PayPal - My, My - How Times Have Changed
Written: Aug 09 '03
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Pros: So darn easy to use and addictive too...
Cons: Those fees will get you everytime...
The Bottom Line: It's like an allergy shot - it hurts. Still, you keep going back for more because you just gotta keep on believing that over time, it will pay off.
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| kristinafh's Full Review: PayPal |
A History Lesson
Listen up kids. 1999 was a significant year for many of the dotcom's including our own little Epinions. Right and left, the web sites popped up, offering us these great incentives to join, partake, use, etc...
One of those other sites that appeared out of (what seemed like) nowhere, was PayPal.
Yessirree bob. Back in 1999, PayPal was just starting out (owned by something called X.COM), snagging us all in with the promise of free money ($10.00 when you sign up!) and ease of use (click here! click there! you're done!). The premise back then was quite simple. PayPal was an online, financial institution whereby you could send and receive monies from other entities. The first time I used it was for an auction through eBay. I thought - hey - this is pretty cool! I don't need to send a check and I'll probably get my thing (who knows what it was) sooner!
At the time that I joined (3 years and 8 months ago), there were no real fees. Oh, I think I remember something about getting charged something if I charged over a certain amount but heck - that was so long ago.
Honestly, I didn't pay much attention to the fine print for PayPal. Once my obsession for eBay dried up, I stopped using the site.
Flash forward several years (2002). Here I sat, ready to obsess over eBay items once again. Sigh. Almost everyone used PayPal in their auctions and not wanting to stand out from the crowd, I figured that I should check the place out again.
Surprizingly, my account was still there and ready for use. But wow - had things changed! So, if you are/were in the same boat with me and wonder how PayPal has evolved since you joined three years ago, hop aboard for the info!
The Present
Alrighty now. There are three types of accounts: Personal, Premier, and Business. The difference lies in what you are able to do and what fees you get to pay.
Personal - Send and receive money for free (but no credit cards - must already be in your account or from your bank account)
Premier - Send money for free, Receive money for a fee (unless it's in that person's account already), free atm debit card, "exclusive" customer service hotline 7 days a week.
Business - All of the above, plus multiple login's.
Now about those fees. I don't want to get caught up in too many details so let me just give you a small taste. If someone pays you using their credit card, you will be charged a percentage (ranging from .07 to 2.9) and some change - 30 cents.
Obviously, people upgrade to the Premier account so that they are able to accept credit card payments for their auctions. Otherwise, why else would you be willing to incur the fees? Uh-huh.
About two months ago, PayPal was sucked into the entity we know as eBay. Looks like eBay is working on becoming the next Microsoft...
Answers To Your Burning Questions
How's their customer service? I will tell you, since eBay took them over, I have seen a great increase in responsive times and accuracy to questions. It used to be that I would get the generic auto-response, followed up - gawd knows when - with a human, generic, non-answering, response. Just last week, I had a question that wasn't listed as a FAQ. I received the auto-response and in less than 24 hours, a real human sent me back an email that answered the question fully. Hey, I appreciated that!
How's the integration between eBay and PayPal? For awhile now, the check-out feature of eBay has taken you over to your PayPal account in order to complete the transaction. Once paid, your eBay account page will show that you have paid through PayPal. Since the official purchase, eBay has added PayPal to their long list of community boards, chat, and help features. Of course, if you do have an issue with PayPal - even if it pertains to eBay - only the PayPal people will be able to answer it for you.
Does any other shopping site besides eBay accept PayPal? Yup. Over 42,000 other shopping places accept PayPal as a form of payment.
Is PayPal only for the U.S.? Nope. A total of 38 countries are able to participate in PayPal. And yes, PayPal does do currency conversions too.
So what's your biggest pet peeve about their web site? Thanks for asking! I'm not a technie chick so please excuse me if I label things incorrectly. Whenever I'm looking at my account information, I am in a "secured" area of the web site. I cannot go back in my browser or else I get some sort of error (something has expired). PayPal does furnish me with a specific button to go back to the page I came from however, I'm a creature of habit and my habit is to click on the back button on my browser.
I'm so unorganized. Does PayPal do a good job of tracking payments in and out of my account? Absolutely. In fact, I have to wonder - could they balance my checkbook for me :). PayPal has a wonderful history log of your transactions. Not only do they have a neat search engine but also, they allow you to download all of the information.
What if I want to take my account balance from PayPal and put it somewhere else - like my own pocket? You can do this. Either make a request for an electronic funds transfer or ask for a paper check to be generated. Your other alternative is to sign up for their ATM card (gotta be a Premier or Business account to do this) and then withdraw the money yourself.
Does PayPal still pay a referral fee? Yes - it's still one of the few places to do so. Every account has a unique referral number associated to it. You can send that number or a link to the person you want to refer and if they sign up, you've got $5 in your PayPal account! Well, I don't want to mislead you on that - there are some other requirements that your friend must meet. You can go to PayPal's web site for more info.
The End
PayPal - like a normal checking account at a credit union/bank - is a necessary evil in the world (that is, if you're a heavy eBay user). Is it the be-all, end-all in online financial institutions? Absolutely not. The problem is - they have no competition. On the positive side, they are slowly, trying to make their offerings consumer friendly and as flexible as possible.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kristinafh
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 - Top 50 |
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Member: Kristina Frazier-Henry
Location: Indiana
Reviews written: 1344
Trusted by: 1169 members
About Me:
Cannot breathe. Missing Barbara.
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