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I have been using PayPal off and on since 2012 for 2 main reasons.
1 - Convenience, I didn't have to enter a credit card every time I purchased from a site other than usual trusted sites where I store my payment information, like Amazon, and sending payments to friends/family was simple.
2 - Peace of mind.
I recently found that the assumption of (2) was wrong, so I fired PayPal. I don't want to get into the details. Beyond being therapeutic, it won't really make life better moving forward.
That brings me to the question, since I have fired PayPal, I am sure that someone will want to send me, or more likely, have me send them money. Before I go out and research the providers on my own, I thought I would come here. What do Soylentils suggest for peer to peer payments?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @06:21PM
You didn't provide any details.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @06:25PM
Yeah I think #2 is whatost people here will care about. What is PayPal doing that we should be aware of?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Pino P on Thursday December 01 2016, @06:36PM
Mostly freezing people's funds for months on end, and other glitches of which PayPal and its former owner eBay have attempted to remove all evidence [straightdope.com].
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday December 01 2016, @06:41PM
If you're *selling* via PayPal, sure. I haven't heard about any problems with using them to buy stuff as a CC frontend.
I'd guess using them to pay other people and lack of "Peace of mind" means OP thinks they're leaking his info?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @07:08PM
At this point it is almost crazy to NOT think businesses with large user databases are selling your info.
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Thursday December 01 2016, @06:57PM
Where to begin, [wikipedia.org] I'm sure.
PayPal can freeze your account, preventing you from withdrawing any money, without stating the reasons, and with little-to-no oversight. For this alone they are under constant litigation.
For me personally? They canceled my credit account (they removed a particular type of service) with them and signed me up for a new credit card without my consent. I really wanted to keep my credit clean of random credit checks and unused credit cards, but hey, whatcha gonna do? I'd still rather have them process my payments than give my credit card number to dozens of different online stores, and until everywhere accepts Google Payments, I'll continue to stick with them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @07:24PM
I'm pretty sure any U.S. financial institution can freeze your account, it just happens more often with PayPal because more suspicious (illegal) activity occurs with PayPal than the others. This is why medical weed outlets deal with cash only. Even though legal statewide it's still illegal by the feds. I guess the best answer is cash or perhaps bitcoin, but reading the news lately about bitcoin, even that looks shady now.
(Score: 1) by claywar on Thursday December 01 2016, @10:50PM
I'm pretty sure any U.S. financial institution can freeze your account
When did PayPal become a U.S. financial institution subject to banking regulations? I may have missed this, but this seems to be the root cause of many issues.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @11:01PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal#Regulation [wikipedia.org]
> In the United States, PayPal is licensed as a money transmitter, on a state-by-state basis.[87][88] But state laws vary, as do their definitions of banks, narrow banks, money services businesses and money transmitters. Although PayPal is not classified as a bank, the company is subject to some of the rules and regulations governing the financial industry including Regulation E consumer protections and the USA PATRIOT Act.
And it continues with many more details. Looks like the rules are different every where they operate, in one sense it's almost surprising that one company could actually comply with all these different rules.
Today the wiki page came with one of Jimmy's requests for donations. And one of the payment methods is...wait for it...PayPal!!
(Score: 2) by damnbunni on Friday December 02 2016, @12:43AM
If you mean the recent conversion of PayPal Buyer's Credit to a PayPal Mastercard, that was avoidable.
It didn't convert till you clicked the link to activate the card, so I just never clicked the link. I got a followup warning that if I didn't do so by a certain date I would lose the opportunity and the account would remain a PPBC instead of a Mastercard; that's what happened. I just cut up and chucked the card they sent me.
The PPBC does appear on my credit report just like a credit card anyway, it always has.
(Score: 1) by boxfetish on Friday December 02 2016, @08:56AM
Gotta agree. It's great to use PayPal (hell, even eBay and Amazon) to buy things. You are crazy to use any of them to sell things. I do almost all my selling on Craigslist with cash in person now. It takes longer, but just got tired of getting screwed by buyers or the venue itself. I occasionally use forums that have their own marketplace like Heat, Ars, or BGG. Once you build up enough of a rep, you can actually ask for money orders or even cash. My 2 cents.