Is There no Alternative to PayPal?
As someone who makes all (or virtually all) of his income online, I am dependent upon PayPal. It is the online currency of the internet, for better or worse.
The frustrating thing is that there is NO alternative to PayPal. Not a real alternative, anyway. Why? Market share.
According to eBay (who owns PayPal), over 90% of eBay sellers accept PayPal. If you try to sell on eBay and do not take PayPal, you are virtually dead in the water. Because it seems the entire world is a registered eBay user, almost everyone (in the US and Europe, anyway) has a PayPal account.
Why is this a problem?
Because PayPal sucks.
It is simple and if affords a great deal of buyer protection. But, if you have ever had the experience of having PayPal seize every dollar in your account because it just thinks you may have committed a transgression, you know that PayPal is just broken. Last summer, my account was down for almost 6 weeks (with about $7,000 in it) while they “protected me” from suspected fraud.
Superblogger Seth Godin recently had a wonderful (not) experience with PayPal customer service. I feel his pain and recognize every step of resolution he talked about. I do wonder if he got it resolved faster than I did.
5. December 2007 at 14:55
PayPal is terrible for freezing funds when they think you are up to no good. Last christmas I was selling Dell Monitors and they froze my account, I was doing $15,000 a week in PayPal transactions. I since got my own merchant account and let people pay off our web site.
10. December 2007 at 02:12
It can become frustrating and crazy but they (Paypal) do have a system. Once the air is clear, it is still a fantastically F.R.E.E system.
While I have yet to get my account freeze, it does have many benefits as the most trusted online money merchant ever. People trust Paypal and could, would be more willing to pass their money to you tru Paypal other than some unknown merchant account. And that means more sales and more money….
17. December 2007 at 18:00
What i really like about paypal is it’s very fast and easy to send and receive money online but on the downside it also suck you dry with their fee. I agrre with Robert, Paypal is the only company that online user trust.
24. December 2007 at 23:16
There probably isn’t an alternative, especially clear after reading your article. But i try to stay with E-Gold, i find its slower, but its a lot more secure.
27. December 2007 at 20:12
Sorry to hear about the account freeze. This is yet another example of why I’ll never use PayPal. As a photographer, I’ve heard too many horror stories about people trying to buy or sell a lens on eBay and bringing down the wrath of PayPal like the IRS. PP seems much more dangerous for sellers than buyers, but either way there seems to be very little (or no) recourse … I just wouldn’t ever use them, probably under any circumstances.
1. January 2008 at 03:18
I’m a strong supporter of the “Paypal Sucks” regime! I’ve encountered every problem anyone could ever have with PayPal. I’m not from the US but since PayPal is a major online currency, I signed up even if withdrawing funds would be more difficult i still did. What I got in return for my efforts was priceless. I’ve had my account frozen 4 times within 3 months! Each time I got it unfrozen and made a sale on e-bay, they froze it back saying that it’s to protect me from fraud or need more information regarding what I sold. I have stopped trying and now moved on to Moneybookers.com which to me is sooo much better. There may not be much opportunities to earn online with moneybookers but it beats having to go through what I did with Paypal. Paypal never again.
13. January 2008 at 00:22
I think that the onl reliable system out there is Paypal, it is a bit expensive, but its easy to use and saves you from going to the bank! Hopefully in the future we will have a cheaper competitor!
15. January 2008 at 03:48
E-Cash. But its very bad as they charge high transaction rates, so pretty much there isn’t an alternative. You do make some valid points aswell that i am still thinking about.
Regards Andrew
16. January 2008 at 17:45
Hello: There is an alternative to bloodsucking PayPal.
Log onto: http://www.gearpay.com It is a non-Politically Correct service.
Wayne Blanchard
17. January 2008 at 13:15
I agree with everyone. Paypal has recently gotten more involved in the political arena by freezing funds (about 55,000) required for the investigation of voter fraud in New Hampshire. These funds were donations for Ron Paul. None of us live in fantasyland and realize all lg corporations (lobbyists) pull the strings on politicans, but when an entity does so to support blatant fraud, that’s dispicable. Wake up people!