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Paypal is THE absolute worst place you can have money stored or linked.

hombre_fatal 7y ago
Yet they offer this critical feature that neither my bank nor credit card offer. Nobody in the space is batting for you, btw. Just pick your poison. I once used a bank that would reorder by purchases to maximize their $35 overdraft fees. > A Pew Charitable Trusts report from December 2016 said that, at that time, more than 40 percent of banks in the U.S. shuffle transactions to maximize overdraft fees. The fact that you and I both can come up with examples where Paypal sucks (like account freezing) is only evidence for how bad US financial services are where people like me still gleefully use Paypal. And the authorized billing system is one thing Paypal got right.
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  Privacy.com offers an alternative where you generate a new VISA card and they lock it down to a vendor. You can set limits. Once it gets leaked they notify you. Someone here on HN mentioned they were able to report it to their water company that their card was compromised on their site.
- Something1234 7y ago
  As an aside wouldn't the way to maximize overdraft fees be to apply transactions in sorted highest debit to lowest, and only then start to apply deposits. It wouldn't be so dark if they just mention it as how they do the fee charging.
  - mindslight 7y ago
    Yes, that is exactly what Bank of America used to do, including putting an overnight hold on cash given to a teller. Regardless of what the fine-print-nobody-reads said, it was "dark" and illegal and eventually stopped due to a class action lawsuit. (One of) their current scam(s) has gotten a bit cleverer in that they don't actually break the law themselves but rather just induce their customers to commit check fraud - if you receive a check drawn on Bank of America and present it in person at one of their branches, they won't honor it for the full amount!
octosphere 7y ago
Yeah but as per the parent post - Paypal makes revoking a recurring fee easier, as sometimes there is not an option within a particular SaaS product/service to disable recurring fees. Also it is impossible to login to Mastercard's systems to ban/revoke a particular service from charging your card.
forthispurpose 7y ago
whats the alternative for the ubiquitous payment processor on the web with a centralized interface that allows to communicate with the seller / buyer, addresses complaints, allows to cancel subscriptions etc?
- nicky0 7y ago
  Paypal is fine for sending and receiving payments, but just don't store your funds in PayPal. They have a tendency to seize your money at the drop of a hat. Sweep to bank account every day.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
fwxwi 7y ago
And the reason is...? I've been using PayPal for like 15 years and I've never had a problem with it. "Until you do" is not an acceptable answer to my question. Things work until they don't, that's not a reason not to use them.
- MaxBarraclough 7y ago
  The reason is their history of locking users out of huge sums of money, despite the users being legitimate. One of the more high-profile examples: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103385-PayPal-Freezes-750K-in-MineCraft-Devs-Account http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103385-PayPal-Free...
  - fwxwi 7y ago
    That's supposing I would be stupid enough to keep money in my PayPal account, which I'm not.
    - MaxBarraclough 7y ago
      How about having a card 'linked'? As far as I know, PayPal have no history of stealing money from linked cards.
- SmartJerry 7y ago
  It's not even that bad for users. Paypal sucks for people on the merchant side of the transaction. People who actually accumulate money in accounts are those that always complain. Merchants feel like they have to stick with it just to open up more payment options to their customers though. Now paypal even keeps all fees no matter if a customer returned an item. So if you are selling say cameras for $1000.If someone returns the camera. Paypal keeps about $30 - actually you are out $30 for every return.

Yet they offer this critical feature that neither my bank nor credit card offer. Nobody in the space is batting for you, btw. Just pick your poison. I once used a bank that would reorder by purchases to maximize their $35 overdraft fees. > A Pew Charitable Trusts report from December 2016 said that, at that time, more than 40 percent of banks in the U.S. shuffle transactions to maximize overdraft fees. The fact that you and I both can come up with examples where Paypal sucks (like account freezing) is only evidence for how bad US financial services are where people like me still gleefully use Paypal. And the authorized billing system is one thing Paypal got right.

giancarlostoro 7y ago
Privacy.com offers an alternative where you generate a new VISA card and they lock it down to a vendor. You can set limits. Once it gets leaked they notify you. Someone here on HN mentioned they were able to report it to their water company that their card was compromised on their site.
Something1234 7y ago
As an aside wouldn't the way to maximize overdraft fees be to apply transactions in sorted highest debit to lowest, and only then start to apply deposits. It wouldn't be so dark if they just mention it as how they do the fee charging.
- mindslight 7y ago
  Yes, that is exactly what Bank of America used to do, including putting an overnight hold on cash given to a teller. Regardless of what the fine-print-nobody-reads said, it was "dark" and illegal and eventually stopped due to a class action lawsuit. (One of) their current scam(s) has gotten a bit cleverer in that they don't actually break the law themselves but rather just induce their customers to commit check fraud - if you receive a check drawn on Bank of America and present it in person at one of their branches, they won't honor it for the full amount!

octosphere 7y ago

Yeah but as per the parent post - Paypal makes revoking a recurring fee easier, as sometimes there is not an option within a particular SaaS product/service to disable recurring fees. Also it is impossible to login to Mastercard's systems to ban/revoke a particular service from charging your card.

forthispurpose 7y ago

whats the alternative for the ubiquitous payment processor on the web with a centralized interface that allows to communicate with the seller / buyer, addresses complaints, allows to cancel subscriptions etc?

nicky0 7y ago
Paypal is fine for sending and receiving payments, but just don't store your funds in PayPal. They have a tendency to seize your money at the drop of a hat. Sweep to bank account every day.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

fwxwi 7y ago

And the reason is...? I've been using PayPal for like 15 years and I've never had a problem with it. "Until you do" is not an acceptable answer to my question. Things work until they don't, that's not a reason not to use them.

MaxBarraclough 7y ago
The reason is their history of locking users out of huge sums of money, despite the users being legitimate. One of the more high-profile examples: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103385-PayPal-Freezes-750K-in-MineCraft-Devs-Account http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103385-PayPal-Free...
- fwxwi 7y ago
  That's supposing I would be stupid enough to keep money in my PayPal account, which I'm not.
  - MaxBarraclough 7y ago
    How about having a card 'linked'? As far as I know, PayPal have no history of stealing money from linked cards.
SmartJerry 7y ago
It's not even that bad for users. Paypal sucks for people on the merchant side of the transaction. People who actually accumulate money in accounts are those that always complain. Merchants feel like they have to stick with it just to open up more payment options to their customers though. Now paypal even keeps all fees no matter if a customer returned an item. So if you are selling say cameras for $1000.If someone returns the camera. Paypal keeps about $30 - actually you are out $30 for every return.