PayPal Here Coming to the United Kingdom

[shqtth]

I have paypal, and many eCommerce websites. Not a single problem. Then again, I am not operating a shady business that would create trouble.


Usually its the scammers are the ones who have problems and bitch about it.

 

[teh_chem]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Well, I have friends, collegues, family members - all have horror stories of their banks hitting them with charges, closing accounts, freezing funds, etcetc and i'm sure if you think about it we all know someone who has had a similar story...I'm not saying that Paypal is great, but some people are putting banks on a pedastal and saying banks are way better than Paypal - when they are equally crappy - plus Paypal didn't cause a global financial crash, fiddle Libor rates or engage in shorting on the trading floor[/citation]
This has nothing to do with putting banks on a pedestal; but banks are at least subject to some sort of audit process.

The problem isn't in the numbers of people this affects; it's that Paypal can unilaterally and indefinitely freeze personal funds of someone--funds that are above and beyond any amount that might be involved in a dispute. It's a god-awful poor way to conduct business.

What's the point of getting your bank account info, credit card info, and address confirmed with Paypal? Only to have them freeze your entire account because of a shady buyer? So let's say they find that a shady buyer was lying--what do you get as the seller in return for them freezing your account for weeks or months because of this single instance? Nada... You get your account unfrozen, but during the entire time you can't conduct anything, and you can't get your money out.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]teh_chem[/nom]This has nothing to do with putting banks on a pedestal; but banks are at least subject to some sort of audit process.The problem isn't in the numbers of people this affects; it's that Paypal can unilaterally and indefinitely freeze personal funds of someone--funds that are above and beyond any amount that might be involved in a dispute. It's a god-awful poor way to conduct business. What's the point of getting your bank account info, credit card info, and address confirmed with Paypal? Only to have them freeze your entire account because of a shady buyer? So let's say they find that a shady buyer was lying--what do you get as the seller in return for them freezing your account for weeks or months because of this single instance? Nada... You get your account unfrozen, but during the entire time you can't conduct anything, and you can't get your money out.[/citation]
Paypal works within the financial framework of the country it operates within, in the case of the UK it falls under the FSA, in the US you have your own regulatory bodies - banks may have some audit process in the US but regulation and rules have allowed some financial institutions to bring the economy to the brink of ruin - has everyone in her been living in a cave for the last 6 years? Don't you see the news?
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This is a story about Paypal running a service in the UK, where I have never heard reports of accounts being frozen, but plenty of news articles of banks being fined for breaching FSA rules
...
Maybe if the regulatory bodies in the US had tighter controls on all financial institutions there would be less room for Paypal USA to do account freezing and maybe, just maybe, avoid another Lehmann Brothers or Enron

 

[teh_chem]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Paypal works within the financial framework of the country it operates within, in the case of the UK it falls under the FSA, in the US you have your own regulatory bodies - banks may have some audit process in the US but regulation and rules have allowed some financial institutions to bring the economy to the brink of ruin - has everyone in her been living in a cave for the last 6 years? Don't you see the news?...This is a story about Paypal running a service in the UK, where I have never heard reports of accounts being frozen, but plenty of news articles of banks being fined for breaching FSA rules...Maybe if the regulatory bodies in the US had tighter controls on all financial institutions there would be less room for Paypal USA to do account freezing and maybe, just maybe, avoid another Lehmann Brothers or Enron[/citation]
I think there is an inherent difference between Paypal's foundation and operation in Europe vs. the US. In the US, Paypal is only recognized as a payment-handling/intermediary entity in the US, which is not a function that falls under the federal regulation guidelines.

Why do you keep throwing a red herring in by focusing on the banking meltdown? Yeah, the banks tanked--not just in the US, but worldwide. Does that mean that a widely-used payment service with obvious and inherent flaws should just be ignored instead of corrected?

 

[PhilipCohen]

I'll second teh_chem's comment; now, back to you eBay cubicle, back_by_demand ...

And the ugly reality for consumers, particularly smaller payees, dealing with the clunky, unscrupulous PayPal ... http://bit.ly/UVXx53

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]PhilipCohen[/nom]I'll second teh_chem's comment; now, back to you eBay cubicle, back_by_demand ...And the ugly reality for consumers, particularly smaller payees, dealing with the clunky, unscrupulous PayPal ... http://bit.ly/UVXx53[/citation]
You sir, are an idiot
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It has everything to do with the banks, the so-called Federal regulations are a joke, the UK had some impacted services but our financial authorities managed to stave off most of the serious impact, that's why the USA is trillions in debt and most of the rest of Europe is bankrupt, like Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Ireland. For example The Government guarantees protection for all investors to £50,000 per person, per account against things like banks going bust. If you have a large portfolio just distribute amongst several banks for you and your partner and you should be golden. Some banks did go up and the Government didn't just bail them with cash, they used the cash to buy some of the banks. RBS is now 84% owned by the state and paying back the money it owes with interest - 2 can play that game Mr. Bigwig Banker - we protect our citizens, not the financial institutions like in the USA that make regular "donations" (or is that bribes?) to whoever will pass kickback laws for their benefit
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Which comes right round to the UK again, this story is about a service running in the UK by Paypal
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If it were running in the USA (which it does) it may well deserve some of the hate, but as it is in the UK it has almost all of it's bad practices curbed - they can't just freeze accounts, they have to apply to the Direct Debit guarantee, they are wholly regulated by the FSA

The world is bigger than the 5% of it's population that occupy your country, many if you pulled your heads out of your asses and noticed, again, that this is about a service outside your country and did some research you would see that

 

[PhilipCohen]

I leave it to others to decide which of us is the idiot. You keep talking about the GFC; everyone else is talking about PreyPal, the clunky, unscrupulous, ugly adopted daughter of the eBafia criminal organisation aka eBay ... http://bit.ly/11F2eas

And, you've obviously missed the PreyPay UK horror stories as well ...
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18417&Itemid=8 … search for “Linda R”

And another, just one of many stories critical of PreyPal, from the UK Guardian … http://bit.ly/VUmqkv

Now, it really is time for you to drag that smelly red herring back to your eBay cubicle ...

 

[Doaadi MacRoth]

I recently signed up to PayPal Here and ordered a card reader. I'm a driving instructor, and I take money every day, and my business expenses are also triggered on a daily (or weekly) basis - fuel and such like.

What the PPH website doesn't make clear is that you have a "100% reserve" set on your account. Any money you take above £200 in any seven day period is put into this rolling reserve for 30 days before it is released to you in a piecemeal fashion. In my case, that would mean if I took £800 in a week, I'd only have access to £200 and I'd have to wait at least 30 days to get the rest - and since it is rolling most of my income would be tied up at any one time. You can't run a business like this with that kind of restraint.

It took numerous emails and several phone calls - the email and phone support people totally contradicted each other, one saying that chip & pin payments were not included (only keyed in card details), the other adamantly stating that ALL monies received went into it.

It has finally been confirmed that the reserve DOES apply to every penny above £200 - no matter how it is taken using the card reader.

I've arranged to send it back before it's even arrived and opted for iZettle instead.

PayPal has really shot itself in the foot on this.

 

[PhilipCohen]

I recently signed up to PayPal Here and ordered a card reader. I'm a driving instructor, and I take money every day, and my business expenses are also triggered on a daily (or weekly) basis - fuel and such like.

What the PPH website doesn't make clear is that you have a "100% reserve" set on your account. Any money you take above £200 in any seven day period is put into this rolling reserve for 30 days before it is released to you in a piecemeal fashion. In my case, that would mean if I took £800 in a week, I'd only have access to £200 and I'd have to wait at least 30 days to get the rest - and since it is rolling most of my income would be tied up at any one time. You can't run a business like this with that kind of restraint.

It took numerous emails and several phone calls - the email and phone support people totally contradicted each other, one saying that chip & pin payments were not included (only keyed in card details), the other adamantly stating that ALL monies received went into it.

It has finally been confirmed that the reserve DOES apply to every penny above £200 - no matter how it is taken using the card reader.

I've arranged to send it back before it's even arrived and opted for iZettle instead.

PayPal has really shot itself in the foot on this.

Yeah, "square" and PreyPal "Here" are great ideas for small traders on the move; too bad they both are little more than clunky middlemen with no dynamic linking to the real banks; indeed, "PreyPal" itself is little more that a gigantic "credit card merchant account" operator (with the infamous Wells Fargo Bank) ...

 

[PhilipCohen]

Oh, I forget to mention, the prudential regulation of the banks in Australia is such that none of them got into any serious trouble during the GFC; the government did not have to buy into any of them; they did however provide backup guarantees, I understand, but that was all ...