Paypal security?

[W. Stewart]

I have never bought or sold anything on ebay, but I have perused it from time to time, like when trying to establish values on avionics removed from my plane. Now I have something I want to buy, but can only find on ebay, and the only method of payment is Paypal. When I went to establish a Paypal account, they asked for my checking account number, which kind of freaked me out, so I am in a holding pattern. (I would pay Paypal with a credit card).

Is everyone OK with giving Paypal their account numbers? Is this a totally reputable outfit, and absolutely secure? Should I be concerned?

Thanks.

Wells

 

[Steve Foley]

I have a slush fund, not at my primary bank, that I've tied to paypal. I've heard stories that sellers sometimes have problems where paypal will simply withdraw disputed funds from their account, but that's actually permitted by their agreement.

The only problems I've heard with buyers are arguments over refunds, but never any disputes that exceed the original paypal transaction.

 

[silver-eagle]

I've had a paypal account for about 10 years. It's always been linked to a checking account. No problems with it at all. I also have their VeriSign Secure ID which makes it a pain accessing from outside home but gives me the belt and suspenders feeling.
The Secure ID was offered a few years ago for a onetime $5 fee.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I am an occasional user. When I joined, they did not ask for chkg acct #, but they do have a credit card #. No problems with security.
They have been asking for a bank acct # lately but I have always declined. Is there no way around it now?

 

[BiffJ]

I'm not sure of current rules but it used to be possible to sign up without giving them a bank account number. In that case you were listed as an unverified user. To become verified you had to give them an account. Unverified users were limited in the total dollar amount and number of transactions they could do. Paypal got in to some trouble and a lawsuit some years back for deducting money from accounts with no reasons. I was one of those unlucky "members" who got tagged by them. It took about 6 months to get my money back and I ended up with somewhere around $12-18 from the settlement in the class action lawsuit. I still don't trust them but sometimes its worth having the account. Setup a special account that has little or no money in it to link with them. Some use a bank other than where their main accounts are and some just make sure the other accounts are not accessible to paypal. Tie a regular visa card in to use for payments rather than using your bank account to pay. That gives some protection through the regular visa system if paypal screws things up.

One last thing, you don't always have to use paypal for ebay purchases. If you find something you want than contact the seller and tell them you have no paypal account and would rather pay via US Postal money orders or some other means. They don't have to allow you to do that but many will. Money is money after all and not everyone believes in the socialistic kommiefornia ebay business model.

Frank

 

[pmanton]

I'm an occasional PayPal user. No way will I allow them access to my checking account. They seem happy with a credit card number.

Paul
N1431A
2AZ1

 

[Henning]

I haven't had any problems with them and have been using them for as long as they've been around. Just get a second "free checking" account to use for online dealings.

 

[mantakos]

... Is this a totally reputable outfit...

Paypal is a subsidiary of eBay.

... and absolutely secure?

Nothing is absolutely secure.

Should I be concerned?

The risk associated with eBay transactions is nearly entirely embodied in the person you're interacting with and not in eBay or Paypal itself.

The problem with eBay and Paypal is that when the buyer and seller disagree, it's fairly easy for the buyer to get his purchase price refunded, and Paypal will seize that money from the seller via whatever means they have access to. There's a kangaroo court that arbitrates disputes that buyers and sellers can't resolve among themselves, but the process is something of a farce.

So, again, it's not Paypal you should be worried about, but the person you find yourself doing business with. The good news is that eBay/Paypal works surprisingly well because the vast majority of people are honest.
-harry

 

[SCCutler]

PayPal makes it in credibly difficult to *not* have a bank account linked. For reasons I cannot truly recall now, I went ahead and linked my PayPal account to a bank account which had minimal cash in it. As soon as you do that, PayPal sets the default funding source to be the bank account, and although you are supposed to always have the option of changing the funding source before completing a transaction, the system does not always do so.

Long, short, ended up posting a payment from account, which (of course) did not have sufficient funds.

Called PayPal, who (in strong accent) told me (in essence) "too bad." Also told me that, if the transaction did not clear through the bank account, it would clear through the credit card (which is what I wanted).

So I called the bank (Chase), and Peggy told me that, since that bank account was "dormant," the transaction could not possibly clear, and that all was well, so there was no need for me to block the transaction.

Then the transaction cleared, and Chase charged me a big fee for clearing it. Snarl!

Chase did credit the fee back, because they had misinformed me, and when I called PayPal back, they changed my default funding source back to the credit card. I then removed the bank account from my PayPal account. If I ever decide I wish to receive money through PayPal, I can re-link, but I doubt I ever will.

 

[rotorhead1026]

I had to start with a checking account, IIRC. You can later (and I did) link a credit card account. I'm no expert, but I think - at least now - that you must already have an alternate account set up when doing a transaction if you in fact want to use that other account. It can't be done "on the fly". It certainly can't with a credit card; I tried.

If there is a dispute - say on eBay - you can usually get the charge reversed on your credit card. Yes, eBay may (or may not) try to get the funds for you, but if the money's not in the account of record they can't do much. If the money was originally taken from your checking account then you're left to the court system. If it's out of your Visa you should be able to get the unreimbursed portion reversed if the other party is at all at fault.