The paypal thread....

[Belson]

Chaps,

I've been stung by Paypal once before, but wanted to start selling a few of the cast-offs I no longer need.

Thought I'ld give the Pal another go, and what on earth is all this business saying you have to sign up for a 'business' account to receive anything more than £250 in one month.

That or hand over all of your bank details..........errr I don't think so.

How do you guys use paypal? Experiences? Thoughts?

Mine??.........thieves & crooks and laughing all the way to the bank.

[pokester]

personally I don't have any problems with pay-pal

everybody seems to hate but i don't (yes gettin money out of the account is abit tricky )

I would get one if i were you some people only bid on stuff if there's pay-pal

[Belson]

Quote[/b] (pokester @ Nov. 24 2004,16:01)]personally I don't have any problems with pay-pal

everybody seems to hate but i don't   (yes gettin money out of the account is abit tricky )

I would get one if i were you  some people only bid on stuff if there's  pay-pal

But why don't you have a problem with paypal?

Have you given them your banking details?

It seems like you can't do any tranascations of note without giving them your details and upgrading to a business account.

And a business is one thing I'm not.

I've done some transactions using the missus' paypal, but now they're saying we can't use hers anymore without upgrading to a business or premiere account ie giving them bank details - something like you've reached your spending limit.

I just don't get it - you can receive a limit of £250 a month and spend a limit of £500??? why does this seem to be so difficult when certain people find it invaluable.

I need enlightenment cos at the moment, I really can't help but think this is a foil for a bunch of crooks.

[sermad]

Never had a problem with them. They have my bank details. Always been quick about taking money from my paypal account and putting it direct into my bank. No worries here.

[pokester]

[QUOTE=[b]Quote[/b] (Belson @ Nov. 24 2004,16:16)]

Have you given them your banking details?

I opend a bank account just for pay-pal transactions... (my brother uses it to ...)
I don't have any limitation in amount

[Belson]

[QUOTE=[b]Quote[/b] (pokester @ Nov. 24 2004,16:27)]

Quote[/b] (Belson @ Nov. 24 2004,16:16)]

Have you given them your banking details?

I opend a bank account just for pay-pal transactions... (my brother uses it to ...)
I don't have any limitation in amount

Aha - that's the kind of answer I was hoping for.

I can't see any other way to do it other than that. I mean there's no way in a million years I would give anybody my current account bank details - it just seems rather dodgy to say the least.

Cheers pokester. Anybody else with the horror stories?

[wayne]

Agree with Sermad & others here, in that I opened a standard account (which has a limit of £2500 in withdrawals) and when I hit that ceiling, 'verified' the account, which involved giving bank details, and a token sum is taken from the account, then repaid, in oder to set it up. Obviously they need bank details to transfer funds from Paypal to Bank accounts, but never had any problems with it so far: withdrawals from PP take 5 - 7 days to reach the bank, but always (thus far) have. Registering for a business account is only necessary if you want to receive Credit Card/Debit payments via paypal, as well as just Paypal accounts: I have one, and the 'business' angle costs no more, and is just a name they use, I think, rather than being like a bank's business account. Touch wood, never had any problems with it...

(No fingers crossed icon, then? Shame...)

EDIT: watch out for fake emails purporting to be from Paypal that ask you to 'log in' via a link in the email, though...there's a bloody pestilence of these around, and the only real security risk (like with your actual bank account or credit card details) is that you give your passwords/pins etc to third parties. Paypal only need the same bank detauils you'd give out to set up, say, direct debit etc, or transfer money between accounts, just as ebay require credit card details to debit fee payments each month...No riskier (maybe less) than handing over your cards in restaurants or shops, really.

[Belson]

But the thing that made me re-think was the fact they *were* asking for your bank details.

And from that perspective, it was good to hear pokester say that he set up a differrent account specifically for it.

Like I said, there's no way on this earth that I would want an organisation like Paypal to have the details to my current account. There's cause for misplaced trust right there and an accident waiting to happen in my book.

[wayne]

Quote[/b] (Belson @ Nov. 23 2004,17:56)]But the thing that made me re-think was the fact they *were* asking for your bank details.

Agree, but no more than with having, say, two bank accounts at different banks and transfering money between them. Obviously they do need bank details if you're going to transfer money to an account...but they *won't* ask for PIN numbers or other user-only access details...just sort codes, account number etc. The stuff everyone you send a cheque to gets because it's printed on the thing, really...

ANOTHER EDIT: Oh, and I gather the monthly limits bfor unregistered accounts, arbitrary as they seem, are to do with money laundering rules...

[Martin Lovegrove]

I've never had any problems with them... they've had my account details for years with no hassles or hiccups.

[Nick Cope]

Greg, if you want to pay for things via Paypal with your debit/credit card, or deposit funds from your Paypal account into your bank account, then how can Paypal perform these tasks without your bank details?

I can only guess that the reason that you have a limit before releasing bank account details is that they're not a clearing house.

I've never had a probs with them, apart from their exchange rates and seller fees of course...

[sermad]

Yes I got stopped from using paypal because I had over a certain amount of money coming in. You have to get a letter sent to your address and you type in a code from this letter. Its all pretty painless.

I dont see what the big fuss is with them having your bank details. You dont even have to have direct debits or anything to have money taken out of your account. I know because a bank I am not with set up a direct debit without my knowledge and stole money out of my account. How they go my bank details and authorised the payments was never discovered. I got my money back with an apology and that was that.

Seems anyone can pinch your money these days.

[Belson]

Quote[/b] (sermad @ Nov. 24 2004,18:12)]I dont see what the big fuss is with them having your bank details.

Clearly you're not as prudent as me when it comes to giving out personal information like that then, Serms.

Like I said earlier, Pokester came up with the answer with the 'set up a separate account' approach and transfer funds out of that. So looks like I should be able to use Paypal OK.

Giving details of my personal current account just ain't going to happen - I'm not stupid.

Cheers all.

[cold crush]

I believe it's possible to set an out-going limit with your bank.. just in case anything stupid was to happen. Also, you can cancel the direct debit at the bank (and send a letter to paypal saying that you have done this). I had to email Paypal twice before they gave me the address where to send the letter. But saying all that, I never ever had a problem with paypal. Well.... just the once maybe... I have a personal account that reached quite a fair bit of cash and paypal were wanting me to tick a box to agree that ... 'if the funds in the account were to become "unstable" then they would not be held responsible for any loss'. Whu ?? [email protected]@rds !!

Anyway, the simple rules are :

1. Don't let the amount get to high in the account.. Several reasons for this.. the main one is - if you were to unfortunately accept money from a dodgy credit card, paypal freezes your account for up to 6 months, however, thankfully, I really don't think this is possible anymore because of all the new security checks.

2. Don't ever click the link & put in your password in an email.