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We got banned from PayPal after 12 years of business

blog.niteo.co

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Re: We got banned from PayPal after 12 years of business

#91

Don't know if it is the reason for the ban, but Niteos main product seems to be a service for creating spam networks. https://www.easyblognetworks.com , https://niteo.co/projects

As I mentioned in the previous comments - we're not using PayPal to process our SaaS products.

Re: We got banned from PayPal after 12 years of business

#92

As ar as I know PayPal in Europe is a bank with a Luxembourg banking license. I'm wondering if they could pull the same shitty here. Considering that any bank, which freezes your account, doesn't provide you with any reason and actually refuses to talk to you may draw quite some ire from their respecive regulator.

Which is exactly what banks do if they decide someone is on the terrorism blacklist, or you are "risky" - often on absurdly weak grounds. Mistaken identity or not, guilty or not, it seems to leave the customers with no options. Freezing funds only seems to happen with terrorism related closures, but it does happen, and the bank is judge, jury and executioner. One instance from search: https://www.theguardian.com/mone…

Not quite the same thing. From the article you link to :

You’ve been a loyal customer for years, but then a letter arrives saying your bank has decided it will shut your accounts, and you will have to take your business elsewhere. No reason is given and the decision is final.

So, yeah; a bank can get rid of you for any and no reason at all. But they can't just keep your money and stop talking to you.

That's nothing really new. Ask any American citizen trying to open an account abroad. They may be having an unusual hard time thanks to FATCA.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance...

Re: We got banned from PayPal after 12 years of business

#93

As ar as I know PayPal in Europe is a bank with a Luxembourg banking license. I'm wondering if they could pull the same shitty here. Considering that any bank, which freezes your account, doesn't provide you with any reason and actually refuses to talk to you may draw quite some ire from their respecive regulator.

Where is it "here"?

Any location where a Luxembourg bank license applies, ie. most of Europe, from Iceland to Greece.

Re: We got banned from PayPal after 12 years of business

#94
post #20
post #10

This and similar behavior is what ultimately drives people toward decentralized solutions, like Bitcoin for example.

HN is traditionally anti crypto, but just want to point out that literally no one in this world can stop you accepting Bitcoin payments. That's the true power of decentralization.

Sure they can. Accepting Bitcoin for payments is illegal where I live. It is enforced by fines and jail time, just like all other laws.

Re: We got banned from PayPal after 12 years of business

#95

The lack of customer service in the Silicon Valley is a pervasive problem. * Cody Don on YouTube teaches the masses about science and regularly gets banned. His videos are rated G to PG. Despite millions of viewers and dollars of Revenue, there is nobody he can call. * Uber charged $1500 to my debut card a few months ago. There's literally nobody you can call about it. * Lose your Instagram/Twitter/Gmail? Too bad, be…

> * Uber charged $1500 to my debut card a few months ago. There's literally nobody you can call about it. And here I thought small claims court was a thing in the US as well

Small Claims court is pretty much a joke. You go, the defendant doesn't show, you get a default judgement. You think "great, now they'll pay up" but no, they never do and nothing happens. If it's a small biz, they just change names and keep on screwing people over.

Re: We got banned from PayPal after 12 years of business

#96

For me as a customer, having PayPal as payment option increases the propability of purchase. Especially with one-time purchases from small vendors. Reasons: No risk of credit card info misuse (by vendor), I only need username and password and I get certainly at least some kind of receipt for accounting.

I’m always surprised as to why people are concerned about card details misuse. You are not responsible for card-not-present fraud (without 3D Secure). You can dispute any fraudulent charge with your bank, and I’d bet good money the bank has actually better customer service in that regard compared to PayPal.

I agree with you for US customers (and probably most of Western Europe), but situation in many countries in the rest of the world is different. Those consumers may not all be SOL in case of such fraud, but the recovery, if available, is much more involved than a single call / web action it takes in the US. My 2c.

Re: We got banned from PayPal after 12 years of business

#97
post #87

For me as a customer, having PayPal as payment option increases the propability of purchase. Especially with one-time purchases from small vendors. Reasons: No risk of credit card info misuse (by vendor), I only need username and password and I get certainly at least some kind of receipt for accounting.

> Reasons: No risk of credit card info misuse (by vendor), I only need username and password and I get certainly at least some kind of receipt for accounting. It's a shame virtual cards never got more traction through the CC industry. For those who aren't familiar, some banks/cards offer you a tool that let's you set an arbitrary spend and expiration date (+2-12 months usually) and then generate a credit card number…

https://privacy.com/

Re: We got banned from PayPal after 12 years of business

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't necessarily follow. It shows that users prefer PayPal, but not that they wouldn't use alternatives if PayPal's not available. If they really want to know the answer, they could do an A/B test with missing PayPal and see how many people drop out without it. Also, was PP the default/first payment option by any chance?

>If they really want to know the answer, they could do an A/B test with missing PayPal and see how many people drop out without it. I've done these tests, repeatedly; removing the PayPal payments option consistently leads to a statistically significant increase in cart abandonment. Some customers strongly prefer PayPal (especially on unfamiliar sites) and some don't have a credit card.

> and some don't have a credit card

If your customers are from Europe, it's not some, but most customers that don't have a credit card. Credit cards are uncommon here (probably hard to imagine if you are from USA).

Online payments are a fragmented mess in Europe. Most countries have their own preferred online payment method (like iDEAL or bancontact), Paypal is basically the only reliable method that works everywhere.

Re: We got banned from PayPal after 12 years of business

#99

As ar as I know PayPal in Europe is a bank with a Luxembourg banking license. I'm wondering if they could pull the same shitty here. Considering that any bank, which freezes your account, doesn't provide you with any reason and actually refuses to talk to you may draw quite some ire from their respecive regulator.

Which is exactly what banks do if they decide someone is on the terrorism blacklist, or you are "risky" - often on absurdly weak grounds. Mistaken identity or not, guilty or not, it seems to leave the customers with no options. Freezing funds only seems to happen with terrorism related closures, but it does happen, and the bank is judge, jury and executioner. One instance from search: https://www.theguardian.com/mone…

> Freezing funds only seems to happen with terrorism related closures

Try add the word Bet next time in the transfer's detail...

Re: We got banned from PayPal after 12 years of business

#100

For me as a customer, having PayPal as payment option increases the propability of purchase. Especially with one-time purchases from small vendors. Reasons: No risk of credit card info misuse (by vendor), I only need username and password and I get certainly at least some kind of receipt for accounting.

I’m always surprised as to why people are concerned about card details misuse. You are not responsible for card-not-present fraud (without 3D Secure). You can dispute any fraudulent charge with your bank, and I’d bet good money the bank has actually better customer service in that regard compared to PayPal.

As a consumer, I like PayPal because it allows me to shut off a payment stream when I want to.

A prime example was when I subscribed to NYTimes, and a few months later wanted to cancel. The only way to cancel was to make a phone call, navigate a phone tree, and wait for an agent. That was absurd, not only because I'm international and find it less convenient to call a US number... but particularly because I signed up and created the subscription online. NYT knew what they were doing by making it difficult for people to cancel.

With PayPal in between, I was able to easily just terminate the agreement. NYT could no longer suck money out of my card.

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