| Author | Message | ||
     Mikej |
I haven't bought anything on E-Bay for probably a few years now. Found something earlier that I've been looking for, price was right, auction ends tomorrow. So I send the seller an email to see if he will take a U.S.Postal Money Order (he's in Minneapolis someplace, I'm in Wisconsin). His answer: " I only take paypal, sorry." Oh well, I guess I head off to REI with my 20% off and see if they have something similar for twice as much. PayPal only? Have a nice day. | ||
| Haven564 |
Paypal has saved me a couple times when sellers sent me items that were completely different than described. It seems to offer protection for both the buyer and seller. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I won't pay in any other manner. I won't take payment in any other manner. | ||
| Mikej |
I assume you guys are using a Paypal account not linked to a debit card linked to your checking account then? | ||
| Not_purple_s2 |
Mine just uses my credit card. Thet have an option to get a "verified" account that require a checking account but I've don't feel comfortable giving that out. I use paypal for all my eBay purchases and some online stores. It's faster and I actually feel more secure using it than mailing payment. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
I assume you guys are using a Paypal account not linked to a debit card linked to your checking account then? My paypal is linked to my checking account, debit card, and credit card. What's the difference? Doesn't your debit card pull right from your checking account. I also don't buy or sell anything online that doesn't go through paypal. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
Paypal can be linked to your choice of any account with each and any transaction.....card,checking or savings. Paypal has worked great for me. Easy as pie....send money to anybody that has an account and for any reason. | ||
| Blake |
Mike, You should have sent him a photo of your honest looking face to seal the deal. ![: ]](http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/clipart/proud.gif) | ||
| Blake |
So far my experience with PayPal has been positive. With ebay, not so much. | ||
| Tx05xb12s |
I have a checking/credit card linked paypal account too. I won't do business any other way, except for with BadWeB members I have been known to accept a money order a time or two. It protects both the buyer and seller. If either of you are unhappy with what transpired, you can get the charges reversed just like your credit card company would, and this is without having to transmit your card info to a stranger. I'd especially consider using this service for ebay. I've had an issue or two over the years myself. | ||
| Badlionsfan |
i use pay pal when ever possible. several reasons why.... 1. i'd rather have pay pal have my debit card (checking acct) info than some fly by nighter on the net. 2. it protects you if a deal were to go bad. 3.  | ||
| Jackbequick |
Depending on how your bank is about it, it is a good idea to create a satellite checking account with it's own account number and let that account be the one and only account that is "married" to PayPal. Then do not use that account for anything else and transfer funds into it from your primary account whenever necessary to make a payment from PayPal. Make sure you figure out the timing of the transfers. As far as whether or not you can make an immediate or near immediate draw against money transferred into the satellite account. On some small town banks, they want fees and can zap you with a overdraft charge if you get the timing wrong. That also lets you receive payments from in PayPal, transfer them to the satellite account, and then into your primary account. Read the fine print on your agreement with PayPal, they can take any and all money have as a balance in PayPal anytime they want. And they can also reach into the account you have "married" to them and help themselves to what is there too if they think it is necessary. Bad things are not likely to happen but can. I've had buyers go off and me and had eBay do things like freeze my PayPal account against any transactions and also refund payments from my PayPal balance for which I had not received the merchandise back. There were only a couple of those over the years but it took some time to get them straightened out, get my money or merchandise back, and get my PayPal account working normally again. Jack | ||
| Reepicheep |
You can buy a "security token" from paypal, so in order to get into your account you have to enter a token number that shows on this little key fob. I did it, and sleep better. I wish my bank would honor it (I think it is a federatable system supported by Verisign). | ||
| Mikej |
Blake, I don't think so, would probably have just the opposite effect:  Jack, You hit on several of my primary concerns with PayPal. | ||
| P47b |
I have been on both sides of that argument also. I purchased a fire suit off of Ebay thru paypal and never received it. Paypal got me my money back after a month of arguing about when I received it or not. Sent them all of my emails between us. Two days later. The seller came up with a tracking number and said it was to the sale. Paypal froze my account. After about a week paypal found out that the tracking number was not to the sale. They forged a tracking number. In the time all this happend. I had placed some bids on some items and won them. It really sucks telling some one that you can't pay that day and the reasoning behind it. | ||
| Haven564 |
Multifactor Authentification as Reep mentioned is grabbing many peoples attention and could be the wave of the future. I believe it is required by the FFIEC for online banking but banks do a poor job and many are not in compliance or are using poorly implemented systems. Typically you must know two of three things, something you know(ex.password), Something you have(a Verisign token), and something you are(fingerprint). My bank does a deplorable job at this, by limiting my passwords to 5-8 characters, not allowing special characters, and then once I sign in they ask me questions the whole neighborhood knows about me. If online banking was more compliant I think it would ease many peoples minds when using them. | ||
| Uncbuell |
Mike - I'll gladly purchase the ebay item with my paypal account on your behalf as long as you reimburse me. Send me a PM and I'll help you out. | ||
| Chellem |
My favorite thing about paypal is having ONLY ONE vendor knowing my CC info. I mean, it's still someone, and probably hackable, but at least it's only ONE. At the store, except for badwebbers, we've almost completely stopped taking CC over the phone orders, as we've been burned before. At least Paypal offers SOME degree, as the merchant, that the person is who he or she says he is. Frankly, I can't believe how many people are happy just giving their CC and addy info to some person who they've never met, over the phone, and also permission for it to be used. The person is going to scribble the number on some piece of paper, with their name, address, phone number, and who knows what else, and even if the merchant is completely honest, what happens to that scrap of paper afterward? Or worse, they add the cc info to some sort of file where they are all kept? Terrifying to me, as a consumer. And, as a merchant, since I would rather protect our customers. With Paypal, I never even get the CC info - just the money. So no real liability on my part if something happens. Just my two cents. ->ChelleM | ||
| Reepicheep |
You must be in the bidness  I was thrilled when I heard the FFIEC guidelines required multi-factor. Banking really needs it (want it or not), and mandating it there could solve the "chicken and egg" problem of adoption that those in other sensitive industries have. What the banks are getting away with is baloney. It's not multi factor. Something you know and something you know is not two factor, its one factor twice. And as you point out, its really "something you know and something you can guess", which means its not really even single factor twice... more of single factor once but more annoying  | ||
| Haven564 |
Its very true. You log into your bank account, and what do they ask for? Your username, password, and at least for me, the next thing is a four digit pin number, wow thats advanced. So I accidentally mess up my four digit pin. What do they want? My mother's maiden name or the high school I attended.  Like that information is hard to find in todays world. I believe those Verisign Tokens are a great idea. If I'm not mistaken the key is always changing every 30 seconds or so, and the encryption is extremely advanced. I wish we would see more of the something you have rather than know and know as you said. | ||
| Ratyson |
Read the fine print on your agreement with PayPal, they can take any and all money have as a balance in PayPal anytime they want. And they can also reach into the account you have "married" to them and help themselves to what is there too if they think it is necessary There is actually someone on the subaru forum I frequent that had this happen to them... to the tune of about $6000. He had a ebay store, something happened with a complaint.. supposedly got it straightened out.. then paypal froze his funds, and cancelled his account. He can't touch the money for 180 days. And from what he said, paypal just basically said that the computer system locked it, and there is nothing they can do to reverse it. So now he has $6k held from him for 6 months. I have never had any issues with paypal myself, and will continue to use it. I have it set up with a completely seperate account, no where in reach of my main account. I would never take any offer of a casier's check, money order, personal check, etc. as a payment method over ebay. Just way too risky. Paypal, or cash in hand on delivery only. I have sold two cars on ebay, and ended up getting cash both times. Once the cash was tested with the forgery pen, I signed over the title. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. (Message edited by ratyson on March 14, 2008) | ||
| Jackbequick |
"..My favorite thing about paypal is having ONLY ONE vendor knowing my CC info. I mean, it's still someone, and probably hackable, but at least it's only ONE..." Once you have your PayPal account and have it tied to a bank account, and have PayPal taking the payments out of there, cancel the credit card. PayPal will not notice the card on file is no longer good if you don't let them try to charge anything to it. I had a canceled credit card as my secondary payment option for several years and it never became an issue. As long as I had the funds in the checking account to make the payments I was good to go. And I could backstop everything by emptying the checking account or even closing it. Jack | ||
| Mikef5000 |
Another option, to avoid the possibility of identity theft or more charges: Buy a Visa gift card! These are readily available from grocers and gas stations, or you can buy one in the exact amount needed from your bank or credit union. Plug in the number as if it were a normal Visa. Paypal doesn't know the difference. Then you don't have to worry about your credit score being affected by constantly adding and cancelling credit cards. And once the specific amount runs out, that's it, the card is dead and you can pitch it. (Message edited by Mikef5000 on March 14, 2008) | ||
| Pwnzor |
I realize I'm jumping in a little late, but here's my $0.02 anyway: Paypal is the best thing ever. I have a premier business account, credit card, debit card linked to my checking account, and I use it for absolutely everything since every transaction I make on the card pays me back 1% right off the top, instantly. 8 years of trouble free service that costs me nothing and pays me something. | ||
| Slaughter |
My Mom was asking about Paypal and other online transactions... whether they were "safe" or not I asked her when was the last time she checked the background of that person behind the counter that she just handed her credit card to? Or that waitress she just saw disappear with her card for a couple minutes to ring up her restaurant bill? Nothing's perfect but I'm a PayPal user for a whole lotta years now - zero problems. And on Ebay - sure, there are problems with ebay SELLERS - not with Ebay itself. Do your homework before buying. I've bought everything from TWO motorcycles to cameras from a country that I don't speak the language well (Germany) to motorcycle accessories. I asked a lot of questions or bought from recognized people or people who could be visited by friends to check things out for me. I don't blame the newspaper if a guy selling schlock in the classified section is trying to rip people off... I just check it out as best as I can. PayPal? Excellent service. Costs more than straight credit card but hyper convenient. | ||
| Igneroid |
When I had a Paypal account, I received an email appearing to be from Paypal but wasnt, The email threatened to close my account unless I "renued" all my info. I just about bit, but caught myself at the last moment. I reported to Paypal. Then I closed my account. That was years ago. I might open another soon seein as all the good Buellshit is in the States.. | ||
| Thumper74 |
Being in the insurance industry, I read the fine print on everything. Salesmen hate me. I remember reading about Paypal having basically unlimited access to the linked account. Consequently, I keep my Paypal linked to a separate account that I use solely to pay for Paypal transactions. This way if something does happen, they can't take my living money. I like Mike's idea of the Visa gift cards. I get Paypal phishing sites linked to me all the time, but notice it everytime. I generally pay cash at restaraunts as I got burned at a bar. I closed my tab at $15, left a $5 tip in cash. A couple days later when I was balancing my check book I found a $35 charge on it. Took my receipt in showing that I only authorized $15, the manager wouldn't refund my money, so I refuse to go back. | ||
| Jackbequick |
I get a hundred or more email a year asking me to verify credit cards, paypal purchases, my paypal account, second chance offers to buy things, etc., etc. I just trash them all when the Junk Mail filter (ThunderBird) does not do it for me. It is part of life I guess. Some good advice and hints here though. Jack | ||
| Chellem |
Those phishing schemes are pretty easy to spot - first thing you can do is just hover your mouse (no need to click) over the link that says it leads to paypal.com or wamu.com or whatever. A teeny little script should pop up showing where the link REALLY leads, and baby it won't be paypal.com. It'll be some really long script-filled link to some poor guys site that has been hacked. Don't be a victim! Those sites look REAL!! If you DO click, before you do anything else, check the top of the page and see what the URL really is. I've showed EVERYONE in my family, and a few coworkers, this trick, because it's so easy to fall victim to those emails. just two more cents I guess. ->ChelleM | ||
| Haven564 |
Or just ignore those e-mails which present a sense of urgency |
