American Express's PayPal: Serve

[bhanson]

American Express has just announced "Serve," which the company touts as "a digital payment and commerce platform that gives consumers a new way to spend, send and receive money with services that go beyond the existing global payment networks."

...

http://techland.time.com/2011/03/28/american-express-serve-versus-paypal-whats-the-difference/

Summary:

• You get a "Serve Card" accepted anywhere Amex is.
• 1 free ATM withdrawal per calendar month
• No fees for transfers between accounts

I think I'm going to sign up. It may be the only way I'll get an Amex in my wallet (I've been denied twice with perfect payment history and decent credit).

 

[jlee]

From the article:

Serve doesn't charge any fees for payments between Serve users. PayPal doesn't charge for transfers between personal PayPal accounts when funded directly from account balances or connected bank accounts, but charges 2.9% plus 30 cents when funded from a debit or credit card.

I believe that is incorrect - unless the payment is marked as "gift", Paypal will charge a fee.

It's nice to see some competition for Paypal, though..finally.

 

[coxmaster]

I just dont see any reason to switch to this over my Paypal mastercard. More fees, fewer places that accept it.

Its cool to see more companies getting into this but it will take a while to get the market that Paypal already has

 

[bhanson]

From the article:



I believe that is incorrect - unless the payment is marked as "gift", Paypal will charge a fee.

It's nice to see some competition for Paypal, though..finally.

I think it's accurate unless they've changed it sometime since I last actively used PayPal.

PayPal charges a fee regardless when receiving money if you have a premiere account, but not by default with a personal account.

 

[jlee]

I just dont see any reason to switch to this over my Paypal mastercard. More fees, fewer places that accept it.

Its cool to see more companies getting into this but it will take a while to get the market that Paypal already has

No fees for payments between Serve users - huge for FS/T people.

 

[paulney]

Dude, you got Served!

 

[nanette1985]

I think I'm going to sign up. It may be the only way I'll get an Amex in my wallet (I've been denied twice with perfect payment history and decent credit).

Same here. Take that, Amex!

 

[jlee]

I think it's accurate unless they've changed it sometime since I last actively used PayPal.

PayPal charges a fee regardless when receiving money if you have a premiere account, but not by default with a personal account.

Ahhh....maybe it's up to $500? I sold something for $500 early in March and got hit with a fee on the something today, but I probably hit my free limit.

 

[Kelvrick]

So now we have Visa and an Amex version. Where is mastercard?

 

[gevorg]

Good news, Amex has one of the best customer service in credit card industry. PayPal is one of the worst and they're not even a real financial institution. Hopefully Amex will spank PayPal and then some.

 

[Fayd]

Good news, Amex has one of the best customer service in credit card industry. PayPal is one of the worst and they're not even a real financial institution. Hopefully Amex will spank PayPal and then some.

not by my experience.

 

[Crono]

I've been looking to dump PayPal for a while. I'll give this a shot.

 

[Gillbot]

I've been looking to dump PayPal for a while. I'll give this a shot.

Bumping an old thread, I got my serve card in and here's to hoping it takes off. Though, judging by the date on the OP, i'm guessing no.

 

[abaez]

Serve used to be "Revolution Money Exchange" a sketchy site I signed up for years ago (totally risking myself to fraud but I had to buy something from Russia that I really wanted and they only accepted that form of payment from U.S. users).

Anyway, I'm glad it's up but it will definitely take some work to get it more widely known and available.

 

[evident]

american express is the best credit card company ever. can't wait to use this and give paypal a big middle finger. too bad i'll still be using paypal as well because ebay basically owns paypal.

 

[Slew Foot]

unless ebay seperates from paypal, paypal will always be entrenched.

 

[Gillbot]

american express is the best credit card company ever. can't wait to use this and give paypal a big middle finger. too bad i'll still be using paypal as well because ebay basically owns paypal.

I'd LOVE for any one of these clones to really take off. Even if the fee scale was the same as paypal but the customer service was better, it would be well worth it.

 

[homercles337]

From the article:



I believe that is incorrect - unless the payment is marked as "gift", Paypal will charge a fee.

It's nice to see some competition for Paypal, though..finally.

So if someone sends me money, directly to my paypal account how does one actually use those funds? I have looked and its not at all transparent how to accomplish this.

 

[Gillbot]

Paypal personal payments are not exempt from fees. Also, when buying goods, it's against paypal's TOS to use personal payments. See this.

 

[coxmaster]

american express is the best credit card company ever. can't wait to use this and give paypal a big middle finger. too bad i'll still be using paypal as well because ebay basically owns paypal.

Ebay DOES own Paypal.. 100%