBay may be on the up and up, they are only as good as their employee's.

Anyway, didn't cost me anything. Hopefully, they prosecuted someone tho.