fear of PayPal

[audioave10]

Okay, here is my problem. I've developed a fear of PayPal. I've never used it and I'm worried that if I get an account, I'll soon own many keyboards of different kinds of switches. Do some of you guys need PayPal Anonymous classes in a medical facility? I fear I will soon own a Wyse, a Focus, a Dell, a Chicony, an Alps, a Siig, a SGI and also be wandering around the planet bragging about how big my old Wang is. Have any of you guys already lived this life?
So far, I've only used my Credit Card when applicable to get a Model M, the Deck and the Cherry G80-3000. I'm afraid I'll break this fear and go crazy.
Clickclack...do you really have over 600 keyboards? What about some of you other guys.
Are you just into this for future investment possibilities? Or, are they toys to play with and study.

[Rajagra]

Paypal does make buying shockingly easy. Sort of Amazon easy but choosing from a world of sellers.

But don't worry. Paypal will make it increasingly harder to buy things while avoiding their fees, which will be eventually be raised high enough to act as a deterrent if you need to talk yourself out of buying.

[Findecanor]

You don't have to connect your credit card to your PayPal account.
You could upload limited amounts of money to your PayPal balance and then use only that.

Or.. at least that is how it worked a couple of years ago, before I upgraded my account. They may have changed their policies.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

Use a credit card with PayPal; PayPal has a history of screwing people over (google PayPal sucks sometime)

That said, I use it, and it is VERY handy.

I would NEVER trust them with my bank account information or debit card. They are not a bank and as such they can be much more cavalier with your money.

If you do want to give them (or anyone else) a limited line, you can get a Visa Gift Card for (money loaded on it) + $4 at grocery and convenience stores, and it'll work like a limited line. It'll even work on sites that verify the address (the gift cards have sites to register an address for online purchases). The only downside is that they can't be reloaded.

[audioave10]

It seems I had heard some bad things. I use a Visa Platinum CC already so I'd just tie it to that card. I darn sure don't want to give them my bank account number.

[gr1m]

Just give it a week when Paypal locks your account with no good reason (they'll tell you a 3rd party was trying to access it) and then your money in the account will be unusable until you finish playing a dumb game with the Paypal tech support.

You'll stop using Paypal by then.

[didjamatic]

I have been using paypal since the beginning and it has improved A LOT since then.  If you sell, you'll make more money if you use Paypal than if you don't because so many people will only use Paypal.  It saves you a ton of time shipping.  If you're a buyer, it will save you trips to print out money orders and you'll have more buying options to choose from because many don't like the hassle of checks/money orders and having to go to banks.

It's far from a perfect system and the fees are high for sellers, but considering the alternatives, and the many conveniences you get from it, it's the only way to go.

It's also a good buffer so you can buy with a credit card and never give the CC# to the website on the other end.

[002]

Just give it a week when Paypal locks your account with no good reason

This happened to me no less than a month ago. The re-activation steps are extremely painful and slow.

[clickclack]

Clickclack...do you really have over 600 keyboards? What about some of you other guys.
Are you just into this for future investment possibilities? Or, are they toys to play with and study.

Yes, I think it's closer to a 1000 now though (I will change my sig when I do a new count). But the vast majority of those are for studying and using in an artwork that I have been working on for about a year. Although out of that number of keyboards I only use between 80 and 100 boards. So I use them for a variety of reasons, but not investment possibilities. Oooops, almost forgot to say that I really like keyboards

As far as paypal goes or any online transaction process... well... I was very shy about them for many years but it's the way of the future from what I can tell, so I certainly wouldn't want to fight it even if embracing it is difficult...right?
But looking back at your original post you were not expressing concern over problems encountered by the service as much as opening the flood gates to overindulgence. So to that I say YES you will mostlikely overindulge and I would like to help in anyway possible =P
LoLz =D

[kriminal]

read this... YOU    WILL     OVERINDULGE!!!

[SpatiallyAware]

Paypal provides a good bit of protection for the buyer.  You can buy without linking to a bank account although they can still 'lock' your account if it has money in it.


As a seller Paypal is all but useless.  IMHO you're safer trusting a personal check.  It's very very easy for the buyer to dispute the charge on their CC and paypal will immediately withdraw the funds directly from your bank account and lock everything down.

[itlnstln]

I personally like Paypal.  I don't think using it or not will change any buying habits, that's jus self-control.  I just like it because I don't have to put in my address and other personal information when buying stuff.

[aegrotatio]

I've been using PayPal since the company started.  My experience both buying and selling with strangers on eBay, merchants, and regular people has been shockingly perfect.  I use both bank accounts and credit cards for buying and selling.

[imsto]

1000 kbds?   need a big room to put them...