Rant PayPal is completely obsolete, how is your view if you are a seller / coder for company using it?

[YuliApp]

I have been using and recommending PayPal for years also as an easier CC processor, integrating it to websites and such.
Recently (as a year or so) PayPal is getting completely annoying if not even a business risk.

First this was third refusal in complete clear breach of seller's rights

Then there was completely clear case of buyers rights, also refused

and to top of that it wants me to Captcha AND 2 level auth after every visit or timeout when on PC

I made an effort to completely eliminate PayPal only except for those occasions where customer has no other option. Vote with your wallet!

How is your experience if you code for merchants or used it your self?

 

[Captante]

Never had a serious problem of any kind over many 100's of transactions.

 

[sandorski]

Recently was asked to Authenticate with my Cellphone which I specifically didn't fill during Registration. They have my E-Mail, my Home Phone number, and they could implement Live Chat to perform such a thing. They don't need and won't get my Cell#. I went elsewhere to purchase what I wanted. I'm not a DataMine.

 

[Tweak155]

I have an annoyance with the 2FA... I enabled it for security obviously, but when I use it on my main computers at home and check off "trust this device", it just ignores it. Every single time I have to use the authenticator.

Not the end of the world as it should be more secure that way, but annoying nonetheless.

 

[daveybrat]

I've been using it for as long as i can remember. Never had an issue and still use it today.

 

[YuliApp]

I have an annoyance with the 2FA... I enabled it for security obviously, but when I use it on my main computers at home and check off "trust this device", it just ignores it. Every single time I have to use the authenticator.

Not the end of the world as it should be more secure that way, but annoying nonetheless.

yes also, on my PC also it often fails to answer captcha with just a hook and requires twice to go through photo verification. This is absolute annoyance for a website which should be used professionally. If i had employees i would not want them waste time, i am responsible for my own security, please and thank you.

What happens also is that my account often gets "verified" only because i get larger sum of money when there was a break during using it. Then it is locked for 2 weeks. Like the f since when they think this is appropriate behavior for a supposedly "bank account alternative" for businesses?

 

[Scarpozzi]

I can agree that the "Buyer Protection" can violate the seller's rights. I use PayPal for a lot of things.....mainly because retailers I don't normally frequent have guest checkouts on their websites and a Paypal link that allow me to check out without doing more than logging in....it's just a few clicks, I don't have to divulge my CC number to a 3rd party, and it's far less typing.

In the past year, I've had 3 retailers turn out to be scammers. It's tough to tell because most of the drop ship websites that are from China can sometimes take 30 days to deliver. That automatically skews reviews to the negative. I ordered some custom jewelry for my wife and thought I was scammed, but the item finally showed up. Another order I placed, never showed up and I suspect it was lost at sea because the shipment timing coincided with the container ship losses from November of last year. I ordered a bed frame and after the automated Emails got no response from the company after 2 weeks.....it turned out they didn't response to Paypal either. Paypal made most of those things right for me. They have specific guidelines they follow, but the chat feature allowed me to get pretty quick response and eventually get refunded.

If I'm buying a lot of stuff and haven't budgeted in advance, I use PayPal Credit pretty often. This past year, I bought a $400 mattress that was 50% off on a one day sale, 2 sets of tires (expensive ones), $1200 of blinds, PC parts from Newegg, an Iphone 12, other various electronics....all financed on 6 months same as cash through PayPal Credit. Currently, I've got $0 credit card or Paypal debt...(just paid Christmas gifts off yesterday) I scheme to maximize my points returns and limit the amount of interest I pay, so spreading out those purchases over the past 5 months have allowed me to pay more on the mortgage. The normal credit card rates are like 15-20% these days....take advantage of PayPal Credit if you have the discipline to use it without overextending yourself.

 

[YuliApp]

I can agree that the "Buyer Protection" can violate the seller's rights. I use PayPal for a lot of things.....mainly because retailers I don't normally frequent have guest checkouts on their websites and a Paypal link that allow me to check out without doing more than logging in....it's just a few clicks, I don't have to divulge my CC number to a 3rd party, and it's far less typing.

In the past year, I've had 3 retailers turn out to be scammers. It's tough to tell because most of the drop ship websites that are from China can sometimes take 30 days to deliver. That automatically skews reviews to the negative. I ordered some custom jewelry for my wife and thought I was scammed, but the item finally showed up. Another order I placed, never showed up and I suspect it was lost at sea because the shipment timing coincided with the container ship losses from November of last year. I ordered a bed frame and after the automated Emails got no response from the company after 2 weeks.....it turned out they didn't response to Paypal either. Paypal made most of those things right for me. They have specific guidelines they follow, but the chat feature allowed me to get pretty quick response and eventually get refunded.

If I'm buying a lot of stuff and haven't budgeted in advance, I use PayPal Credit pretty often. This past year, I bought a $400 mattress that was 50% off on a one day sale, 2 sets of tires (expensive ones), $1200 of blinds, PC parts from Newegg, an Iphone 12, other various electronics....all financed on 6 months same as cash through PayPal Credit. Currently, I've got $0 credit card or Paypal debt...(just paid Christmas gifts off yesterday) I scheme to maximize my points returns and limit the amount of interest I pay, so spreading out those purchases over the past 5 months have allowed me to pay more on the mortgage. The normal credit card rates are like 15-20% these days....take advantage of PayPal Credit if you have the discipline to use it without overextending yourself.

i understand what you mean, here is PayPal Credit rather rare to see and i refuse any kind of credit anyway. I even have no credit card for online purchases per se, just debit card because i like the fact it bounces when there is some unauthorized transaction.

 

[pete6032]

What alternatives to PayPal is everyone using?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I don't use PayPal for much anymore unless there are some type of promotions (e.g. I think Discover card is giving 5% cashback for Paypal and Restaurants next quarter).

If I want to do simply transfers, I've been using Zelle (which is compatible with most bank accounts), and some have been pushing me to Venmo.

Overall, there isn't much of an advantage to using Paypal anymore.

 

[YuliApp]

What alternatives to PayPal is everyone using?

stripe,
payoneer (for patreon as they wont pay to account)
and more or less in Europe just bank transfer wherever applicable. here are the banks way better regulated and offer exceptional advantages over using paypal. My bank allows me to pay immediatelly for 1€ extra too.

Didnt really explored other options yet so looking forward for reccomendations too.

 

[deadlyapp]

What alternatives to PayPal is everyone using?

It depends on if you are a consumer or a business. For my business I use an independent card processor called stripe. It integrates well with the type of transactions and the backend I use and costs less than paypal.

As a consumer, I regularly use google pay instead of paypal, however as another poster mentioned above, I regularly will check out on websites with paypal to prevent from having to have my card information with another 3rd party.

 

[pete6032]

As a consumer, I regularly use google pay instead of paypal, however as another poster mentioned above, I regularly will check out on websites with paypal to prevent from having to have my card information with another 3rd party.

Are you buying a lot of things from smaller business or places you don't want to have your CC number? I think the only places I shop online are eBay, Amazon, and big box retailers like Walmart, Home Depot, etc. Occasionally I buy something from Aliexpress but even then I just give my CC number.

 

[LikeLinus]

I've been using Paypal since it started and have never had an issue with it. I use it only as a buyer. Still use it to this day and use it on e-retailers who have it as an option. Easier than having to get my wallet and input the CC information. Seems safer than giving my CC every time or have it stored on their servers.

I also use it for auto draft with things like Hulu, Disney+ and such.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I use it more now than I have in the past. It works well, I get some kickbacks in q3 from discover for it. As more businesses locally have moved to e-payments, I pay with it more.

 

[13Gigatons]

I noticed that Paypal and Google no longer allow you to transfer money to your PayPal account. That was the only reason I bothered using either of these companies.

I just use Prepaid cards now....safer and usually on sale.

 

[blckgrffn]

For website integration as a business, we use Braintree and it just makes all the PP stuff work after connecting them on the backend. Braintree is one of the "new school" payment processors that of course was purchased by PP.

I am not sure if you are questioning ecommerce integration here, but that made it way easier than working out a native PP integration. 0% chance I would go that route now. In Braintree I can even do all the refunds or adjustments in the Braintree control panel if the customer pays with PayPal. The drop-in UI just works and we don't store any sensitive PI on our end at all.

On a site with 100's of transactions per day, PP was ~15-20% of our checkouts, Amazon Pay like 8-10% and the rest CC direct.

On my smaller current site, it's about 20-30% PP and no Amazon Pay because, you know, don't feed the beast that will destroy ecommerce.

 

[deadlyapp]

Are you buying a lot of things from smaller business or places you don't want to have your CC number? I think the only places I shop online are eBay, Amazon, and big box retailers like Walmart, Home Depot, etc. Occasionally I buy something from Aliexpress but even then I just give my CC number.

I wouldn't say a lot, but it's not an inconsequential amount either. There are some things I won't buy from Amazon because there are too many fakes so I like to use other sites. Also can't buy a lot of sporting goods things from big box stores and I go to various sites for that stuff.

 

[Captante]

These days half of my PP transactions are completed using my debit-Mastercard.

While it does tap any standing PP balance first, ultimately it pulls money from my checking account. However it provides a buffer with a second layer of fraud-protection. (also small amounts of cash back)

 

[YuliApp]

i was using the paypal card too, but it is where actually my last problem hit. got scammed on purchase with the card, asked for money back, case was open 3 (!) months than denied. It was only "few" euros, can't imagine how mad i would be if it would be more.
With my bank account i can revert any charge, even those from paypal, sadly that one i paid with the ballance, not over bank.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Never really had an issue with it, and it's unversal. I hate when people try to use these oddball services that are US only or require to install some kind of app.

I've used it as a seller too, more specificly the IPN service. I have it setup with my game server so people can make a donation and get a prize in game. It was a little finicky to setup though.

 

[HumblePie]

Is this topic for enterprise or personal issues? I've worked on many financial code systems and created systems for paypal, propay, stripe, and others. None of them are particularly impressive for payment processors. Only a couple are more annoying than others, but to me all the code and SDKs they provide are mostly ho-humm. In terms of solving issues, propay is the worst when it comes to dropped transactions or strange errors resulting in error codes they have no idea how it happened or how to fix. -12 code I'm looking at you.

For personal use, paypal is okay. I've used their services for both buyer and seller protection. Since I was in the right each time, they always settled in my favor. It can take a long time though for them to resolve a dispute. My biggest gripe with paypal was I was literally one of their first accounts when they started back in the late 90s. I believe they even advertised that the first 100 people to sign up would have no fees for life. I was one of those first 100. Then after they changed owners a few times that promise went poof. That is my biggest peeve with them.

I will say their recent trend though of putting funds for stuff I sell on hold until a day after delivery is starting to get highly annoying to me though.

 

[YuliApp]

It was for both personal and business use. I used it also for many of my deposits (for photography and it projects) and main CC processor.

I tried CCBill but their aproval process and limitations is a nightmare so now looking for alternatives as i hate to have all eggs in one basket.

 

[purbeast0]

Randomly got an email last night at 8pm that someone logged into my paypal account from Bogota, Colombia. I clicked on the link in the email that said "click here if you did not login" and had to verify that it was indeed from paypal, and it was directing me to a paypal url.

So I immediately changed password and enabled 2fa. I don't log into it much and didn't know my old password even.

I am going to try and figure out how I can remove my bank account from them now.

 

[UsandThem]

Randomly got an email last night at 8pm that someone logged into my paypal account from Bogota, Colombia. I clicked on the link in the email that said "click here if you did not login" and had to verify that it was indeed from paypal, and it was directing me to a paypal url.

Luckily that wasn't a phishing email, as that is one of the most common ways for people to provide their Paypal login information.

I never click on links in emails......instead I go directly to their website and go into the security section to review any alerts.