Hi there.
A bunch of people must use pay pal and I want to hear your thoughts. I want a simple easy, cheap way to accept credit cards..
thanks!

i use it all the time. no problems whatsoever.

It works for us.

We have the Virtual Terminal ($30 / month) which allows us to accept CC via phone or in person.

It's not the cheapest merchant services you'll find, but it's the fastest. The money is instantly in your paypal account (earning interest) and if you have the debit card, you can access it immediately.

The debit card cash back is nice too.

There are paypal haters out there, but overall we've been extremely happy. We've been using them since 2001.

Shan

We use it for a lot of non-wedding payments (ie small paypal fees). We have used it for about 10 years when we used to do stuff with ebay with no problems. Weddings go through P3 at pictage.

I use it no problems. Would like something less expensive (Virtual Terminal is $30/mo) but it works for me now!

PayPal is fine when everything goes smoothly.

PayPal is not a bank and is not bound by the same laws and regulations. When things go sour, good luck.

I've had them freeze my account. I've had a friend that was defrauded by an ebay buyer. Returned an empty box, claimed she had sent the product back, and Paypal refunded without any questions. When pressed, they told me friend she needed to file a police report and pursue it through channels other than Paypal.

No thanks. Your mileage may vary.


Eric

From a consumer's standpoint: I never buy anything that requires payment by paypal. If I see "paypal" as the only payment option, I click out and shop elsewhere. Period.

likewise. paypal rocks and i use it combined with ShootQ and EZPhotoSales. Excellent online payment system, and one of the best choices in my opinion.

I just don't get that. I had a paypal account a long time ago that was hacked and every day new emails come in about some new hacking going on. I never know what to trust, so I don't trust any part of it. Same exact thing happened to my husband and both of my brothers. I avoid paypal like I avoid sleeping on public bathroom floors.

exactly... that was a long time ago. i've never had an issue. i also change my password every 3 months... and i don't click links in emails and i keep close watch for fraudulent ones... which i seldom get.

it all depends on how aware you are. the more careless you are about using any online service that has to do with money, the more chances you have of getting screwed. not saying that you're careless, just saying... there are a lot of variables there to consider.

PS - i've used paypal for over 6 years now... and again, no problems whatsoever.

Paypal is a mixed bag - the debit card is nice. A lot of my print sales through photocart go through there, no big deal. It works great unless there's any sort of suspected fraud and then lookout... - I wouldn't be comfortable with a huge amount of my cash flow going through there since they could freeze it at any time without any recourse by you. See paypalsucks.com to read the stories.

For bigger stuff I use Google Checkout - still not a bank, but they deposit directly into my bank account and the fees are lower than paypal.

Maybe so, but I'm an extremely aware online shopper and a saavy computer user and so is my husband. I seriously don't get why anybody would ever use anything with a paypal name on it. You're very lucky you never had problems. Can't believe you don't get the spam emails. I get them every single day in my online shopper-email accounts.

When you say "a lot of variables to consider..." See, that's my problem. Nothing should be that confusing. If I sign on with a credit card company I should not ever have to worry that my clients are going to have to go through what I've gone through with paypal. I should not have to think for even a second that my clients might be worried about their online shopping experience.

I love Paypal. I've used it for years shopping online and now for business and I haven't had any problems. I don't have the merchant account yet so people have to go online to pay me but I also don't get charged monthly. One day I'll have to upgrade I'm sure but for now the simplicity is wonderful.