Speaking Of PayPal

[launderess]

Am putting this here to get the word out for those (like myself)who don't often venture over to "As The Tub Turns" or "Dirty Laundry".

If you never bothered verifying your PayPal account you may have or will be getting an email soon which reads in part:

"To continue sending* or spending money directly from your PayPal balance, please provide us with a bit more info so we can confirm your identity. We do this to help keep your account secure and support regulations that fight money laundering and fraud."

"Keep a PayPal balance and confirm your identity by 1/27/19
Click Confirm Your Identity, or log in to your account and click the Notifications icon at the top of the page, then follow the instructions. You'll only have to do this once. Then you can keep using your balance the way you always have. Any automatic payments you have will continue to be paid from your balance. This includes subscriptions, installment plans, recurring payments, and even occasional purchases from certain merchants."

"Don't keep a PayPal balance
It's your choice whether to confirm your identity, but if you don't do so by 1/27/19, you won't be able to spend or send money* from your balance. Instead, you can log in to PayPal whenever you receive money and transfer it to your bank in about a day for free, or in minutes for a fee.**"

What it all boils down to is by end of January 2019 unless one has verified their PayPal account accepting funds and leaving them in the account for use to make payment shan't be allowed. You can move the funds to your bank, but that seems to be about all.

The verification process asks for one's DOB and full SSN, then for last four digits of same.

Now one hasn't bothered much with eBay nor PP for that matter other than the occasional one off of selling, and or sending payments.

Never gave them bank information because don't trust them an inch; have seen too many fingers burned. Am not too keen on giving them my personal information either.

 

[toploader55]

I had a number of security hack attempts.

I received a email stating to update my CC and personal information. I checked the email address and it didn't look right. The email had the PP logo though.

I called PP and they asked me to forward the email. Well, sure enough... They wanted Credit Card info and the rest.

PayPal wrote and said they will address you by name only and PayPal should be part of the email address.

If anyone gets anything suspicious they should forward the email to [email protected]

They do want to stay on top of scams and fraud.

What a Time we live in. And I rarely use PayPal anymore.

 

[launderess]

Never minded so much about credit cards with PP

All my cards will shut things down if they sniff out fraudulent activity, and or is reported. Any such charges are refunded, but thus far nothing has happened.

However giving your bank account information to PP can cause a world of issues.

People have experienced problems ranging from hacks to PP causing holds or other authorizations that play havoc with your account.

Again mainly use PP to pay for things on eBay or wherever else it is accepted instead of using my CC. Ebay actually goes back to when they bought PP and forced everyone to use that service to pay for anything.

Now that the two have parted ways officially, eBay still uses PP to process payments if you choose "check" or "debit" even if you don't have an account.

Checked around the Internet and PP's forums, quite a few are not happy about these changes and likely are going to leave PP.

 

[justjunque]

I received that e-mail from PayPal.
I'm not comfortable giving them the additional information, and I've never used their service to make a payment using anything but the credit card that they have on file.

But, I do intend to eventually start selling off some of my years of accumulated hoard.
And, despite the fees and such, figured that the "bay" would be the best way to do it.
I wonder if I would run into hassles with receiving payments if I don't jump through their hoops.
Why do they always have to make things more complicated?

Barry

 

[launderess]

There won't be any "hassles", unless one has misunderstood by end of January in the new year either an account is verified or no. If the latter as PayPal states deposited funds will no longer be available for use. No bill paying, sending it to someone/or thing else, nicht, none, nothing,

Only thing one can do is transfer funds to a bank account. This creates it's own worries because now one has given PayPal access to one's bank account, and probably much more information as needed to verify that process.

To be fair don't think this is all fault of PP; federal government for several years now has been leaning on peer to peer payment services on various fronts.

First salvo over the bow was the new IRS reporting requirements. That caused many people to cut back on PP use because under then terms long as an account remained under reporting limits it didn't have to be verified. Now comes this fresh nonsense that apparently in an effort to combat money laundering, fraud and God only knows what else, peer to peer services must "know their customer" as they say in financial circles.

Am betwixt and between on this; don't sell that much on eBay. But do use PP say when a member of this site buys something from one's stash and or want to send money for same.

Many people also set up their accounts ages ago and have since married or otherwise had a name change. People are moaning that in cases whatever systems PayPal is using to identify/verify doesn't reflect this change. So they have to send copies of paper documents (drivers license, SS card, etc...) to PayPal

 

[lordkenmore]

Thanks for letting us know about this...

 

I don't use PayPal much, since I don't shop on-line much. But I still have a few dollars balance that I guess I'd better plan to use up soon.

 

I don't really like either option. I don't like providing SS # to anyone unless absolutely  necessary, and I especially don't like the idea of linking PayPal to a bank account. I've heard too many horror stories of someone hacking into one's PayPal account, and sucking one's bank account dry.

 

One option I toyed with at one time was to set up a low balance bank account that would be only used for things like PayPal. But, at this point, even if I could afford to shop on-line, I'm not sure I'd shop enough to make the hassle of having another bank account worth it. It's just easier to say "goodbye, PayPal!"

 

 

[justjunque]

I was thinking of doing the same thing, for when/if I eventually started selling on eBay.
Just setting up a dedicated bank account that was exclusively for receiving PayPal payments from buyers.
I'm with you though. I'm just not comfortable giving anyone my SS#.
Especially in this day and age.

Barry

 

[launderess]

Been There and Done That

Set up a savings account to transfer PayPal funds into; then the fun started.

By federal laws withdrawals from savings accounts are limited to a small amount each month (six IIRC). This includes transfers to other accounts such as checking over draft protection. Exceed this number (and one did on several occasions), and bank will send a kindly letter admonishing the purposes of a savings account, and that by federal laws...... Furthermore if one continues in said fashion they will have no choice but to close account.

Then comes the fact finding a "free" any sort of account from a bank is difficult these days. Nearly all are only free of fees if one maintains a minimum balance.

Old savings account required a minimum daily balance of $100. Well when the economy tanked and interest rates fell to 0% it made no sense to park money in an account that was paying a whopping few pennies of interest per. So shut the thing down.

Also at that time PP was charging fees to any funds transferred to bank accounts. So it just made sense to leave what little money one made from eBay or whatever sales in PP, then spend it on things purchased online.

From what one can see now PP does not charge fees if you use a "slow" bank transfer. The fast one OTOH seems not to be free.

 

[frigilux]

I haven’t used PayPal or so much as perused EBay for years. Does the ‘Bay still require buyers to use PP or can you use your credit card? Apologies if I’m asking something obvious to everyone else, LOL.

I do a lot of online shopping and some of the sites I purchase from give you the option between PP or credit card. What exactly is the advantage of using PP?

 

[launderess]

Hi Frig!

 

[launderess]

No, eBay spun off/sold PayPal a few years back now. You can pay for items won on eBay with any credit or debit card, but as noted PP still process the transaction for fleaPay.

Advantage at one time of PP was that you weren't exposing your credit card number to questionable online or whatever retailers. Much of that now is muted by various new security features built into and or come with credit cards.

The other big thing about PP was to send or receive money without using a traditional bank. Again that has been muted by Venmo, Apple Pay and a host of other new P2P things.

 

[ea56]

I like using PayPay whenever I can because its quick and I don’t need to enter all the name, address, ect., its all done by PP. Plus I don’t need to enter a CC number, it just automatically uses my preferred CC. I’ve been using it for almost 13 years with no problems. I originally opened the PP acct. when I made my first ebay purchase, because then it was almost the only way to pay on ebay.

Now most online sites let me use PP to pay. I have never sold anything on ebay, so theres never been a need to keep a PP balance. The few times I ‘ve needed receive a refund from PP its been fast, with no problems. Personally, I like PP and use it whenever possible.

Eddie

 

[fan-of-fans]

I use PP, but only for eBay purchases. I've been using it for 7 years or so. When I first used it, I used their Bill Me Later service, where I just made the purchase and they'd send me a bill in the mail at the end of the month.

They semmed to have stopped offering that, so I've been using a credit card since. I haven't had any issues with it, but I've never had to get a refund. And I have never sold anything on eBay. I thought about it, especially things like books or clothes that can't easily get damaged in the mail or don't require a lot of packing.

 

[firedome]

PayPal...

is something we need for buying/selling on eBay, or receiving payment for stuff sold on other specialized sites, like here, so set up a bank checking/credit acct linked to PayPal exclusively for that purpose. No problems in 2 yrs so far, knock on wood, reduces risk to I think $50? credti card liability if there is some kind of major problem. Whenever possible try to sell on CL or other no-cost sites to avoid the ever escalating fees.

 

[man114]

Just play it safe

As an eBay seller...

I have a separate checking accounts or it with the minimum $10 in it backed by some lowly Amex card that for some reason has never raised the limit over $100, but it’s long since expired.

If someone tries to scam me Paypal would get $10. Good luck collecting anything else. I document everything when I sell too.

 

[lordkenmore]

I was in my credit union yesterday, and I asked the teller if she'd heard many recent PayPal horror stories involving a linked account getting sucked dry due to on-line hackers. Answer: no. But she mentioned that a lot of members have a low balance checking account just for PayPal. It probably helps that they have no minimum balance/no service charge accounts available. A PayPal specific account would be less appealing at a big bank where you are stuck with a $10/month service charge.

 

 

[63kenmore]

We have had a low balance separate account specifically for PayPay for quite a few years now. Fortunately our bank doesn’t charge for multiple checking accounts. This has always worked well for us and have not had any issues with fraud.