S3D Re: paypal?

[Harumi Marshall <gbmarshall@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Linda is quite correct about liability limitations.  Although the credit
card companies often try to sell additional protection, they are bound by
federal law to limit your liability to $50 (in most fraud cases).  No such
protection exists for electronic transfers from your bank account.
Unfortunately, this also applies to some debit cards.  You should never
accept or use a debit card unless you are certain that it has the same
kind of liability protection as a credit card.

On the issue of how PayPal hopes to make money, the 3% fee often quoted
for merchant expense is not universally true by any means.  Based on
volume and "quality" of transactions (how many returns and other expenses
are experienced), merchant fees can range anywhere from zero on up.  Its
hard to say what percentage PayPal is paying, but I'd bet its pretty low.

Greg M.


Linda Nygren wrote:

> >www.paypal.com
> >
> >
> >I used PayPal once with a Visa/debit card, so none of the above would
> >apply. What I did find, however is that there is a charge for
> >transactions under a certain amount.  I my case this exceeded the
> >10.00 credit to my account for signing up.
>
> >In short, it worked fine for me once, even though it did cost me -
> >the second time it bombed. I've avoided it ever since.
>
> >Any other feedback?
> >Dennis Mahoney
>
> As I understand it, the minimum credit card charge is $5 as far as
> PayPal is concerned (if I read the fine print correctly), so I don't
> understand how one transaction could have wiped out your $10 credit.
> Unless it was a minimum set by your debit card rather than by PayPal.
>
> I have used Paypal for a few transactions so far without any
> problems. No cash advance fees on my credit card account, etc. I
> personally will not give them my bank account numbers because I don't
> believe there is any $$$ limit to the liability that a person can
> incur from any potential fraudulant transfers, as opposed to using a
> credit card where I believe the usual $50 limit would apply if there
> was a security breach and fraudulant charges occurred. Does anyone
> know any more about this? -Linda Nygren (Should this discussion be on
> P3D?)