Re: Regarding PayPal (was Payments -> Bank Accounts)
This WebDNA talk-list message is from 2005
It keeps the original formatting.
numero = 63308
interpreted = N
texte = About PayPal. I use it with WhosComing.com as a payment option for my clients for their clients. The stigma of it looking amateurish is still with us. But there are other problems. You don't have to have a PayPal account to pay with PayPal, that's true. (In the past, they forced a non-client to take out a PayPal account if they wanted to pay, and this has undoubtedly led to the problems I'm about to describe.) So the process is easy for the customer who is a PayPal 'virgin'. And it's easy if you have PP and want to use those funds. But if you don't have PayPal (or don't want to go through your PP account and just use a CC instead) and if you use an email or a credit card that PayPal already has in its system, they won't take it unless you go through the PP account it is tied to. I've had more than one person say that they don't remember taking out a PP account and had to sign up for a different payment method (also take checks the old fashioned way, or payment at the event). Maybe their spouse took out a PayPal account and forgot about it or they paid with PayPal a few years ago and got into the system that way. I know there are password reminders and so forth, but this is the public... they often don't want to go the extra mile to figure things out. Another problem is that if a business or an organization takes out a PayPal account, as they sometimes do with my site, it can be difficult to establish uniqueness. I will set them up with a new email address, but then they have to come up with a bank account. This isn't too much of a problem, as most org. have a bank account. But sometimes the person administering the account can't add their own primary email address because they have a personal PP account. Now there's a new twist that just came up. In order to pull out more than $500 a month, you have to do 2 of 3 things: Confirm a bank acct or credit card (this is easy because they're already done that); submit your Social Security number; or take out a PayPal credit card. Well, again, if you have a personal PP account (and have raised your limit with your own SS# already), you can't use your own SS#; and if the account is really for your club or something, they don't have one and you don't want to forfeit your own if you might want to take your own PP account in the future. And who wants to apply for and take another credit card out just to satisfy PayPal?!?! And lastly, sometimes the PayPal site just doesn't work, is down, or something, and leaves people hanging. Oh, and the first page they come to is a little confusing offering too many choices at once. Remember, we here on the list are savvy with the internet, but the general public is not. So PayPal looks good on the surface, but after having several clients use it over the past year to take $$ for their events, its downside is patently evident. I love it for a personal business account and doing business on eBay though; (and I've even gotten over, sort of, how they blackballed me for a year for taking payments for foot fetish subscriptions). It just isn't ready for prime time in the business world. If PayPal would lift the restrictions of unique email, CC and so forth, and redesign the system to look more professional; even change the name to sound more professional, maybe it will be accepted for businesses. But right now, it just looks like the business using it is too small to have their own merchant account. Terry -- Terry Wilson | terry@terryfic.com | http://terryfic.com http://WhosComing.com - a simplified, affordable online reservation system http://TightPods.com -- stylish protection for your laptop -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attitude is the only difference between ordeal and adventure. ------------------------------------------------------------- This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list
. To unsubscribe, E-mail to: To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/
Associated Messages, from the most recent to the oldest:
About PayPal. I use it with WhosComing.com as a payment option for my clients for their clients. The stigma of it looking amateurish is still with us. But there are other problems. You don't have to have a PayPal account to pay with PayPal, that's true. (In the past, they forced a non-client to take out a PayPal account if they wanted to pay, and this has undoubtedly led to the problems I'm about to describe.) So the process is easy for the customer who is a PayPal 'virgin'. And it's easy if you have PP and want to use those funds. But if you don't have PayPal (or don't want to go through your PP account and just use a CC instead) and if you use an email or a credit card that PayPal already has in its system, they won't take it unless you go through the PP account it is tied to. I've had more than one person say that they don't remember taking out a PP account and had to sign up for a different payment method (also take checks the old fashioned way, or payment at the event). Maybe their spouse took out a PayPal account and forgot about it or they paid with PayPal a few years ago and got into the system that way. I know there are password reminders and so forth, but this is the public... they often don't want to go the extra mile to figure things out. Another problem is that if a business or an organization takes out a PayPal account, as they sometimes do with my site, it can be difficult to establish uniqueness. I will set them up with a new email address, but then they have to come up with a bank account. This isn't too much of a problem, as most org. have a bank account. But sometimes the person administering the account can't add their own primary email address because they have a personal PP account. Now there's a new twist that just came up. In order to pull out more than $500 a month, you have to do 2 of 3 things: Confirm a bank acct or credit card (this is easy because they're already done that); submit your Social Security number; or take out a PayPal credit card. Well, again, if you have a personal PP account (and have raised your limit with your own SS# already), you can't use your own SS#; and if the account is really for your club or something, they don't have one and you don't want to forfeit your own if you might want to take your own PP account in the future. And who wants to apply for and take another credit card out just to satisfy PayPal?!?! And lastly, sometimes the PayPal site just doesn't work, is down, or something, and leaves people hanging. Oh, and the first page they come to is a little confusing offering too many choices at once. Remember, we here on the list are savvy with the internet, but the general public is not. So PayPal looks good on the surface, but after having several clients use it over the past year to take $$ for their events, its downside is patently evident. I love it for a personal business account and doing business on eBay though; (and I've even gotten over, sort of, how they blackballed me for a year for taking payments for foot fetish subscriptions). It just isn't ready for prime time in the business world. If PayPal would lift the restrictions of unique email, CC and so forth, and redesign the system to look more professional; even change the name to sound more professional, maybe it will be accepted for businesses. But right now, it just looks like the business using it is too small to have their own merchant account. Terry -- Terry Wilson | terry@terryfic.com | http://terryfic.com http://WhosComing.com - a simplified, affordable online reservation system http://TightPods.com -- stylish protection for your laptop -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attitude is the only difference between ordeal and adventure. ------------------------------------------------------------- This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list . To unsubscribe, E-mail to: To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/
Terry Wilson
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