PayPal - good or bad?

[badger4life]

I've never had a paypal account so I wanted to try and get some feedback from the bitcoin community about the service.  I understand how a paypal account can have value and why someone would want to create one.  I've also heard bad things about paypal and how they can be very heavy handed. 

Any constructive replies will be very much appreciated 

[1714135711]

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[idontknow]

You should ask yourself what do you want to use it for exactly?

I get chills down my spine if I use them and think they're "evil" but that's personal. Sorry not very consturctive.

[annelions]

I dislike PP's policies, but they're easier to use (IMO) than Google Checkout. I don't know about Google Checkout, but PayPal is very quick to freeze accounts with 'suspicious' activity. Then, from what I've heard, it can be near impossible to unfreeze the money.

Suspicious activity tends to be actually processing a lot of payments.

[bitwiser]

I've never had a paypal account so I wanted to try and get some feedback from the bitcoin community about the service.  I understand how a paypal account can have value and why someone would want to create one.  I've also heard bad things about paypal and how they can be very heavy handed. 

Any constructive replies will be very much appreciated 

PayPal is very convenient because it's a fast and easy way to transfer funds using a credit card which offers the most protection when doing business online in what
may be lets say, uncertain situations where there might be more risk of something going. Also you're protected against fraud by the credit card company and PayPal
itself to a lesser extent. PayPal also supports multiple currencies so it's convenient and cheap for dealing with buyers/sellers in other countries using other currencies.

But the problem with using PayPal for Bitcoins is two-fold:

1. PayPal doesn't allow its service to be used to buy or sell Bitcoins and they will instantly close an account if they discover you doing that.

2. If you're selling Bitcoins and taking PayPal as payment, there is nothing to stop the buyer making a chargeback against your PayPal account/credit card.

[Turbor]

I dislike PP's policies, but they're easier to use (IMO) than Google Checkout. I don't know about Google Checkout, but PayPal is very quick to freeze accounts with 'suspicious' activity. Then, from what I've heard, it can be near impossible to unfreeze the money.

Suspicious activity tends to be actually processing a lot of payments.

+1 I used a VPN connection once to make a payment and they called me at 2am the same day to let me verify that i made the payment. Short after, they froze my account for no real reason. Did not lose any money but i dislike their policies much. They are much too restrictive. Sad, because the idea behind PayPal is good and payment works without problems (when it works).

[deepceleron]

There is good and bad, and then there is evil.

[omarabid]

PayPal is too restrictive, they say. Well, PayPal is not available in my country; and as a turn around I'm using a french PayPal account with a Virtual Credit Card. It's more than 3 years now, and I might have processed more than $10K in payments. Never had a problem. I even did a charge back, and had a conversion with a PayPal agent.

Well, I think I'm lucky. Still, I don't leave more than $500 in my PP balance. Everything is fine. PayPal is really great for payment, I hope one day it becomes available.

[lord]

well it is widely accepted all over the net, so if ur doing business online, you have to have a paypal account - so far i didn't have any serious probs.

but nevertheless i hope bitcoin will blow them away in the next few years.

[mizike29]

Paypal is very very good, easy to use, VERY VERY SAFE, secure, fast, been using it forever with ebay, amazon, newegg.  Now with bitcoin its another story, but you can still be safe with bitcoin and paypal just have to take some extra precautions and be smart with it, but for anything else, paypal is awesome, but you do pay a litte for what they provide.

[quartz92]

Paypal is secure, but at the same time your money can get locked away for a very long time. It can go either way

[FreeTrade]

Paypal is generally pretty good these days if you're a buyer. You should try to fund the account through a credit card, but they'll hassle you for your bank details more and more as time goes by. They'll suspend your account if they see suspicious activity (like VPN login above, or if you're accessing from a different country), but this generally means you'll just have to jump through some hoops. However, as a buyer, things will be in your favor.

As a seller, you're in a much more precarious position. It'll be easy for your customers (see above), but it is easy for dishonest customers to request a charge back, and the stories of PP suspending accounts for months, and just stealing the balance are legion.

Paypal's business model is to process the 95% of transactions that are 'no hassle' and low-probability of fraud. They don't want the other 5% of transactions and if you think your transactions fall into this category, you'll want to avoid PP. PP doesn't want to spend time sorting the wheat from the chaff on these transactions, it would much rather that you just go away.

This is gap in the market for Bitcoin. If you're buying from Nigeria, or you want shipping to a different address, or you're travelling in Asia, or you have very low margins on your product, or you're not eligible for a credit card, and you still have the temerity to want to be part of the largest marketplace on earth, then Bitcoin is for you.

[nefanon]

Simple Answer:

If not selling bitcoins: PayPal is AWESOME!

If selling bitcoins: PayPal is RISKY! 

[fireball500]

its a necessary evil if you want to buy/sell on ebay 

[Albert Schweitzer]

paypal is american = evil ;-)

[nefanon]

paypal is american = evil ;-)

Ouch! My red, white, and blue heart hurts, lol.

[codymanix]

Paypal isn't supported anymore by lots of Bitcoin market sites because Paypal is unsafe (Payer can revert Transaction thereafter).
Additionally Paypal is cancelling transaction by themselves if they find out that the transaction was used to pay for bitcoin. I have heard this, but cnnot find a source.

[nefanon]

Blackout, a regular on these forums, has gotten PayPal to fight chargebacks successgully using block explorer records recently. We should get him in here.

I think the thread he said that in was called "the current ebay paypal fiasco" (i cant find it atm).

[cruikshank]

I've never had a paypal account so I wanted to try and get some feedback from the bitcoin community about the service.  I understand how a paypal account can have value and why someone would want to create one.  I've also heard bad things about paypal and how they can be very heavy handed. 

Any constructive replies will be very much appreciated 

Used it in the past for online purchases since it was easy enough, though I never kept any kind of balance; I would have the amount needed for payment wired to the account, and pay from there.

If you are going to make any transfers to it from a bank/credit union, see what, if any, fees your bank has for doing transfers.

[annelions]

I've never had a paypal account so I wanted to try and get some feedback from the bitcoin community about the service.  I understand how a paypal account can have value and why someone would want to create one.  I've also heard bad things about paypal and how they can be very heavy handed. 

Any constructive replies will be very much appreciated 

Used it in the past for online purchases since it was easy enough, though I never kept any kind of balance; I would have the amount needed for payment wired to the account, and pay from there.

If you are going to make any transfers to it from a bank/credit union, see what, if any, fees your bank has for doing transfers.

I've never seen any bank with fees for PP withdrawals/deposits. From what I can tell, as far as the bank is concerned, PP withdrawals and deposits work like regular checks. More or less. It's not an account to account transfer, which DOES cost money (I think my bank charges about $35 for that).

[LittleRichie]

paypal is american = evil ;-)

Ouch! My red, white, and blue heart hurts, lol.

Haha! I agree.

I use Paypal almost daily, it's the easiest way I have of moving money around.  The invoice feature is also nice.  Sure, they charge you for transactions, but it's worth it for the seller security.