Forum Moderators: buckworks
However, I have heard a few horror stories about paypal freezing accounts and so on, haven't heard anything lately though.
Even if I bought a cd it wouldn't earn that high of interest plus I would not have access to it for 12 months. With paypal I can withdraw it at anytime.
So what would you do? If you would leave a sum of cash with paypal, how much would it be?
Thanks!
they’re not regulated like a bank.
But they still want direct access to all the money in your bank account! (#:3302994)
My gardener doesn't expect the keys to the safe in my office. My window cleaner doesn't expect the keys to my car. Why does Paypal want authority over my bank account even when I don't need them to draw money from there ever? The only reason I can see is that they want the ability to screw me if/when they so desire. But I'm happy to listen to any other explanation.
You can smile and smile and smile at me as long as you want but as long as you're holding my gonads and are ready to squeeze ... please excuse me if I don't smile back.
Woz has a good idea about a bank account just for Paypal. I'll add: Keep it in a different bank to your main account.
It's like GMail. They require a cell phone number. That in turn means spam from gmail acts is significanlty less than hotmail, yahoomail, or other freebie mail holders. By requiring a bank act number, they virtually eliminate fraud on that act.
In fact, a few months ago they said that they had to take a DD as an antifraud measure and that it was legally required of them (bullsh&t). When I questioned the "legal" crap they assured me that it was purely as an indentification exercise and I could cancel the DD after the identification. Guess what, they gave me no end of trouble to cancel the DD and when the DD is cancelled they also cancel the identification. I can't transfer money from my bank account to my paypal account (and have other restrictions) because I haven't been "identified". Huh? But, I argue, I've already gone through that. It turns out that if I want to be transfer money into my Paypal account I've got to be "identified" and the only way of being identified is to give them a DD again! And lose the identification when I cancel the DD!
So, it wasn't really an identification exercise at all - it was a cynical, crooked way of getting DDs. You think Paypal are trustworthy?
Brett, it is "qualify for 1% cash back" now, not 1.5%, and one needs to qualify for it somehow.
My Credit Card has 1% cash back, and it is regulated by the banking rules, and there's only $50 that I am risking even in the event of fraud.
Still, although not one of those Paypal haters...Paypal before ebay was bordered on a criminal operation with many of their practices. So much so, it is difficult to trust them even now.
Case in point...
We moved our business to another city, changed banks, phone numbers, etc. This resulted in Paypal locking our account with 1000's of dollars for several weeks...when we submitted the changes to our account.
Their customer services were absolutely terrible. We could not even talk to someone about it or get return phone calls. Finally we had our attorney actually file a lawsuit against them. Pay Pal quickly released our funds, paid our attorney fees and we parted ways.
Considering they processed almost $250k of transactions over time, it was a real shame on their part that we parted ways with them over $20 because of their shoddy customer service.
My advice, get a real merchant account, at least then they have to follow federal banking laws. Pay Pal somehow still gets around this although it looks like it will soon change.
oddsod - how often do you visit your bank?
Open another checking account. You can move money in and out of it via your bank 24/7, hopefully. Connect your PayPal account to this new bank account. Only keep the money on that account when you want to transfer them to PayPal. Better yet, block all outgoing transactions (not a banker, whaterver they are called, not originated by you) on this account. This way you will sleep better.
I did commend the second bank account idea earlier in the thread.
Blocking transactions is maybe something you can do in the US. The whole point with the Direct Debit is that Paypal want access to an account that doesn't have any block. Maybe Paypal don't have that there in the US but here they are obsessive about having unlimited access to withdrawing money from your account.
True, I can open another account in a different bank, put restrictions on it, leave it empty of money, suffer the inconvenience of days of delay each time I want to pay money from my bank into Paypal (no, bank to bank in the UK doesn't happen the same day!), and jump through other hoops. Those are the exact precautions I'd take when dealing with your typical international fraudster and crook. The feeling is that I should treat Paypal no differently?
chance it is a duck!
If Pay Pal takes in deposits, transfers money, pays out
interest in short handles other peoples money, its a bank
no matter how they slice and dice it.
As such it should indeed be regulate by the FDIC, FTC and
House sub committee on banking and any other oversight
regulatory agency that would be applicable. If not some
thing is amiss. The plot thickens!
