Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 396 posts

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#321

Post by sireat »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #132

> will now just have to move to my credit cards directly One of the reasons I like paypal is that it provides a great amount of control over who I pay and when and how much. I can login and reasonably easy see all of my MRC subscriptions, and cancel them as appropriate. Technically possible with credit cards directly, but not as nice. Best of both worlds right now is privacy.com for me, they generate credit card #s o…

Sadly Privacy.com - We're currently only available in the US

Privacy looks like a useful service if you can use it.

Interestingly Paypal had the same one time CC service some 10 years ago but it only lasted a few years.

Thing with alternatives to Paypal is that eventually they run into same fraud problems Paypal experienced 15 years ago and stumble.

I try to stay away from Paypal but often they are the only option.

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#322

Post by cerved »

pbreit wrote: post #298
kbos87 wrote: post #241

If ever there was a single shining example of how not to treat your customers, PayPal is it. Every year or two there is another story of a different arcane rule they have in place that is enforced with zero human consideration, oftentimes to deprive people access to their funds. They don't learn from their mistakes, nor acknowledge them in the first place. I can't think of another company that has drummed up such bad…

Curious how detractors would explain PayPal's beyond outrageous success?

Elon Musk obvi

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#323

Post by tim333 »

cm2187 wrote: post #315
kbos87 wrote: post #241

If ever there was a single shining example of how not to treat your customers, PayPal is it. Every year or two there is another story of a different arcane rule they have in place that is enforced with zero human consideration, oftentimes to deprive people access to their funds. They don't learn from their mistakes, nor acknowledge them in the first place. I can't think of another company that has drummed up such bad…

What you are describing is the way pretty much any financial institution treats their customers. A mix of heavy financial regulation, and low competition, itself largely the result of the massive barrier to entry created by financial regulation.

Not really true - there are some decent ones too.

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#324

Post by prostanac »

forbiddenlake wrote: post #118
Spare_account wrote: post #62

I was able to determine the year I opened my account in the Account Settings page: http://imgur.com/y6Rpc4G

An exact date would be better, for those who turned 18 in the year displayed.

the best way to find our the exact date is to find the sign up email, if you still have access to it.

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#325

Post by ben0x539 »

user5994461 wrote: post #108
iDemonix wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, in my initial outburst of rage to my other half about the situation I just described it as it's like a company turning around and sacking you because you took home an expensive stapler several years ago, it's just a random get out of free card they have stored thanks to their ToS.

Abusive ToS won't stand up in court.

I feel like comments like this only serve to further downplay how abusive selective enforcement is. It can't be so bad if there's in theory a legal remedy available, right?

But whether you prevail in court or not, if you try to go through with that the whole thing is probably going to lose you a lot of time and cause you a shitton of stress, all at the whim of an arbitrary decision made by a company with, relatively speaking, no skin in the game. The power differential is immense. Realistically there's no legal recourse that can ward off the damage to your life that getting into that kind of one-sided slapfight could cause.

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#326

Post by edem »

kbos87 wrote: post #241

If ever there was a single shining example of how not to treat your customers, PayPal is it. Every year or two there is another story of a different arcane rule they have in place that is enforced with zero human consideration, oftentimes to deprive people access to their funds. They don't learn from their mistakes, nor acknowledge them in the first place. I can't think of another company that has drummed up such bad…

What can I use instead of paypal?

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#327

Post by thiagocsf »

At this point I cannot hold any sympathy for people in tech getting screwed over by PayPal.

We have all read the horror stories and, if you're still using them, you've got no one else to blame but yourself. At which point you will write your own horror story with the faint hope that it goes viral and forces PayPal to make things right.

This is specially true for someone who, like OP, immediately liquidises the asset. Pick a digital currency, any currency.

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#328

Post by thiagocsf »

xux wrote: post #318
al_chemist wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want total control of your funds - Bitcoin. No TOS, no age check, no account freezing, no corporation behind it.

Yes, and random loss in value which is just as bad as theft

Very limited exposure if you're converting to cash on the same day. But you could also pick another digital currency.

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#329

Post by cerved »

_wmd wrote: post #282
patio11 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is useful to know that, in the US, if you have sufficient information to send a payment into an account you also have sufficient information to debit it. Americans are, accordingly, leery about giving out account numbers. Americans are not historically leery about giving out checks but, fun fact, we put all the information needed to empty an account on every check. Why? Long story; legacy systems rule the world. T…

The same is true in the UK, a direct debit instruction can be setup on an account using just the name, number and sort code, but it doesn't make us more wary, much in the same way that supplying one's home address is enough to take out lines of credit in that person's name

This sounds incredibly insecure, is it exploited much?

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#330

Post by jlebrech »

kennywinker wrote: post #109
JBReefer wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Venmo ... Oh that's PayPal too. I'm not a fan, but maybe Bitcoin? What about mailed checks, as a backup?

In Canada we have Interact e-transfers. For about $1 you can send money between any two banks via email or sms. The fee is frustrating, especially when you want to pay someone back for lunch or something small, but it is very convenient and basically everybody knows how to use it at this point.

someone who asks you for that $5 back, is always that person that will borrow $500 from you and never pay back, why spend a dollar for such a small amount.
Post reply on HN