3 ms·

This story has pushed me over the line, finally triggering me to close my PayPal account. I can't describe the sum total of stimuli that brought me here, it's a

This story has pushed me over the line, finally triggering me to close my PayPal account. I can't describe the sum total of stimuli that brought me here, it's a gestalt, a gut feeling. Thanks. I feel lighter.

rjh29 4y ago
PayPal is excellent for buyers, horrible for sellers. Just don't keep any money in it and don't let them convert currency for you.
- dustymcp 4y ago
  This i use it often when buying stuff overseas, every time there has been anything i just dispute and get my money back.
- IG_Semmelweiss 4y ago
  But not keeping money on them is NOT enough as a seller to extricate yourself from that morass. They will find subtle ways to force-link your real bank account to paypal, and then its game over. They have the keys to the kingdom. One day you will get some random charge on your account that keeps growing and growing and you don't recognize the transaction at all, but you can't do anything because they can pay themselves from your linked bank account. I advise all businesses that use paypal that at worst case, link a completely unrelated bank institution to paypal, and then keep this secondary bank to low funds as often as possible. Otherwise, you will never know when paypal may poison the well and your physical bank business operating account is suddenly unavailable!
  - rjh29 4y ago
    Definitely. My second sentence was directed at buyers.
  - fsckboy 4y ago
    > They will find subtle ways to force-link your real bank account to paypal, and then its game over. They have the keys to the kingdom. for most reasonable sized US banks, once you have one account that has enough money not to be charged fees, you can open additional accounts with them, and easily transfer money between them. You could open a paypal-only account and keep it empty. You could also close it, and open another one whenever you need to verify an account with PayPal again

rjh29 4y ago

PayPal is excellent for buyers, horrible for sellers. Just don't keep any money in it and don't let them convert currency for you.

dustymcp 4y ago
This i use it often when buying stuff overseas, every time there has been anything i just dispute and get my money back.
IG_Semmelweiss 4y ago
But not keeping money on them is NOT enough as a seller to extricate yourself from that morass. They will find subtle ways to force-link your real bank account to paypal, and then its game over. They have the keys to the kingdom. One day you will get some random charge on your account that keeps growing and growing and you don't recognize the transaction at all, but you can't do anything because they can pay themselves from your linked bank account. I advise all businesses that use paypal that at worst case, link a completely unrelated bank institution to paypal, and then keep this secondary bank to low funds as often as possible. Otherwise, you will never know when paypal may poison the well and your physical bank business operating account is suddenly unavailable!
- rjh29 4y ago
  Definitely. My second sentence was directed at buyers.
- fsckboy 4y ago
  > They will find subtle ways to force-link your real bank account to paypal, and then its game over. They have the keys to the kingdom. for most reasonable sized US banks, once you have one account that has enough money not to be charged fees, you can open additional accounts with them, and easily transfer money between them. You could open a paypal-only account and keep it empty. You could also close it, and open another one whenever you need to verify an account with PayPal again