Paypal and Credit Cards

expeditionist

Hi

I'm about to make a purchase over £100 from an online retailer who's only takes payments via PayPal.

I have options to pay at PayPal with my credit card as a guest or by logging in to my Paypal account. Can either of those options alter the way in which the transaction is processed and so affect my eligibility to Section 75 protection?

And is PayPal Buyer Protection only for eBay transactions, or not?

Thanks for your help......

UsetheFORCE

As far as I am aware, there is NO section 75 cover as there is a third person, ie. Paypal. In order to be covered for section 75, your purchase must be DIRECTLY with the retailer.

Paypal protection is for purchases through Paypal, this may or may not be on ebay, bear in mind if you purchase through Ebay then they have their own buyer protection.

Regards

Gromitt

With Paypal you lose Section 75 protection, but you gain Paypal protection.

The later applies to any website which accepts Paypal payments, but the goods must be physical (ie, services are not covered).

Full T&Cs: https://cms.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/?&cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/UserAgreement_full&locale.x=en_GB#13.%20PayPal%20Buyer%20Protection

If your buying on Ebay, you get additional protection, flagged per item and clearly shown.

dalesrider

Gromitt wrote: »

With Paypal you lose Section 75 protection, but you gain Paypal protection.
.

So lose, lose then....

45 days compared to 6 years.....

But at worst you may still have chargeback options. Even though it is a long shot.

expeditionist

Thanks for all your replies guys, very helpful.

I suspected there was no Section 75 with PayPal, but was just wondering if paying as a guest was a more direct form of payment and made a difference, but it doesn't.

You've helped me realise in fact that you should never pay as a guest because you loose the PayPal Buyer Protection too.

I don't much like the fact that some online retailers are offering PayPal only, but it makes their websites easier to operate and their payment procesing fees are lower so it's understandable isn't it.

See ya, thanks

Hominu

From a sellers point of view, I'd disagree.

Paypal is more open to fraud, and so some companies do additional checks, or other accept payments from people with confirmed Paypal addresses and/or bank accounts.

Paypal can shutdown a sellers merchant account for any reason they please, and give you no access to the funds in your account.

They are also certainly not the cheapest.

However, a Paypal merchant account is easy to get and allows you to accept credit and debit cards (heck, I have one).

Once your business has been running for 12 months and you have a decent turnover, its worthwhile changing to another platform and only using Paypal when necessary or requested by the consumer.

expeditionist

Oh, sorry, got that wrong too, I just assumed the seller fees were cheaper than bonafide credit card payments. I wish more sellers thought like you Hominu and stopped encouraging PayPal only.

thenudeone

I disagree with some of the posts above.

Any card purchase requires the retailer to have a merchant account to process the transaction. Sometimes these are the big players like Barclays, sometimes smaller players like sagepay, Worldpay etc.

As a consumer you rights are the same regardless of what merchant your seller uses. IMO, that includes paypal when they are used as a normal card processor (i.e without signing in).

If you sign in to paypal, however, you are not using papal as a normal merchant processor, but are using their money processing services in accordance with your agreement with paypal, which includes the ability to pay by other means such as direct debit or from an existing paypal balance. In that case you don't get s75 or other protection.

So if you don't sign in to paypal (or if you don't have a paypal account), then in my view you are in no different position to anyone else using any other merchant processor. Paypal is simply acting as a card processor.

Gromitt

thenudeone wrote: »

So if you don't sign in to paypal (or if you don't have a paypal account), then in my view you are in no different position to anyone else using any other merchant processor. Paypal is simply acting as a card processor.

Problem with Paypal is:

If you attempt to make a payment with a card thats associated with an account, the payment is declined by paypal and you are asked to sign in to that account.

Otherwise you are asked for details like most payment processors would (name, address, email), but then you are asked to agree with the "Paypal terms and conditions" and if you accept, an account is created for you on your behalf. The payment is then processed, you are automatically signed into your new paypal account, and you can see the payment you have just made.

So I don't see how you can just use Paypal as a normal "card processor".

One thing I like about Paypal is the multi factor authentication. I type in my username & password and then PP sends me a OTP via SMS to confirm its me. Maybe this is how banks should work - instead of entering your card number, you login to the 'Visa Network' and authenticate your payment that way. The retailer never gets your card number, username or password, just a token from Visa with a transaction id.

thenudeone

Gromitt wrote: »

Problem with Paypal is:

If you attempt to make a payment with a card thats associated with an account, the payment is declined by paypal and you are asked to sign in to that account.

Not in my experience. In fact I just did one last night and it was processed without a problem.