I just recently signed up with paypal mostly to buy stuff from people on this board.

The most annoying thing is that there is a fixed amount of money I will ever be able to spend there because (a) I only gave them one credit card number, and (b) I refuse to link in a checking account.

You think this would be good enough since that credit card will cover anything I need to buy. I won't give them any more credit cards to limit the possible extent of fraud due to their (potentially) crappy online security. I won't link in a checking account because if anybody pays me I'll have them issue me a check (too many horror stories about paypal draining people's checking accounts).

So they gave me some randomly assigned initial limit which gets decremented with every purchase I make. When it's done, I'm done (unless I transfer money for them to hold for me (yeah, right)).

The second most annoying thing about paypal is that they regularly accost me with email and with a message every time I log in, letting me know that I need to be "verified" to lift these restrictions. I.e., link in my checking account, provide them with my social security number, and give them my Mother's maiden name.

Fat Chance, Buddy!

They are very very eager to get their hands on my checking account. And I don't trust them any farther than I can throw a truckload of shredded Enron documents.

My sentiments exactly. I had linked in a checking account and had no problems. But after I heard the stories I figured I've been taking my chances for long enough. I'm going to be selling things on eBay worth more than $25 once in a while... and I damn well want to get the money when I do. I have deleted the checking account and the spending limit has returned. When I've reached it, well, most sellers have more than one form of acceptable payment. In fact, the seller of the last auction I won doesn't accept any form of electronic payment. There's a good old-fashioned money order on its way to him now.

When I first heard about Paypal, I thought it was a great idea. I didn't think about what could go wrong. I have since removed my checking account also. This is a great opportunity for a reputable financial institution to step up and take away all of Paypals customers with a safer format.

Yes. A company structured like PayPal, that was legally allowed to act like a bank, with some actual insurance backing up the money that's moving. One that would cover the user of the service... and not just the service's ass.

> This is a great opportunity for a reputable financial
> institution to step up and take away all of Paypals
> customers with a safer format.

Isn't that what c2it from Citibank is supposed to be?
(If you call Citicorp reputable, that is. At least when they screw you it is all clearly put forth in their account agreements. I call 20+% credit cards usury, when money markets are returning only a few percent.)

But in any case, they *are* a bank, governed by laws and covenants thereforeoverunder applied henceforth in perpetuity ipso facto ad nauseum.

Can I hear a "habeus corpus" brothers and sisters!

I know of the risk. I know three people that work at Providian at the moment and I made sure to get fully briefed before I decided to go ahead and get the card. Thank you for the warning though. From what I've heard from them, Providian has pretty much settled with selling/closing accounts and are not taking any more new accounts (aside from ones that are through other companies, like PayPal). In addition, they aren't authorizing larger card limits (my PayPal card only has a $2,000 limit).

So are there any players left?

So in the US a company can just help themselves to funds from your chequing account? This isn't possible in the UK - they can deposit, but they can't withdraw anything without my bank being in possession of a direct debit authorisation. The direct debit guarantee ensures that I get my funds back immediately and automatically in the event of a dispute. In any case PayPal don't use Direct Debit.

The worst they could do is withold funds in my paypal account, which I empty out within minutes of receiving anything

If they find a way to rip me off I'll let you know!

Rob

I have a zero balance with it. I don't like cancelling credit cards because of the adverse effects on the credit rating.

Calvin

I don't like cancelling credit cards because of the adverse effects on the credit rating.

Funny. I thought that one's ability to get a loan was often dependent upon their debt potential. For instance, if I have enough open credit cards to run me up into bankruptcy, I would be less likely to be approved for a home loan than someone without a bunch of open credit cards but with the same current-debt-to-income ratio.

I should ask my wife about this, since she's a banker.

If I have $100,000 of credit, with $3000 spread across 8 different cards, that gives me a debt to credit ratio of 3000/100000 = 3%. If I start canceling cards, and consolidating, so that I now have 2 cards, and only $10,000 of total credit, my debt-to-credit ratio jacks up to a whopping 30%. It would adversely affect credit in the same manner if I did not cancel cards and instead spent $27,000 in a short period of time.

Calvin

8 cards! I thought I was bad.

That's was speaking hypothetically. Good god I don't have 8 cards. :-D

Calvin

I heard on the radio this morning on the way to work that Ebay has just purchased, or made a deal to purchase, Paypal. Is this a good thing for Paypal users, or does it place a black mark on Ebay?

I am interested. [email protected]

Yes, ebay is buying paypal for $1.5 billion. Hopefully they'll fix paypal's reputation.

That is great news.Tthe one semi-bad thing about ebay is the payment thingy. If they can sort that Ebay will only get better.

I'm new to Paypal but I've read the horror stories. If Ebay can sort it out, then woohoo!

I probably have more than that. I don't even remember. I use one and have a balance on anoither that I'm paying off slowly since the interest rate is a promotional one less than my mortgage.