Warning! Don’t use PayPal to pay on a credit card

roubiliac

maggiebiz wrote: »

As someone who both buys and sells on eBay I can assure you all categorically that Paypal protection is just as good as, if not better than, section 75. There may not be a direct legal relationship but as a seller I can attest that in any dispute Paypal ALWAYS lives up to its claim of 100% buyer protection. I have invoked it as a buyer and suffered from it as a seller, since even when I am clearly being scammed by a buyer (the parcel arrived empty, the item was smelly, you name it) Paypal always always gives the buyer the benefit of the doubt and takes the money directly from the seller's account and refunds the buyer. MSE is over-dramatising the problem here.

On the contrary you succinctly illustrate what a cowboy company PayPal is. Plus the 180 day warranty all sellers have to give buyers on eBay is ridiculous.

JonathanJohns

Martin Lewis you have really dropped a clanger on this one. You are doing damage to business on eBay for many people. Highly unprofessional to use such a one sided tabloid type shock headline. It's very misleading & it's not explained properly at all. Many people BUY & sell USED items on eBay & the best way to pay for them is with PayPal. Not a credit or debit card. This flagrant headline seeking, self promotional behaviour is utterly thoughtless. It needs to be rectified immediately.

JonathanJohns

When Paypal & eBay eventually split I wonder if the eBay purchase protection will remain the same. If it does remain the same then why should there be better protection for just eBay purchases? Will they extend it to all purchases? If not then why?

d123

JonathanJohns wrote: »

Martin Lewis you have really dropped a clanger on this one.

You do realise that Martin Lewis is just a figurehead picture on the website these days?

He sold out to moneysupermarket.com years ago and they run (and decide the editorial content) the website now.

JonathanJohns

d123 wrote: »

You do realise that Martin Lewis is just a figurehead picture on the website these days?

He sold out to moneysupermarket.com years ago and they run (and decide the editorial content) the website now.

Oh dear. I never knew that but I am not surprised. Money changes everything

samwardill

JonathanJohns wrote: »

Oh dear. I never knew that but I am not surprised. Money changes everything

Personally I think this is great personal finance journalism and I commend whoever wrote it (and Martin Lewis for setting up MSE in the first place).
:money:

green_lantern

I used my visa bankcard to pay for a phone (£441) I bought on ebay, paying for it through Paypal, two days later the seller, through ebay wrote cancelling the sale, stating a refund would be made. No refund appeared, so raised a complaint with ebay. Their reply was for me to contact the seller and after 5 days they would get involved. It was blatantly obvious the seller (by his email to me) cancelled the order but 5 days came and went and then it got passed to Paypal. They then wanted another eight days to process the refund. I contacted my bank making them aware. They replied that S75 did not apply but they would do a chargeback and refund my money, which they did, and carry out an investigation and depending on the outcome they may take back the payment! I then got an email from Paypal acknowledging my bank chargeback and stating they would work with the bank re this! Paypal & ebay are quite happy to take your money but their refund system sucks as you get passed from pillar to post. Using Paypal is just like handing over your cash to the seller.

Nicwhit

I am having a dilemma at the moment. We are due to pay the balance of our holiday ( rental of a gite in France) which is £ 4000.00 and as this was found through a website called Holiday Lettings we thought the booking would go through them. However Holiday Lettings are similar to Chez Nous ( basically a marketing tool for owners to showcase their properties) wed have booked with owners directly on many previous years with no problems. But on returning last year we read all sorts of horror stories in the Press about people being the victims of fraud and paying money for holiday rentals that didn't exist etc. So This year we thought instead of paying a bank transfer into the owners bank account ( details he has furnished us with) we would pay him by credit card which he has give as an alternative option. BUT this is a credit card payment through his paypal account ( which incidentally costs us an extra 3%) and before we have done this we have just found out that if we do this we have no more protection than making a bank transfer into his account!!!! Having asked the bank for advice they have offered NONE!! any ideas??? I have looked into trying to get extra insurance to protect against this. The one company who provides this has said we cannot purchase this insurance because we are due to travel within 3 months ( holiday dates 15th August - 29th August) and the cover is only valid if purchased over 3 months before date of travel!! HELP!!!!!!!!!

lisyloo

we have just found out that if we do this we have no more protection than making a bank transfer into his account

Where did you get that information?
Have paypal told you this? or are you assuming it because you've seen that section 75 doesn't apply?
Whay doesn't paypal protection apply to your transaction?
Is it becuase of a time limit (45 days?) or something else?

Ultimately you shouldn't book things if you aren't happy with the terms and conditions although I'm aware that there has been recent media attention on this so it's something you might not have been aware of.

Have you checked reviews?
If the owners have been there 20-30 years in then the risk may be small.

FairTrial

Nicwhit wrote: »

...We are due to pay the balance of our holiday ( rental of a gite in France) which is £ 4000.00.... BUT this is a credit card payment through his paypal account ( which incidentally costs us an extra 3%) and before we have done this we have just found out that if we do this we have no more protection than making a bank transfer into his account!!!! HELP!!!!!!!!!

If it is a con (and it could be), then you could be about to be defrauded. I am not sure if PayPal's protects you in this circumstance or not.

Either way, you should be using an escrow service operated by an FCA authorised company to pay the £4,000.

Popular escrow services charge just £5.98 to fully protect your payment (much, much lower cost than 3%), and provide equal protection to both you and the landlord - so you are both fully simultaneously protected.
The protection depends upon the conditions specified for the escrow, but as you set the conditions yourself, this should not be a problem if you set them correctly.

Escrow in such a circumstances is one of the advised payment methods recommended by the Metropolitan Police - but make sure the service you are using is FCA authorised.

If necessary, escrow can be used too for Euro denominated transactions (similar costs), and is also worthwhile for much smaller amounts.