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Why I Can't Use PayPal To Buy Your Product
- drsim 14y agoI've hit this 'can only link bank account to one PayPal account' problem a few times and it is very frustrating. The way I operate my business and personal bank and PayPal accounts means I have to shuffle money around to work with this rule. Why, PayPal?
- johnrob 14y ago> Why, PayPal? To prevent fraud.
- jack-r-abbit 14y agoCare to elaborate on that? How does it prevent fraud?
- Natsu 14y agoPresumably it keeps people from just spam-creating new accounts every time they get banned. In this case, however, it's hurting their business by being too strict. They could, for example, let you have at most two accounts linked to solve the problem some married people have.
- jack-r-abbit 14y agoIf that were the case, then they should be able to tell when you try to link your bank account to a second PayPal account that the first one was banned. Slap those people in the face... not everyone. As long as all PayPal accounts linked to a bank account are in good standing, why limit it to just two?
- jeltz 14y agoI do not see why they need to stop spam creation of accounts. They can just ban the bank account in addition to the Paypal account. Without any bank account or credit card connected to the Paypal account it is not very harmful to Paypal.
- Natsu 14y agoSomeone might be able to use the dozens of accounts for fraud before they could catch them and put a stop to it. If the money is already gone, Paypal would suffer the losses.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- adamc 14y agoI hit it because my wife had a paypal account before I did, and we share a joint account. It's really irritating, but I found a work-around (use another account) and moved on. Wish there was a strong competitor to paypal...
- jrockway 14y agoWish there was a strong competitor to paypal... Google Checkout / Wallet?
- jack-r-abbit 14y agoWhile some people may have various business reasons for wanting multiple PayPal accounts linked to one bank account, I've run into this problem for another reason that I imagine is even more common: I'm married. My wife and I both have PayPal accounts. But guess what, PayPal? We have but one bank account. You know... a joint account... like I'm sure a vast majority of married people have. What a stupid rule.
- mindstab 14y agoYou probably had separate bank accounts once too. You merged those, what is holding you back from merging paypal accounts? Seems like it would be the easier of the two operations.
- lomegor 14y agoI think it's against the terms to have a joint PayPal account. I'm sure I read that somewhere and it is the standard for most web services (accounts can only be used by one person).
- Angostura 14y agoDo Paypal Ts&Cs let multiple people use the same account?
- jack-r-abbit 14y agoWell... nothing now (other than I don't want to). But at the time I was using mine for business purposes so it wasn't really a great option.
- lomegor 14y agoPayPal does let you use the same joint bank account in two accounts. The only problems is that you need to be married and share the same last name. This may make sense in the US, but in a lot of other parts of the world, you don't take your husband last name when you marry. I'm tired of PayPal too, but just wanted to let you know that there may be a solution to your problem.
- dlitz 14y agoThis wouldn't be a problem if you accepted Bitcoin. ;)
- rmc 14y agoIt would cause numerous numerous other problems. It's non-trivial to convert bitcoin into a regular currency, you have to use 3rd party sites that have a terrible record with security It's not understood and accepted by most people. You can't do chargebacks.
- mrb 14y ago> It's non-trivial to convert bitcoin into a regular currency, you have to use 3rd party sites that have a terrible record with security Wrong. There has only ever been one successful attack against MtGox. By contrast, attacks on banking financial websites are widespread: http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/6652 http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/6652 A small security-focused startup like MtGox can more easily secure their infrastructure & code, compared to the corporate developers working on humongous code bases behind most banking websites. > It's not understood and accepted by most people. Circular reasoning ("technology X won't get adopted because nobody knows X"). > You can't do chargebacks. This is actually an advantage for merchants. Credit card chargebacks eat into their already thin margins. But once they receive bitcoins no one can take them away from them.
- dazzla 14y agoI'm pretty sure you can go to pay while not logged in to PayPal. Then enter your credit card directly. They will tell you it's linked to an account and do you want to login. But there is still an option to go ahead and just use the card.
- jakeonthemove 14y agoNope. I used to be able to pay using only a credit card before (like 2 years ago), but now it just asks that I login or register a new account. I suppose with over 200 million users you can get away with this crap...
- lomegor 14y agoI tried to use that option, but every time it tells me that the card was rejected. Even though I can use the card fine if I enter the details directly... it's just weird.
- greyfade 14y agoI've tried that, and when it complained that the card was linked to an account, it wouldn't let me proceed until I logged in. At the time, my account was locked down because I had the audacity to go to a conference in a town 80 miles away and try to use my Paypal account for something. They wouldn't let me unlock my account until I gave them a new landline phone number (which I didn't have) or fax them my ID (which I wasn't willing to do). It was as if they didn't want me to reactivate my account. And I still couldn't buy anything until I got a new card.
- warp 14y agoI've worked around this in the past by changing my e-mail address in my current paypal account, and then just creating a new account. (and then deleting my previous, now useless account). The limit is large enough that I so far have only needed to do this once. (I don't trust paypal enough to link it to an actual bank account).
- lomegor 14y agoThis would make sense if your account doesn't have any more money. But it may happen to you some day that you have more money in your account than your limit and then you will be stuck as you cannot transfer it to another account.
- warp 14y agoI never have any money in the account. I only use it to make credit card purchases.
- pud 14y agoThis is a good idea. Ridiculous. But a good idea.
- drx 14y agoThis is clever, but likely an easy way to get perma-banned from PayPal, as they run checks for unusual behavior to detect fraud. And even if they didn't notice, they will if your account is ever under review.
- nwmcsween 14y agoMy account was restricted once and I ran through all the paperwork - faxing my id, my credit card statments (unbelievable) talking to a csr and it was still deemed I was somehow in the wrong. After all that I deleted my account and just created a new one - when the truth doesn't work lie.
- angryasian 14y agoits less of a paypal problem and more the websites problem for not offering several payment options. Just paypal is easier for a majority of the population. If your particular paypal didn't work then you'd have to manually enter your credit information, which most people myself included don't like to do.
- grandalf 14y agoPayPal is good in some ways (lowers the bar to becoming a merchant) it is broken and horrible in many other ways. Let's hope the competitors can improve upon things (Google, Amazon, Square, Facebook, Apple).
- Posibyte 14y agoI've had quite the bad experience with PayPal myself. I used to sell goods on the internet. Nothing shady, unless you consider Wordpress shady. Anyways, one day I try to charge against my PayPal account and I find out my account has been frozen and is pending investigation. I had not a lot of money, but more than a few dollars. It's been frozen ever since (about 2 years). I've tried working with PayPal, but they've yet to help me in any constructive way. If I were to add to this post, this is the reason I won't allow PayPal payments on my site.
- nfm 14y agoIn a related vein: Try to change your name for your PayPal account. In Australia (and I assume globally), last I checked you had to fax 100 points of ID to them. Setting up an account requires nothing. I could wait until my CC expires and open a new account in my new name, but I've tied my account to my bank account too.
- mmuro 14y agoThis is an outlier issue. For the average person selling things through PayPal, this is rare. If it's that important for your business, it shouldn't be a big deal to create a new bank account for each PayPal and link them to that.
- DannoHung 14y agoPaypal forced me to open an account with them so I could buy shit by credit card through their interface. And so they could try to shove their other shitty products down my throat. I want to set every single person who works for PayPal on fire.
- octopus 14y ago@DannoHung I want to set every single person who works for PayPal on fire. While I can understand your frustration, I think you should cool off and think before posting such extremist views here.
- grecy 14y agoAnother PITA issue I've hit with PayPal is trying to link Bank Accounts or Credit Cards from multiple countries to the same account... can't do it. So even though I'm an Australian living in Canada, I'm stuck charging my Australian Credit Card and Bank account whenever I use Paypal. Sigh
- zerostar07 14y agoTo be fair that may have to do with regulations. Paypal has to walk through a complex maze of regulations to work internationally. In the US it's a company, in the EU it's a bank etc. Their existence may have actually been a motive in establishing money transfer regulation.
- andymurd 14y agoI had the same issue when I moved to Australia from the UK. I had to open a new PayPal account (with a different email address), which was a hassle but having two accounts is working fine for me now.
- Karunamon 14y agoCould anyone summarize this article? Site is blocked as "tasteless" on the filter (?)
- robryan 14y agoTo bad I can't offer stripe as an Australian company. We have one local bank that will let you accept multiple currency through a merchant account and they have some pretty major costs. Until my startup gets a decent userbase I don't see an alternative to PayPal.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- pensiveye 14y agoThere's a great book called 'Founders At Work' that tells Max Levchin's account of PayPal's early days. Apparently they stopped considering PayPal a payments company very early on. They moved on to being a fraud prevention company. In reality, they no longer have to do anything to promote growth or even sustainability in money moving through the system, so they can just ignore that part. Almost their entire focus is on preventing fraud. I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying.
- zem 14y agolooks like they're really trying to push people to link their bank accounts to paypal.
- robomartin 14y agoWant to experience real pain? PayPal + eBay. Talk about some horror stories. Here's what's interesting: It's YOUR MONEY. This isn't a credit card. It's a payment system that allows you to take your money --real cash-- and pay for things. Why are they placing limits on people's own money? If the account has enough balance for the purchase in question (and the money has been there for a while) you should be able to spend it as you wish. As for linking a bank account. Not a big deal these days. You can open an account with $100. I don't see this as a problem, particularly if you are talking about paying thousands for conferences. Yes, it's a pain to keep track of. That's what Quicken/Quickbooks is for.
- glogla 14y agoQuicken? I have no direct experience with it, but according to wikipedia article it's very very horrible. For example: "Quicken contains a sunset provision that stops online features and any QFX formatted files from working after a certain amount of time,[8][9] requiring users to first buy a new Quicken license, and then to learn a new, often confusing interface to the more recent Quicken version." or "To migrate to Lion, users are required to pay for an updated version of Quicken 2007. It has no new features." While GnuCash isn't perfect, and probably wouldn't work too well for business, Quicken would have to have really great features for someone to put up with this. And QuickBooks seems to be pretty much the same.
- robomartin 14y agoI've been using it since the early days (by that I mean IBM PC/DOS). The paragraph you quote does not represent anything I have ever experienced with any version of the product.
- chris_wot 14y agoIn Australia, I believe that every PayPal account can also use a credit card - no matter what the card type. Just today I bought a CD with my Visa card, over PayPal. I believe that it's because the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission stepped in some time ago and told eBay that they couldn't force people to only use PayPal to pay for their products as this is third-line forcing. I love strong competition law :-)
- joshuaheard 14y agoOpen business accounts and use one personal account. Problem solved. You can open a business account with just a ficiticious business statement (a "dba") which you can get online instantly in some counties, or by mail in about a week.
- leephillips 14y agoThe screenshot that we are to assume is from paypal says that he's reached his "sending limit". What is that supposed to mean? In the text, he says he's reached his "spending limit". Is this just a weird typo from paypal? Or something stranger?