PayPal
Princeton
Computer User Group
Tuesday,
March 5th, 2002 6:30 pm
By Meagan Rodgers www.dazed81.com
Think of Paypal as a
bank account. Think of PayPal as a
bank. It’s a very secure way for you to
send money to anyone with an e-mail address.
You begin by opening a PayPal account.
Please Follow This Link To Sign Up For PayPal
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You will be
taken to a sign up page and prompted to enter the following information, your
name, address, zip code, telephone number, e-mail address, and a case sensitive
password.
You will be
required to give your credit card number.
Keep in mind that your local bank’s debit/ATM card IS CONSIDERED A
CREDIT CARD and WILL WORK IN PAYPAL’s System.
Once you take the steps to become a verified member, you may add a
checking account and you can set your account to draw funds from either your
credit/debit card or your bank account.
You can change this default or change this information for each
transaction. This will eliminate the
need to use a credit card. You will be
required to give the system your bank routing number and your checking account
number as well as your banks name and address.
Ron and I have discovered with experience that if you have a checking
account with CITIZENS First National of Princeton, you WILL NOT be able to use
your checking account through paypal.
This is NOT due to Paypal regulations, but instead due to the fact that
Citizens does not wish to support this type of transaction, this is said to be
common with small town banks. But have
no fear, if you have a checking account with Amcore Bank, Citizen’s First State
(Walnut, Ohio, Wyanet) or with Union Bank (Tiskilwa, Princeton, Manlius,
Tampico) you will have no problems with using PayPal in conjunction with your
checking account.
The
positive side of PayPal is that your account numbers and credit card numbers DO
NOT go to ANYONE including the person to whom you send money. This information is COMPLETELY secure and
never leaves paypal. Your money is sent
immediately to members of Paypal and debited from your checking account, or if
you use a credit card, charged accordingly.
The money is then transferred to the recipients paypal account and they
are able to either spend the money right out of their paypal account or deposit
it to their checking account. If you
receive money you can do the same. Keep
it securely in your paypal account until you need to spend it or deposit it
immediately into your bank account.
This is why PayPal is so powerful… no more waiting for those auction
payments on eBay…. And this also makes it VERY simple to get the items you have
won on eBay shipped immediately, without waiting for your money order to arrive
or for your personal check to clear, and without giving the seller any
information besides your mailing address to send your package.
PLEASE know
that this is a reputable well-known company.
They have a secure website. If
you have questions about this site’s security, you can visit the site’s
security center at http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/security-main-outside. You have $100,000.00 account insurance on
unauthorized transactions as well as PayPal’s Identity Verification Program and
you can check for yourself to see that their site is secure…
Secure Websites:
Whenever entering sensitive personal information (such as
checking account or credit card numbers) onto any website, make sure that the
website encrypts the information you send to, and receive from, the site. When
you log into your PayPal account, you will always be on a secure website. You
can check if the website you are using has this type of security in two ways:
- Check to make sure the URL
begins with "https" rather than "http"
- Look for a lock icon on the
bottom left or bottom right of your browser,
which should look like this:
Please keep in mind that your PASSWORD is what protects your
account. DO NOT TELL ANYONE YOUR
PASSWORD! DO NOT WRITE YOUR PASSWORD
somewhere where it can be discovered and linked to your paypal account. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to choose a
password that you feel is secure and to keep it to yourself.
VERIFICATION
What does it mean to be Verified?
A Verified
member maintains a confirmed bank account on our site. Because International
members cannot use our verification system, no International member will have a
Verified status.
Why does PayPal ask its members to become Verified?
Because financial institutions are required by law to screen account holders,
PayPal's verification process increases security when you pay parties you do
not know. Please note that PayPal's verification system does not constitute an
endorsement of a member, nor a guarantee of a member's business practices. You
should always consider other indicators when evaluating members, including
length of PayPal membership and reputation scores (on eBay or other auction
sites, if applicable).
Do I have to become Verified?
Once you have sent $1,000 with your PayPal account, you must become Verified
to continue sending money with our service. International accounts are subject
to different limits.
How does verification benefit me?
Verification gives you some more information about the people with whom you
transact through PayPal, so you may make more informed decisions. Please
remember that verification is currently available only to our U.S. members, and
a status of International simply means that we are unable to ascertain more
about the member at this time.
How do I take advantage of PayPal's verification process?
There are several ways to take advantage of PayPal's verification process and
decrease your fraud risks:
- When you receive a payment:
Login to your account and go to the "History" subtab of the
"My Account" tab. Find the payment in question and choose the
status link (e.g. "Pending") in the Status column. This will
take you to a payment details page. Next to the sender's name, you will
find their verification status (Verified, Unverified, or International).
- When you send a payment: As
you are sending a payment, on the "Send Money - check the details of
your payment" page, a reputation link is provided where you may view
the recipient's status (Verified, Unverified, International).
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The PayPal Verification System |
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To become Verified, a PayPal Member must provide us with proof
that he or she has a checking account. This tells us that you have passed the
screening process of a financial institution. That increases security in the
PayPal network, lowers our risk, and enables us to let you spend more through
the system!
How do I become verified? 2 easy steps:
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To Confirm your checking account,
paypal actually GIVES you money. Yes,
you heard me right. They DEPOSIT two
dollar amounts (actually cents amounts) into your checking account. All you have to do is contact your bank
(telephone call, personal visit, or via your monthly statement) to find out
what the amounts deposited into your checking were, and then confirm them by
logging into your paypal account and typing the required amounts into the
correct boxes on your screen. SIMPLE and
it not only doesn’t COST you a thing, it is secure and it actually deposits
money into your account, no string attached.
They never debit that money from your account. It is yours to keep.
The only fee associated with paypal is the fee to RECEIVE
money.
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Fees for U.S. Accounts |
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PayPal only charges Premier and Business
accounts to receive payments. Fees are the same for receiving international
payments. · Open an account · Send money · Add funds · Withdraw money to a
bank account |
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Learn
more about the Standard and Merchant Rates. |
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As you can see above, the fees to receive money are minimal. 30 cents is less than the cost of a
stamp. If you have an eBay auction and
you are worried about the cost of the PayPal fees, then increase your shipping
and handling fee by 30 cents. This will
cover your PayPal per transaction fee and not break your buyers heart, they are
paying you 30 cents and it is saving them the 34 cents to send you their payment
with a stamp on it. I personally eat
every PayPal fee. 30 cents plus my 1.4
percent fee is MINIMAL compared to the fact that I might not have sold the item
at all. If I would have sold it at my
town-wide garage sale I might have sold it for 25 cents or even a dollar, but
chances are the same items on online auction sites would be going for
significantly higher than your average garage sale price. So I am making money anyway.
It is free to use paypal to send money. It is also less expensive to use Paypal than to use eBay’s online
Billpoint payment system. The fees are
less and the system is (in my opinion) simpler to use. You can even send money to your Aunt Marge
and Uncle Earl in Timbuktu…. Even if they aren’t eBay members…. Because it
doesn’t cost Aunt Marge anything to join (Uncle Earl won’t even know what she’s
up to.) and as long as she has an e-mail address you can send her money and it
will be in her paypal account immediately.
Remember the days of wiring somebody money? Never again. Mailing that
check to Your Granddaughter in California for those 5 boxes of Girl Scout
cookies? Nope. Simple.
Cheap. Secure.
PayPal is also better than eBay’s Online Bill-payments because
Paypal lets you choose what to do with the money you receive. Billpoint does not. PayPal says you can keep your money here in
your account or you can deposit it into your checking whenever you wish at no
cost to you. Billpoint tells you
when you can have your money, and it is not nearly as fast as paypal- as
a matter of fact I think it takes almost as much as a week to get the cash into
your checking, and they don’t tell you when to expect it. It has always been my opinion that if it is
my money, I decide when and where it is.
So I personally prefer paypal.
ALSO check out PayPal’s brand new FREE Online Bill Pay
Service for Premier Members!!
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Pay Your Bills Using PayPal |
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Use your PayPal account to pay your bills online with PayPal's
FREE BillPay service, available exclusively to Verified PayPal members! You
can enjoy these benefits:
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GOODBYE to paying your bank for what is provided FREE
online.
Another good free bill bay service is www.checkfree.com (pay Illinois Power,
Verizon, AT&T, Sallie Mae Student Loans, Phillips 66 and Citgo Gas Cards,
many many store Credit Cards, as well as Cingular Wireless and Hundreds of
other Vendors- using your checking account!)
With PayPal you can sort your transactions by date to see your account history. This will show the debits and credits made to your checking/credit card as well as who you sent the money to, how much money you sent, the date it was sent, etc.
Please use this button
to sign up for your PayPal Account!
For spreading the word, taking the time to educate you about
PayPal and putting this paypal link on my website, I can earn $5.00 for each
person I refer – And each new Qualified Member will also receive $5.00 in their
paypal account for following my referral link.
Related Internet Links: The following are links to internet news
articles and other information that regards PayPal. Please Check
them out to get a wide view of opinions and information.
MSNBC Editorial on PayPal http://www.msnbc.com/news/511209.asp
(I
disagree with his opinions, but everyone has different experiences and
therefore derives different
conclusions, so you should investigate all aspects. Sometimes Safety and Security Compromises
Simplicity. I would rather be
safe. But that’s just my personal
Opinion.)
MSNBC
News Article- Unsatisfied Customers File Lawsuit against PayPal
http://www.msnbc.com/news/712822.asp?cp1=1
PayPal
Warning- A website set up by what appears to be a dissatisfied customer
C-Net
News Story on PayPal Lawsuit
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-842240.html
Louisiana
Forces PayPal to STOP Operation within State
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-834313.html
PayPal
Warns it could be forced to Shut Down!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/02/14/financial1705EST0169.DTL
Paypal Tanks As Ebay Revs Up
“This one is actually bad news. Hard as it is to imagine, ebay's Billpoint is even worse than Paypal. As much as I'd like to see Paypal learn that they can't ride roughshod over their customers, I don't want to see Paypal go away and ebay take over. As for ebay, they actually have it pretty easy. They can sit back and watch their competitor shoot themselves in both feet with their arrogant and heavy-handed mistreatment of their customers. Just as ebay stood by while Yahoo Auctions all but committed suicide, they can do the same with Paypal.”
Stock News http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/stocks/timarango/10009911.html
What does the Better Business Bureau
Have To Say About PayPal!? http://news.com.com/2100-1017-251418.html?legacy=cnet
This Site Is One I HIGHLY
RECOMMEND Checking out…
http://www.ygoodman.com/paypal.html
An
excellent compilation of actual customer stories as well as verified news
articles and other
information. EVERYTHING is here.
AuctionWatch’s PayPal Message Board
http://www.auctionwatch.com/mesg/list.html?num=47
So My personal Opinion,
after reading all of these articles…. ? I have never had a bad experience with
PayPal. I had no problems finding
PayPal’s customer service number. I
have used it many times without a single problem and called their number and
received excellent customer service. I do
know that Ron had a hard time finding their number and I had to get it for
him. I don’t know how hard Ron looked,
but I will agree that it isn’t posted in plain view for you to find. I do think that there is something to be
said for frozen accounts. I know that
this is a confusing process and if you are new to it, you could easily make a
mistake, resulting in your account being frozen. But the REASON that these accounts are being frozen is for
security purposes. Because when you can’t
go through the verification processes, etc. correctly, they automatically
assume that there is a problem… possibly credit card fraud or a scandal of that
type. Many of these complaints are from
people who admitted they did not know how to follow this or that instruction
and it lead them to trouble.
I think about my ATM”DEBIT
card. When I can’t remember my pin
number and I try about 15 times the ATM locks my card for about a day – Is this
a bad thing or a good thing? That
depends on how you look at it. Sure, it
may REALLY tick me off, but is it the bank’s fault for trying to protect me, or
is it my fault for not remembering my pin number? It all depends on how you look at it. From what I am seeing, the problem lies not in the freezing of
the accounts, but in the inability to get them unfrozen. I can’t tell you if it is because it is
impossible to do so, or if because the people who have their accounts frozen
are simply unable to understand the steps it takes to do so. My advice to you as a consumer is to do your
research. Last week I was a PayPal Cheerleader. This week I have put down my pom-poms and
decided that it may be best to ride this one out.
I recommend not signing up
for PayPal in the middle of this “situation.”
Wait until the investigation proceeds.
If PayPal does get shut down, it won’t have done you any good to have
given them your information as a user and then not be able to use the
service. I will be honest. After reading all of these “horror stories” I
have been tempted to just “Un-Sign” up for PayPal. But after gathering my senses I remember that most of them could
be urban legend material. They could be people who are dissatisfied for
other reasons…. Perhaps they are scam artists and hackers who are ticked off
that PayPal caught them and stopped them from their heinous actions. They could be spreading false information
and rumors just out of spite. So I will
just sit back and watch with wide-open eyes.
I suggest you do the same.
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