<quote who="John Oliver"> > It's just far too common for PayPal to freeze funds or seize funds from > linked accounts if there's an issue. Their first concern is that they > not get stuck with the problem... they grab the money, and then sit and > take their time to figure out how to make the situation right. If you > sell something, get paid, and then there's a problem, the first thing > PayPal does is grab the money back from you. They aren't going to be > out. If I have a problem like that with my VISA, I'm covered.
PayPal is not a credit-based organization, and that should be understood by all users. It is literally cash, with all the implications a cash transaction would have. If you are the *buyer* in a disputed transaction, God forbid PayPal doesn't give you your money back in 10 seconds. Having worked in the industry I can tell you that people are pretty uptight about their cash, much less so about their credit. If I purchased something at a store with cash and when I got it home it was not what I intended or whatever, I would expect the store to give me my cash back immediately. The store should expect to return that money on the spot, too. It's how cash works. > I just do not see any real benefit to PayPal that outweighs the very > real risks that have been demonstrated again and again. The whole conversation started because some of us do not have credit cards and need to make payments online to merchants that only accept credit cards. In steps PayPal (or any other cash card) to allow non-credit card holding customers to buy said merchandise. While the advantage of PayPal over a credit card is in dispute, I think the advantage of being able to buy things online vs not being able to buy things on line is pretty high. There is also a privacy factor we haven't touched on (for cash cards in general.) There exists real-world cash cards of a temporary nature that need no ID to obtain. With all the talk on this list about privacy this and encrypt that and the government (US) snooping in credit card records without a warrent, transactions flowing directly through FBI computers, etc., I'd think this kind of payment scheme would be more popular. -Matt -- KPLUG-List@kernel-panic.org http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
