PayPal is My Friend
Written: Mar 18 '05
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Pros: Works well with Ebay; Accounts pay interest
Cons: Verification of funds takes too long
The Bottom Line: PayPal is a good friend in the world of on- line shopping, but I wish it would verify funds more quickly when I transfer money from my checking account.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: PayPal |
Do you partake in lots of on- line shopping? If so, then there is a good chance you have an account with PayPal, the on- line web service that helps its users transfer and receive funds for buying and selling merchandise on- line. This business was founded in 1998 and it is now part of the Ebay family of businesses.
How Does This Service Work?:
PayPal is used for the transferring of funds on- line. Here is a sample of what this site has to offer:
Send Money- This allows you to send money to anyone with an e-mail address. Money can be sent to any country where PayPal is accepted provided the currency used is U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, Pound Sterling, Yen, Euro, or Australian dollars.
Receive Money- The same rules that apply to sending money apply to receiving it. You can also bill people using PayPal regardless of whether or not they have their own PayPal account.
Merchant Tools- These tools allow members to setup web site payments, custom checkouts, and other services for their own business usage in an on- line environment.
Bill Pay- If you like, PayPal can be setup to process your on- line payments of bills. You just enter your account information for each of your creditors, making future payments quick and simple.
Other- PayPal issues its own debit card, with a 1.5 percent cash back incentive for all purchases made using the card.
User Fees:
Sending money is free of charge with PayPal and the majority of other services also carry no fee. Premier and Business account holders will have to pay a small fee that falls between 1.9% and 2.9% of the total when money is received. If the amount received is $3,000 or less, the fee is 2.9%; from $3,000 to $10,000, 2.5%; $10,000 and $100,000, 2.1%; and $100,000 and greater, 1.9%. There is a flat fee of $.30 added to all transactions, regardless of dollar value. Multiple currency transactions also carry a fee, of 2.5% per transaction. If you have a PayPal debit card, it will cost you $1.00 for any ATM withdraw. And if you request a paper check from PayPal, you will be assessed a charge of $1.50.
Customer Service:
Questions and concerns can be directed to the PayPal.com web site. There is a place where you can type in a question into a search function that will try to find an answer to match. There is also a place to e-mail questions and you can call 402-935-2050 between the hours of 7am and 1am Eastern time, Monday through Friday; and between 9am and 11pm Eastern time on Saturday and Sunday.
Final Thoughts:
PayPal is the best- known web service of its kind on the planet, with more than 64 million members in 45 countries around the globe. This site is one of the few in existence that performs this type of service- helping link together buyers and sellers of on- line goods.
I have been a faithful PayPal user for many years and the main reason I established an account with PayPal was because of my on- line auction activities with Ebay. It should come as no surprise to anyone that PayPal is an Ebay company. Since Ebay deals with auction sales, it is important that a service like PayPal exists, so that buyers and sellers can transfer funds quickly and smoothly. Ebay purchased PayPal in 2002 as part of its business plan to ensure that this critical component of Ebay shopping was taken care of.
Three basic account types exist at PayPal: Personal, Business, and Premier. With a Personal account, you can send and receive money and use a few other services. Premier allows customers the added convenience of accepting credit cards for payment and you must have Premier to get a debit card. The Business account takes all of the options available to the Premier user and adds multi- user access. Like most people, I have the personal account and the main reason I established an account with PayPal is because of Ebay. But since my transactions are usually small (less than $200), I can get the service I need at the Personal account level. I have only sold a few things on Ebay and they were all small- ticket items, so there is no urgent need for me to upgrade to the Premier level. The Personal account suits me fine at this time.
PayPal does have a few annoyances that prevent me from rating this service higher than I otherwise would. My greatest frustration is with the transfer of funds to a seller when I make a purchase on Ebay. The way I use Paypal, I do not keep a stash of money in my account for future purchases. If I did, the process would go much faster because the money would already be in place and verified. Instead, I leave my account empty and when it comes time to make a purchase, I then call on Paypal to transfer the money out of my checking account over to the seller. This is where the frustration sets in because, even though the money is in my checking account and ready for the taking, Paypal seems to take an awfully long time getting the money and sending it to the seller. It will usually take three or four days for Paypal to get the job done. And you all know how Ebay works- sellers will not ship your merchandise to you until the money is in their hands. This delay can be frustrating and you need to consider it if you need your merchandise asap.
Paypal keeps your transaction history in your on- line account where you can view it whenever you want. The web site allows you to see the history for one year. And Paypal is very concerned about security. When you logon to the site, after a very short time, the site will time out and insist you re- enter your password before you can move on. I don’t have a problem with this because I understand the reasons behind it. But I know that some people will grow impatient with the constant inputting of passwords.
One other thing that once made me a little suspicious about PayPal is the fact that it makes you verify it for your personal computer. What I’m talking about is the requirements to bypass your firewall protection. In order for PayPal to work properly on my pc, I had to add it to my firewall allowable sites. Each time when I access PayPal, I get a message that tells me PayPal needs to access my computer and it asks me if I want to accept. At first, this made me a little paranoid because it made me wonder if PayPal was getting access to other things on my computer. I know it’s just the way PayPal works, but it still bothered me a little. I don’t know if everyone has this problem or not, but it is something I cannot get around.
PayPal gives members a $5 bonus for finding new referrals. If you sign up a large merchant, they will even give you a cut of the referral’s credit card take- about .5 percent. This may not seem like much, but it can add up to a nice chunk of change if the merchant has a large volume of business. For first- time members, PayPal often offers a cash bonus to start you out. At present, this bonus is $10.
PayPal used to be a non- interest bearing account, similar to a checking account that pays you nothing regardless of your balance but charges you for its services. Now, PayPal adds interest to the accounts of its users via a money market fund. Anyone can sign up for this and the current rate of interest is 2.41 percent annually. This may not sound like much, but it is actually about three times higher than the interest payout from most banks for a standard savings account. The ability to earn a little interest on your stash of PayPal funds is a nice change. This used to be one of my primary criticisms of the site.
I have heard all sorts of PayPal horror stories but for me, this site has fulfilled my needs. I haven’t had any unforgivable problems with this service, even though I do get tired of waiting for my funds to get verified so Ebay sellers will ship my goods to me. I could easily avoid this problem by already having money there, in my account, waiting to be used. But I don’t want to go that route because, first of all, I like having my money in my checking account where I can quickly get to it when I need to and, second (and probably the most important reason), I worry that having money already in my PayPal account will turn me into an Ebay addict. I’m afraid I will start bidding for things and buying things I don’t really need just because I have money waiting to be used.
Overall, PayPal is a good web service for on- line transfers of funds. There aren’t many other competitors in this field so, whether we like it or not, PayPal is the company we must turn to for many of our financial transactions. For those who use Ebay, PayPal is almost a necessity. It makes buying and selling smoother than it would otherwise be, even though it can take a few days for the funds to clear.
Until a better service comes along, PayPal and I will remain on business terms. I don’t consider this service friendly enough to call my pal, but it is, at the very least, a pretty reliable friend that shows up when you need him, takes a little too long to do what he promises, but still follows through with what he says.
Recommended:
Yes
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