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I haven't been using PayPal since more than 5 years. For quick transfers I can use Revolut. For buying something I can use card. For easy payment integration w
by DeathArrow 4y ago
I haven't been using PayPal since more than 5 years.
For quick transfers I can use Revolut. For buying something I can use card. For easy payment integration with Web apps there are countless tools.
So I am wondering what use cases PayPal still serves, use cases which aren't already better covered by better means. Why pay heavy commissions to PayPal?
- throwaway290 4y agoPlaces not served by Revolut, small time sellers that don't have the capacity/infrastructure to process cards, etc.
- notpushkin 4y agoI'm wondering wow difficult can it be to just set up Stripe in addition to PayPal. I've set one up without any legal entity at all, just as a plain old human being resident of Estonia, and it seems to just work for occasional payments. Should work in US, too.
- throwaway290 4y agoTry doing it in Thailand for example. There're plenty of countries where neither Stripe nor Revolut are present...
- patio11 4y agoNews you may potentially be able to use: Stripe (which employs me) launched in Thailand about 2 weeks ago.
- mike_ivanov 4y agoFrom the buyer's perspective: hassle-free unsubscription, seeing all my subscriptions in one place, no need to create accounts on random seller sites. And yes, I'm willing to pay a couple of %% to anyone who can fulfill those needs, not necessarily PayPal.
- EMIRELADERO 4y agoThe value is that it's easy from the perspective of the user. You mentioned that you use Revolut for one thing, direct card payment for another, and other tools for web app integration. PayPal offers all that in a neatly packaged solution. It's no surprise users would choose that instead of 3+ different services that serve different purposes
- atirip 4y agoI only buy from merchants that offer PayPal (there are few I trust by card, like Amazon). And the reason is that whatever it happens, I can always get my money back with PayPal. It happened 3 times in last 5 years that seller took the money and never shipped anything. I got all them resolved very quickly.
- cute_boi 4y agoWell, we can use credit card charge back for such purpose?
- lmm 4y agoYou can, but you probably have to call up your bank during business hours, wait on hold for a while, and then get given the runaround for a while. PayPal you just push a button and it's done.
- ripe 4y agoMy Bank of America credit card lets me dispute charges online, with a simple series of web forms. Very convenient.
- switch007 4y agoIn the UK my experience with chargebacks is that they’re very biased towards the company. It’s a drawn-out process during which you get harassed by the company’s anti-chargeback team in to accepting an ex gratia payment etc. you have to supply lots of evidence and when the company provides some poor quality evidence the bank goes “oh well that’s decided then” as if responding was sufficient.
- dazc 4y agoThis is true, you have to very persistent with the chargeback route, sometimes only a threat of legal action against the bank will move things forward.
- egorfine 4y ago
- pauljurczak 4y agoOne of my credit cards had a 7% cash back promotion last quarter, if used through PayPal. I saved a couple of bucks.
- lmm 4y agoBuying things in a foreign country, or where a seller hasn't integrated the card type you want to use (particularly a problem for small/local websites). Sending money to a friend internationally. Avoiding having to give someone your bank details or credit card number.
- trinovantes 4y agoI still use paypal to pay for stuff when I'm too lazy to walk to the other room to get my wallet. As a consumer, the price is the same.
- avereveard 4y agoWith virtual cards and whatnot I don't use PayPal anymore to protect the card number from circulation. But I still find them useful for long therm subscriptions to provider. That why when I need to change the card I don't need to login to (and remember) all websites where I have an ongoing payment plan
- TheSpiceIsLife 4y agoAnd cancelling subscriptions via PayPal is easy too.
- npc12345 4y ago
- Andys 4y agoI like using it for subscriptions, because it lists them all in one place and gives me a hassle-free way to cancel each of them.
- urbandw311er 4y agoMy co published an App in Germany as recently as 2 years ago and PayPal support was almost unavoidable. It turns out that penetration of credit and debit cards in Germany is significantly behind other parts of the EU and many of them habitually use PayPal for e-commerce payments.
- lytefm 4y ago> It turns out that penetration of credit and debit cards in Germany is significantly behind other parts of the EU. Yep. Therefore, we also use PayPal a lot to transfer money to a friend when we're at some place that is cash only and someone doesn't have cash on them. No need to type an IBAN and wait for a day. Also, it's a great backup solution for online purchases if I don't want to share my credit card details or things don't work. For example, many vendors borked the 3d visa verification process so PayPal often was the only realistic option.
- ce4 4y ago> IBAN and wait for a day. The delay can be skipped in many cases via the IBAN instant payment option. Requires both banks to be participating in the program and trust each other (the delay will happen if additional checks are needed, for example if the transction gets flagged for manual inspection, eg if you write "funny" purpose text, etc)
- Scharkenberg 4y agoAFAIK banks here charge extra for that.
- licebmi__at__ 4y agoReally, my only banking experience here in germany is with n26 and since they offer it free, I thought that was the norm.
- scrollaway 4y agoUse Wise (https://wise.com https://wise.com). In Germany especially N26 is also popular but IMO they went downhill quite a bit as soon as they realized that being a neobank is a losing venture. Source: I work in finance.
- TheOtherHobbes 4y agoSome companies like BandCamp mandate PayPal. This is incredibly annoying and unhelpful, but there's no other option.
- notpushkin 4y agoCould this be a startup idea? “Like Bandcamp but with sane payouts system.”
- dinosaurdynasty 4y agoI use a VISA CC on bandcamp (US) and pretty sure I've bought from there well before I had a PayPal account.
- danpalmer 4y agoI certainly put Revolut in the same category as PayPal. No morals, anti-consumer policies, very little protection.
- colinb 4y agoI can't comment on their morals or views on customers, but I think they've been governed by banking regulations for some time now. In my country (.ie) that's their claim. Banking regulations come with quite a lot of consumer protection, both national and EU originated.
- danpalmer 4y agoIn the UK they are not covered by the FSCS.
- notpushkin 4y agoYeah, I think they only have banking licence in Lithuania, so EU only.
- yread 4y agoI use it if the seller forces me to type my CC number into their interface. If it's some payment provider, that's fine but I don't trust random webshops to keep my credit card details safe
- KronisLV 4y ago> For easy payment integration with Web apps there are countless tools. Could you (or anyone else) comment on these? I think the most popular indeed are PayPal and Stripe, whereas any others (like Paddle) are more niche or some others (Alipay) are just more regional.