Is PayPal safe?

dhui

I was considering signing up for a PayPal account to allow people to pay for auctions quicker. However having been to sites like "PayPalsucks.com", I'm a bit worried about being stung by PayPal and as such do not wish to use them until I can confirm that they will not suddenly shut my account down and start draining it of funds, as seems to have happened in the US.

JPS

It's a very very hard question to answer. Personally, I like Paypal, as (touch wood) nothing has ever gone wrong for me with them. I know what a lot of people say about them and I agree to a certain extent, but I accept it on all of my auctions.

It will immediately gain you more bidders if you accept it as bidders often prefer it. It also allows you to finish a transaction so much quicker, as once a winning bidder has paid you know you have the funds and you can then send the item straight away.

They will not suddenly shut your account down providing you do everything correctly. I have heard they will attempt to recover funds if a stolen credit card is used to pay for one of your auctions, but the chances of that happening are very low.

Use Paypal, and try not to worry about the minor problems that might occur, because they probably won't do.

David_Brent

I personally hate paypal, they are very un-secure, and if you read their terms and conditions they have so many 'get out clauses' incase you get 'ripped off'. If you do go for paypal never leave a penny in your account always withdraw the money straight away. Try to pay by credit card also rather than debit.There are now programs available that people can download that will help retreive people's paypal account passwords - which someone employed by paypal made. So make sure your password is a mixture of both letters and numbers so it makes it harder for them to attack your account. There are increasing nmubers of accounts being attacked this way, and transactions leaving peoples accounts that they never knew a thing about! Paypal love to restrict accounts for as long as possible if somthing goes wrong, while they "hold" your money in their accounts building up their interest with your money, until a resolution has been made. Good Luck!  ;D

dhui

From the sounds of things I'm getting mixed messages here. I think I'll wait until I get more replies before committing either way.

scheming_gypsy

i use it for most of my ebaying. just a pain in the rear end when they hit you with a big charge. ie £6.12 for a £170 sale

angelcake

I think it is a risk with whatever you do on the internet!
I use paypal but don't feel entirely safe doing so, Everytime I build the amount up to £50.00 I withdraw immediately! (£50 or over you don't get charged for withdrawing- anything below you do...although don't know how much the charge is!) At least this way I won't lose huge amounts of money .....although it may be a months worth of ebay money! (yep need to get my butt in gear!). Everyones advise will differ! basically if you trust the internet enough to use bank online etc....and you have a good firewall then you will probably end up using it! just keep making sure you check it regularly for any changes and change your password regularly! Good Luck whatever you decide! ;D

scheming_gypsy

person who's name i've forgotten already.. it's 25p upto £49.99

soolin

I like paypal, realistically I couldn't operate on ebay without it.

I sell and buy overseas and paypal is a quick and painless method of sending or taking payment. Yes the fees might seem high but compare that to getting the bank to make an overseas payment in a foreign currency, or accepting a foreign cheque.

Yesterday all my sales finished with paypal, they are all paid and I have all the parcels packed and ready to go to the post office this morning. On the other hand I have a major problem with a cheque that was paid into my account nearly a month ago and which is being recalled, and a payment by postal orders posted two weeks ago that look like they are lost in the post.

Yes I'd like paypal to be cheaper but in over 1000 positive transactions I have never hit a problem I haven't been able to sort out (yet).
Soo

Hintza

I couldn't operate on EBay without it either. Not 100% happy with it but if you plan to sell on Ebay it really is a must (esp if you sell overseas).

I would follow angelcakes advice and keep your float to a minimum.

Hmm better go and empty mine I suppose and practice what I preach.

soolin

I should have said that I also follow Angelcakes advice and never leave a balance in my paypal account. As soon as it reaches £50 I whip it out.

Soo

dhui

OK guys. Thanks for the advise. I do use the internet to buy things from places like Play and Amazon and I do have net access to my bank details so you could say I trust it in that respect. I think I'll not accept PayPal for the current round of auctions I'm holding but I'll sign up for an account later.