Weigh in on whether to be Paypal Verified

Interested in opinions on this. Paypal says to "get verified" in order to make transactions more secure for everyone involved in online purchasing. Getting verified consists of opening a bank account with them, that will further facilitate the spending of my money. I am skeptical, to say the least.

Anyway, for the first time I do not know if my insticts to bury information is a good thing. For once the institution asking for info may actually have a valid reason, and one that benefits service provider and client alike.

But still I hesitate...is there really a more secure transaction, or are they just disguising the true goal of extracting additional transactions from the uwary consumer.


- HandsOff

 

http://www.paypalsucks.com/options.shtml

I agree with ronjor!! T

 

Pleased I have found this post as I have been considering Paypal against my opinion of it.
I have never been happy with the thought of using it but as I specialise in a specific hobby
a lot of the artisans who have the items I really need all work with Paypal

I have either had to do without my bits and bobs or some of them have worked out alternative ways to pay;
Some I just have to dream about as they are from all over the world
I was going to go back to Paypal's site to read all the small print as I thought I was the only one to be really
worried about setting up an account. Now I see I am not alone with my concerns, thankfully before I decided to
start the registration process....................... I have a feeling it is not safe to even have one payment through Paypal
even though I know others with accounts who say it is safe

 

Been using paypal for a few years with no probs, its owned by Ebay now I believe. The verification means that they debit a nominal amount with a code that appears on your nominated credit card bill, you then use this to activate the account

 

Every now and then I see signs that I am not the most paranoid person on the planet after all!

I guess I would have to say that I am happy with paypal in general. But I am a little different in my philosophical outlook on online purchasing. To me, the questions are:

do I really need it?

does it put me at risk?

Will they be a nuisance?

Oh, yeah, the different thinking, sorry...I LIKE shopping with credit cards in all of it permutations. The reasons seem obvious to me. Almost always, my purchases are 100% guaranteed. I LIKE shopping online. The only time I had a problem some vender sent me one item instead of two. I called their support, and they sent me the second item within a week. That's much better than my store purchasing record. You don't know how many times I have walked out of the store leaving something...usually what I just bought...on the checkout counter!

My only concern is the question is getting verified really what it claims to be? Once you are verified you have the dubious honor of being able to send cash to all of your friends and relatives instantly. My guess is that this is what paypal is really pushing. The just want to create another market. And I decided using the above criteria not to get verified. I am already insured. I don't see a need to have further involvement.

See? I worked it out all by myself!

No offense to the other posters, whose opinions I value. I'm sure there are numerous concerns about paypal that I have not addressed. To me it is part of my lifestyle. I love it!


- HandsOff

 

Hi, When i linked my bank account & vredit card with PayPal they made two small deposits to my account. I then had to specify the exact amount of the deposits. Very smooth sailing with PayPal.

How about this link, so we can all spend, our hard earned dollars, more efficiently:

www.salescircular.com

Next choose your state (sorry foreigners) & see whats on sale in your neighborhood. Wow!

Take Care
rico

 

Well, I still don't see any incentive for me to link the checking account and become "verified".

Just the same, I still don't know why people are so down on paypal. I like the bargains that can be found on eBay, and elsewhere, but I don't want to screw around with elaborate con artist scenario's. By using paypal it seems to me you limiting your exposure by keeping your transactions with the same service. Not going for any of these, cashiere checks, wire money, online escrow, and whatever else. Keep it simple is my motto!

- HandsOff

 

Been using paypal for years with ebay, I had to verify to get past the monthly £500 limit I had on my account. Never had a problem.

 

I have been using Paypal for several years. However, I have not wanted to get verified. I do not like the idea of someone like Paypal having access to my bank account.
Some have told me that they open another account with a minimum amount for Paypal.

My spending limit is about $47 and then I either get verified or stop using it.
My current inclination is to forget it.
I do admit that Paypal has been very smooth, and some vendors will take it while they will not take credit cards.
Jerry

 

I`ve been using PayPal for a few years thru eBay. Being verified has a few benifits like one of them is some sellers on eBay won`t sell if you`re not verified, plus you`re insured against fraud.

 

I have no intention of letting paypal access my bank account. I feel that if I am using a credit card and there is no dispute about charges to it from paypal, then I am verified, but that is not good enough for paypal.
When my limit is up, sianara.

 

Well, to JerryM and Honyak -

Just don't throw the baby out with the bath water...my god!, have people done that?

Anyway, I really don't know why I would worry about the security of my bank account information. I mean, I do write checks that have that info printed right on them

Also, I may be wrong, but I did not think that you had to actually maintain any minumum balance. I thought even if you had just 1 cent in the account, as long as the account was valid it was satisfactory for the purposes of verification, and the higher insurance limit. (even without verification paypal always insures your transactions to at least $500).

The main evils that I see is that
1) they are giving you more ways to spend, including wiring cash, and its a fact that that will result in people spending more money.

2) There seems to me to be a big grey area when you authorize anyone to deduct money from your checking account. At that point, they no longer need your authorization to apply charges. You cannot withdraw that authorization. I would consider possibly opening an account to be verified then closing it. According to paypal, their sole purpose is to have the banks verification of your identity. I really don't see why closing my account would change the fact that the bank did provide the verification that they asked for. I'd like to see if they stick to their story, or then just admit they just want to drag more money out of you, and that is the reason behind being "verified".

anyway, i am a small fry buying things $20-$30 most of the time. so I don't care what they do. And I just discovered CraigsList!


- HandsOff

 

DO NOT give Paypal your bank info.

You DO NOT have to get verified to increase your sending limit.

Once you have reached (or get very close to reaching) your limit, just wait a few weeks, and they'll do it for you.

I used Paypal (unverified) until I almost reached my $2000 limit ($6.43 away), then, refusing to turn over my bank info, I just quit using the service.

Afterwards, I won a couple more auctions, and used money orders to pay for them.

Today on eBay, I looked at a low ticket item, and having forgotten what was left in my Paypal account, I logged in. Lo and behold! My spending limit was mysteriously increased to $10,000, showing $8006.43 remaining.

Bottom line - Paypal wants your info, but they don't want to people to stray to other payment services. They try to bully you into giving up your banking info, but if you hold out and don't fall for it, they automatically increase your sending limit anyway.

Enjoy, and spread the word!

 

IMHO, there is one main reason they want your bank account info: Credit card charges cost money (fees that the credit card companies charge). Once you are verified, PayPal will set things up so that the default is to take the money out of your bank or checking account when you purchase something. You can still pay using a credit card, but they will make you jump through a few hoops in order to do so.

For safety reasons, I think setting up a separate bank account containing a small balance and using that to get verified with PayPal is an excellent idea. What I am thinking of doing is setting up a second checking account that will be used not only for PayPal, but also for online bill paying.

Phil

 

Hi micmaster1, and welcome to Wilder's-

I just always wanted to say that! It feels sort of funny...I like it!

Okay, back to the subject at hand - what you say makes sense to me.
Everytime I see one of these, let us help you to help yourself scenario's, I think, 'Is this what it is about? Am I jumping at shadows? Wouldn't the world be a better place if we good guys could cooperate and show the bad guys a united front?' In my dreams I am a good guy and so are the vast majority of people.

But then, entirely on its own, part of me starts to ask questions:

- Surely their success demonstrates they have a handle on things?
- Why do they not let my years of good transactions stand on their own
merits?
- In concrete terms what does my giving them access to my financial life
do for them, to make them so intent on obtaining it?
- If establishing my identity is the problem, then why complicate the issue
by tying it to new services and giving me more ways to spend money,
not to mention the fact that suggesting that people create bank accounts
even if they don't need or want them just seems not the be a very
straightforward approach.

In fact it has all the earmarks of the cons that they are stating they want me to fight. The pitch is made for something that I can't not agree with. Then suddenly it gets complicated. Okay, see, just to make it easier, sign up for this thing that you don't want, but how could it hurt you? Don't you see, this won't hurt you a bit. Also, by acting now we will also include, at no cost to you, this new money wiring service and higher spending limits...

But wait mister, didn't you say you were interest in fraud...I'm so confused.

Shut up kid, just put your x right here and goodness will just flow...

I don't know what they are after, but, to make a long story short, I don't need it. When you can show me why I need it, we will talk.


-HandsOff





(By the way, I don't even know what my credit limit is, I just know that as long as I can remember they have been making the pitch for me to hold hands and join the circle so to speak.

 

pcalvert,

I missed you reply before my last post. I just wanted to say that those are some great insights, however, I still have a concern. When you pay using paypal are you essentially writing a check, or have you authorized paypal to withdraw money from your account to cover your purchase. There could be a world of difference to you if you grant them authorization. Credit cards, on the other hand have consumer potection policies.

It may save paypal a charge, but that just doesn't seem to motivate me!



- HandsOff

 

Phil got it right on the money.
The way I see it is, if you are only interested in buying items, getting verified is not really necessary. If however, you would like to stick it to the credit card companies with their outrageous interest rates and vile practices (wouldn't we all?), then getting verified would act much like a debit card. If you don't have the money, don't buy it. A second account with a low balance that allows EFT(electronic funds transfer) at the same bank would be ideal allowing you to transfer money to and from your other account. Banks sometimes have special low balance accounts for college students and seniors. Not as much protection as a CC, but no interest, and if you keep a minimal amount in the account, you reduce the risk. Of course, you could do a similar thing with a debit card too.

Sure there are a lot of cheats and scammers out there using paypal, but there are also a lot of honest legit people who just don't want to bother with a CC merchant account.

If you are selling, then getting verified would be a good idea as it at least makes you look more legit (doesn't mean the seller is). Having a separate account is also a good idea in that case too.

 

In the UK we can use debit cards for payment via paypal as well as credit cards and direct account debits.

The big plus for credit cards is the fraud protection that you get is something does go wrong.

Credit card charges... if you have the money in your current account, then you can pay the card off before you acculate any interest (in the UK we dont get charged interest for first 30days or so).

But a 2nd bank account does sound good, get one with internet banking, with the same bank as your main account, transfers will usually happen within 1 working day, keep a small pot for general spending, if you need more money, you can then transfer across some money across as needed.

 

A few posters have mentioned using a second checking account with a small balance for PayPal.
That's what I did a few months ago.
I haven't had any problems yet.
I also did the verification process.
If you are a seller, PayPal can be very convenient.The payment goes into my PayPal account and then I send $ into that second checking account.
My understanding of PayPal with regards to using it as a seller is that a Personal account has a restriction where you can not recieve payment via a credit card with PayPal.You have to take the free upgrade to a Premium PayPal account and pay a small fee each time you recieve a payment with PayPal.
I personally prefer PayPal over a credit card for buying.With PayPal if I ain't got the money,I won't spend it.

 

this may or may not be the place to post this, but you all seem to know a lot about paypal so~ ..

i don't think i ever got the small deposits that paypal makes into your account when you want to get verified. i was trying to guess [ i know, i know, how stupid can someone get? i realise this was NOT clever already >.< ] the amounts and accidentally managed to lock myself out of my account, and not it won't let me do anything with it unless i input the amounts that paypal deposited. i'm going to the bank tomorrow to try and see whether they can go that far back into their records to find the deposits [ jan 05 ] but i don't think they'll be able to. i emaled paypal asking for hep but i just got an automated email inresponse saying 'phone us', but to phone them i have to put the last 4 didgets of my account number and paypal isn't recognising them until i put the deposit amounts in. gosh, what should i do? is there any way to get the deposits resent? >.< *dying* i need my paypal ; . ;

thank you to ANYONE that replies. i'm really worried about this.

 

I have no problem useing PayPal on a per transaction basis. But I would never "get verified" it is not needed to purchase. I use my debit card with payPal since the provider of my debit/checkcard has the same fraud protection for it as it does a credit card.

 

Hi Big C-


You are making sense, and I never did get verified, nor did I set up another bank account. I am only a buyer, although I have plenty of stuff I should sell because I am running out of room!

The part that worried me was..."paypal will set it up so that they are withdrawing from the bank account..." That is exactly the danger that I wish to avoid. When you authorize someone to withdraw money you may have no recourse when they take more than they are entitled to. Once they take the cash you are not exactly bargaining from a position of power. I know you said keep a small amount...trasfer usually in a day...If you are conducting a business, that might make sense, but for me it's just an opportunity to make a mistake. If I were hit with an overdraft, purely by mistake, that might turn a bargain into a bath!

You may have seen my thoughts elsewhere on ebays maneuverings. I want to maintain some damage control!


-HandsOff

 

I'm registered with PP, but non-verified, since I have no intention of ever using them for anything other than a Visa payment service when I purchase software or whatever online. Since they're the largest and best-known service around, one heck of a lot of vendors never heard of other services and use only PP for Visa transactions.

 

I am PayPal verified and have had nothing but good things to say about it. I connected it to an account with no funds in it. It is strictly for accepting money from donations or software purchases.

IMO, I think PayPal is just fine, but be smart about it