Paypal [Not Aviation]

AuntPeggy

AuntPeggy

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At last night's Coast Guard Auxiliary meeting, I agreed to look into adding PayPal to our flotilla website (http://www.cgaux73.org) to accept donations and Boating Safety Class enrollments and payments.

Does anyone have experience using PayPal? What are the pitfalls to look out for?

Thanks.
 
I have used Paypal many times when buying and selling stuff on Ebay. I have never had a problem. I have a Paypal Debit Card / Mastercard so that I can easily use the money elsewhere. You can also send the money to a checking account.

They do charge a small fee to process it when someone pays you via credit card. It is the safest way that I know of to do business online.
 
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jhempel said:
I have used Paypal many times when buying and selling stuff on Ebay. I have never had a problem. I have a Paypal Debit Card / Mastercard so that I can easily use the money elsewhere. You can also send the money to a checking account.

They do charge a small fee to process it when someone pays you via credit card. It is the safest way that I know of to do business online.
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The really nice thing I like about the PayPal card is the fact that as soon as someone pays me, that money is available immediately. To transfer to your bank account takes a few days.
 
I've used Paypal for years and have no issues with it. I also set up a Paypal account to collect donations for a charitable cause, and it works great for that, too.

Shameless plug (I just KNOW you'll want to help build a house in Central America!) http://www.nicaliving.com/node/6604
 
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You will need to set up a link to your Flotilla checking account. That would, at least for me, mean that you need to add levels of protection as to who has access to the paypal account. I would suggest limiting it to the FSO-FN and FC. Or even better set up a 2nd bank account just for the donations. That way if someone gets access to the paypal account they will only have access to limited funds.
 
Non Aviation related thread moved out of Flight Following to Hangar Talk.
 
I've been using paypal for over six years and don't have too many complaints. Do some searching on Google Payments though, a new service that will likely be less expensive & easier to use than PayPal.
 
AuntPeggy said:
At last night's Coast Guard Auxiliary meeting, I agreed to look into adding PayPal to our flotilla website (http://www.cgaux73.org) to accept donations and Boating Safety Class enrollments and payments.

Does anyone have experience using PayPal? What are the pitfalls to look out for?

Thanks.
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There have been cases where PayPal;s fraud alarms went off and they refused to release the money. One guy got $30,000 for Katrina relief and they closed the account because too much money came in too fast. In the end he refunded the donations. Throughout you have no one to talk to and they will "investigate," holding your money for 6 months and maybe give it to you.

You might want to look into Amazon donations.
 
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Adam Pirkle said:
Watch out for potential snags with policies surrounding donations, if you are not a bona fide 401(c)3 non-profit.
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501(c)3 I think. Gov't provides the verification.

Adam Pirkle said:
That said, I set up a paypal account for a non-profit organization (http://texas4000.org/) a few years ago, and the account has probably received something like $50-100k with no problems. Only complaint is that Paypal skims money off the top, so we ask people to mail checks if at all possible, and only use Paypal as a last resort.
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Why can't you return tax receipts for online donations?

Another hint for you is http://www.GoodSearch.com. Your charity can get .01 for each query.
 
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