PayPal 101

[drc]

I've had paypal for years, tied to my bank account, and have had no troubles. it's easy to use and even many main stream companies these days accept paypal Also, it keeps good printable records of your transaction history for tax purposes or whatever. I've had no accounting/money/bank errors.

[Tex]

Paypal is fine as a buyer, except that the security features are painful to anyone who moves a lot and has a cell phone as a primary phone because keeping your "Confirmed" addy up to date takes a lot of legwork. I wish you could opt out of that stuff at your own risk.

[autograf]

Paypal is a necessary evil.....get into lock step like the rest of us zombies.....I like the suggestions of paying with credit for larger items and the e-check comment by Leon...........

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by autograf

Paypal is a necessary evil.....get into lock step like the rest of us zombies.....I like the suggestions of paying with credit for larger items and the e-check comment by Leon...........

The anti-Paypal guys always make me laugh. (Not in a bad way.) They remind me of the people who complain about "excessive ATM fees!"

I'm old enough to remember what a pain in the butt it was before we had a nationwide network of ATM's. When you traveled somewhere, you had to make sure wou always had cash. A vacation required a stop to get Travelers Checks. Running out of money and not having a bank willing to cash an out-of-town check was a nightmare.


Now, it's so incredibly convenient, you don't even think about it. If you use a big bank, they have ATM's all over so the fees are rare, but even if you have to use a different bank the cost is well worth it.

[drc]

Just remember you'll get a lot of worse case scenarios.

Whenever I'd buy a new digital camera I'd ask a local computer guru about various models. He would tell me the worse case scenarios and worse possible problems with this or that model-- basically doing me the service of warning me of every possible and theoretical snafu. I'd end up being pleasantly surprised at how nice and problem free was my new camera. My pre-purchase expectations were formed by worse case scenarios, but in practice worse case scenarios rarely happen.