paypal - what happened??

[Pherdinand]

hi

Before (e.g. march this year) i was able to simply add funds to my paypal account by wire transfer from my bank account.
Now it wants me to "confirm" the bank, and agree to some kind of direct debit thing. All this using some complicated method of transferring small amounts to MY account before, which takes 4-5 days, etc.

Did they change the policy?

I'm talking about paypal in europe (netherlands).

I am hesitant to give them my full credit card info, and the "add funds" method worked safely so far... but what is this??
Anybody knows?

 

[kbg32]

Jsut more security. Hackers are getting smarter and smarter.

 

[John Camp]

I think it's just another profit-making scheme. There's nothing insecure about a wire transfer to PayPal; no way for hackers to get into that. But I think what this will do will inflate PayPal's "float," which, when the float gets big enough, will make them lots of free money. I've gotten notes like this from both PayPal and Ebay. I've ignored them. And some of these things, by the way, are simply scammers trying to get bank and credit card info. If you decide to do it, make sure you're really dealing with PayPal.

JC

 

[thomasw_]

i like the added protection that paypal has instituted, even though it is inconvenient during that week of getting 'confirmed'. paypal+credit card purchases are more secure than paypal direct debits from your bank account; at least you'd have another body to help you....in theory.

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

what you describe is quite typical of how they confirm bank accounts in the US ...

annoying and tedious, but nothing to worry about

 

[colyn]

I think it's just another profit-making scheme.
JC

I disagree..

Paypal has been working to make it more secure. The confirmation while a bit annoying is well worth the added security..

They are also making it harder for someone to do a charge back unless they can prove the seller is cheating them..

 

[Al Patterson]

I for one won't let them access my checking account. I'd rather use a credit card for purchases. Not sure what I'll do if I want to sell, as then I need to get verified.

 

[dberger]

hi

Before (e.g. march this year) i was able to simply add funds to my paypal account by wire transfer from my bank account.
Now it wants me to "confirm" the bank, and agree to some kind of direct debit thing. All this using some complicated method of transferring small amounts to MY account before, which takes 4-5 days, etc.

Did they change the policy?

I'm talking about paypal in europe (netherlands).

I am hesitant to give them my full credit card info, and the "add funds" method worked safely so far... but what is this??
Anybody knows?

Here is another possibility: if you have a credit card attached to your PayPal, could it have expired? Mine expired earlier this year, and like you I suddenly had to wait 3 or so business days for direct transfers to complete. Once I updated my credit card info, all went back to normal. I am in the US.

(Here is how I understand it works, at least in the US: The card acts like security so that the payment appears instant, which, in fact, in never really is. If the bank transfer fails, the card is charged. Without a valid card, there is no security and payment must wait for the transfer to complete.)

cheers,

David

 

[colyn]

I for one won't let them access my checking account. I'd rather use a credit card for purchases. Not sure what I'll do if I want to sell, as then I need to get verified.

I opened a second account not connected to my primary account for use with paypal. Once money arrives in the account I transfer it to my primary so if someone does by chance hack it they won't get much..

 

[Al Patterson]

I opened a second account not connected to my primary account for use with paypal. Once money arrives in the account I transfer it to my primary so if someone does by chance hack it they won't get much..

That's what I thought. But what happened to me when my paypal account was hacked was that someone attempted to take $1,453 dollars from an account with a lot less than that. And, THE BANK SENT IT TO PAYPAL. Now I was fortunate that I caught it before the crooks moved it to their account. I even got the bank to refund the overdraft fee.

So imagine you leave $50 in a paypal account and a crook asks for even $75. Your bank may just send the money anyway. Mine did, so no more connection between that bank and paypal. As they say, YMMV...

 

[colyn]

So imagine you leave $50 in a paypal account and a crook asks for even $75. Your bank may just send the money anyway. Mine did, so no more connection between that bank and paypal. As they say, YMMV...

Per my request any request for more money than what is in the account will be denied..

 

[John Camp]

My point is that there isn't anything much more secure than a wire transfer from a known bank to another known bank (Paypal) -- there aren't any hackers involved in that, no accounts to be manipulated or numbers to be used later. There's just a wire transfer. If a customer prefers to do it that way, I don't see why he shouldn't be able to -- anything else may be easier for Paypal, or increase Paypal's profit, but that's not really a customer's primary concern.

JC

 

[David Murphy]

I've had my PayPal account setup that way for years -- no serious problems. As pointed out above however, make sure the information you have was from PayPal not a scammer. Never click a supposed PayPal link that comes in the form of an email -- only log on deliberately to PayPal to do business with them.

Regarding security, PayPal has mixed credibility. They are known for dissing other payment services as being insecure, when their real aim is often their own revenue enhancement. PayPal is only marginally secure in my view, and the whole question of security actually revolves around this: Secure for who? Secure for the buyer, seller, or PayPal? For instance cash or Western Union direct cash transfer as payment for items is 100% secure for sellers, somewhat risky for buyers, but makes zero money for PayPal. Not surprisingly eBay "forbids" and propagandizes against this method of payment (eBay owns PayPal). To me this erodes PayPal's credibility when it comes to security matters. Truth is an essential element of security.

 

[Pherdinand]

i had no credit card attached to my paypal account so that could not be the case, David...

I would not have minded if paypal asked a small fee when one did it via wire transfer. People offer services and they ask money for it, that's fine.
But now, the options will only be direct access to my credit card or direct access to my bank account. None of these two seems really safe to me.
I am with John Camp on this. Verifying that I am the owner of the bank account will not really help ME in any matter of safety.

If i want to pay via PayPal, say a sum of 100 bucks, i would prefer transferring funds worth of 100 $ from my bank account manually, to the paypal account, and then do the payment, instead of letting paypal (or somebody accessing their website) directly access my bank account any time they want.

Oh well, maybe i will just stop using paypal. 🙂

 

[Chavo]

The devil is in the details Paypal user agreement

The devil is in the details Paypal user agreement

Here is a sinpet from my eBay archives:

The latest user agreement is 26541 words (now who is going to read that) with 12 sections incorporated by reference (a favorite ebaY trick to make it very difficult to see when changes have been slipped in without notice).

When you sign up with Paypal you sort of sign your life away.... sigh.....

Read on if you are interested

5.1 Credit Card Funded Payments. Though this starts out the same as the old agreement, it does not end that way. The old agreement comments here that sellers eligible for the seller protection plan, would not be subject to a chargeback, but this new agreement appears to make all sellers liable, even if they fulfilled the seller protection plan requirements. "By accepting a credit card payment, you agree that you are responsible for the payment if it is reversed. If such reversal occurs on a credit card funded payment made to your account, we are required by law to reverse the payment and may debit your PayPal account balance to pay for the reversal. If your PayPal account balance is insufficient to pay the reversal, you authorize PayPal to debit your bank account on file to collect the amount owed." It also authorizes ebaY to debit your checking/bank account without specific approval to do so, as did the old user agreement.

Or another

6.3 Electronic Transfers. Though this clause does say " PayPal will never make transfers from your bank account without your authorization." you have already authorized ebaY to make unapproved withdrawals from your bank account in the case of charge backs any time they feel justified in doing so. (clause 5.1)

Kind of makes you wonder? Catch 22.

Lastly

2.3 Identity Authentication This clause allows ebaY to order a credit report on you at any time for any reason, without informing you or asking your permission.


If anyone is interested I have been thinking of doing a post on eBay scams and how to avoid them ( I have far amount of experience in dealing with the bay). I also have personal contact details email and phone for eBay and Paypal which come in mighty handy when you are trying to get your goods or cash back.

Cheers Chavo

 

[stesm]

The only protection in paypal is that paypal is protected. Since ebay bought paypal, fees on both have increased to the point where any future listings by me will be USPS money orders only. Yes, this will certainly limit the number of potential buyers, but it is true fraud protection for both seller and buyer. I have not been burned on a transaction, but have had three non-payers for which ebay simply sends them a couple of strongly worded emails.
As for a thread devoted to ebay and paypal scams, I recall that there was one here a while ago that I cannot find now.