One last thing.

[tyggerjai]

Yes, I've had the day off, can you tell?

Paypal accounts. These used to be considered kinda dodgy, before eBay bought them out. What are they like these days? There's a site I'd like to buy a lot of stuff from who only do Paypal, and I'm wondering if it's a good idea. Will they sell my credit cards details to disreputable criminals, or are they legit these days?

Alternatively, anyone with a paypal account want to buy me some stuff?

jai.
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Comments

[fub.livejournal.com]

Given the fact that Paypal is a licensed bank in Europe, I have no reservations using them for my international payments.

[wingedcorset.livejournal.com]

I've had no trouble with PayPal whatsoever.

[meleah.livejournal.com]

Had Paypal forever, find it super-useful, completely reliable and safe, use it all the time to transfer money around, great for between country transfer etc.

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

Ah! You might be able to help me, then.

When I created my account, I chose Australia as my country and gave my p.o. box there as my address, because a) I'm going back eventually, and b) they didn't give Macau as an option.

I'd like to have things shipped to Macau. But apparently PayPal will only let me add addresses in the same country as my home address. Any clue on working around that one? Is it a question of changing the delivery address with the merchant?

jai.
.

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

Oh, never mind.

"Due to security reasons, PayPal only allows one country address per PayPal account. When moving from country to country, you must close your existing account and open a new account in the country where you are residing."

[jadaze.livejournal.com]

If Revolution Money Exchange allows accounts outside the US (I'm assuming it does), then I prefer it over PayPal on moral grounds. PayPal customer support is hard to get to, and they are anti-adult material. Revolution has an actual brick and mortar bank at the heart of it (PayPal just has offices), and makes no moral judgment on what you want to do with your money. I'm trying to get all my fans to switch, and I can finally go back to selling dirty art online. (-:

[nigelw.livejournal.com]

Can't speak for anyone else, but they don't seem to have done the dodgy with my credit card number yet.

[drbunsen.livejournal.com]

Because of eBay's recent (pendingly failed) application to the ACCC for exemption from prosecution for anti-competitive practises (ie forcing all sellers to offer Paypal payment as an option on all their auctions), I've ended up finding out quite a lot about Paypal.

While the vast majority of people have little to no trouble with Paypal, the proportion that do is much higher than the norm in the transactions arbitrage business. It's like the knowledge that something will increase your chance of prostate cancer from 2% to 4%. Sure, 96% have no trouble, but there are things about Paypal that seem, from the reports I've read, disturbing.

That said, I still use them, because they are still the most convenient and widely accepted payment method I am aware of, especially for cross-border and cross-currency transactions in low-dollar amount. If it ever came time for me to complete a cross-border transaction in the hundreds of dollars, I would check out my other options more thoroughly.

Further reading and links