Recently I stumbled upon this story.

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I have no idea why it is so long. Anyway it states how many people are choosing to create their own merchant accounts rahter than use the free Paypal. I am asking because I have a paypal account and I don't find it to be that bad. Though I am not entirely sure because I have only used it once.
Do any of you not trust paypal?

Having a merchant account gives you freedom. You are not bound by TOS and restrictions (ofcourse, the security and the standard ones will always be there).

Its like, In PayPal you have to create subscriptions and then manage stuff to collect monthly payments. Your billing software has to adjust according to the paypal facilities.

When you have your own merchant, things are cool. The billing system automatically sends him invoice and tells him to pay. Because there are no subscriptions, there is no fear of cancellation of subscriptions or things like that. Also, Administrators have more flexibility. They can send him custom invoice or invoice for some extra service or it can be anything.

PayPal also has pretty high fees when compared to a Merchant account. And morever, using paypal, you are also bound by their longest ever terms of service which was ever made.

I have been using PayPal for over a year now and have had ZERO problems. Most of the poeple who are having their accounts deleted/frozen are people who 1) don't verify their PayPal account by registering a credit card or 2) they deal with online companies known to have been involved in fraudulent activity or 3) they deal with alot of unverified PayPal users.

PayPal is really a good company from my experience. They don't just take people's money and screw them over. Really if you do have problems with PayPal freezing your account or whatever, it is probably because you weren't careful enough.

NEVER accept a PayPal payment from an unverified PayPal member. NEVER pay an unverified PayPal member, and never disclose your PayPal payment information to anyone who does not have a site security seal of approval like from VeriSign.

Hope this helps.

i have had paypal for a few months and have bought five or six things off ebay as of yet i havent had any real problems other than at first working out how to send money from a bank account, i doubt that i will encounter any problems from paypal and i hopw i dont

I've had my PayPal account for almost 4 years, and used the heck out of it when I was an eBay Power Seller. I've never had a single problem, and I've been through a chargeback, some kind of goofy error where a charge kept repeating--don't know who's fault it was, but PayPal got it fixed. I've also had to issue several refunds. I have a debit card. I transfer money into a checking account. I've also used their shopping cart system (but only once). Every experience has been fine--no hassles or headaches anywhere.

It is a pain to get set up, however. That nonsense about "it only takes a minute" is erroneous. Not only do you have to fill out a long application (unless that got easier when eBay took them over, but I doubt it) but you also have to fool around with their verification process, which involves a few pennies deposited to your checking account or a dollar or so charged to your credit card. Sorry to be so vague, but I set mine up so long ago, I don't remember and things may have changed since then.

My only experience with a real merchant account was also several years ago and it was a NIGHTMARE! I set it up for a consulting client. She paid through the nose to several different agencies. They all screwed her over. The ordeal was complicated, convoluted, and wound up costing her over $100 per month, which was more than her little business generated in revenue. PayPal may have higher fees, but you only pay if you sell something. Setup and maintenance are FREE.

I'm sure online merchant accounts have improved over the years, and, if you also sell stuff offline, a traditional merchant account may be the only way to go, but, if you're just starting out selling stuff online, IMHO, PayPal is the only way to go.

Suz

so how long has it been since ebay took over paypal already? we just had a local ebay recently (ebay.ph), hopefully we can have paypal soon. i've been waiting to get a paypal account for so long... years even!

Hi all,
never had a problem. You might want to do two things to protect yourself though...
1) Never leave any excess funds in your paypal account... this protects you from their funds "freeze" policy... which is automatic if any bozo makes a complaint... even if it's not justified.
2) Don't ever give them your credit card to "secure" your account... That giant sucking sound you hear will be them charging $$ to your credit card to "settle" disputes (even non-legitimate ones).
3) Make sure you always get a mailing reciept... to insure that you have a record that the products were sent.
Hope this helps
RGPHNX

Hmm, I think it's been about 1 1/2 to 2 years, but I can't remember fer shure.

Suz

As with all online payment and money processors, there will be risks. PayPal in my opinion the safest payment processors out there, and of higher quiality that StormPay. I think that much of these "PayPal horrors can be avoided if the users looked more carefully into how they are sending and using their money with PayPal, I've used paypal for more than 4 years and have not encountered any problems.