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GitHub Sponsors will stop supporting PayPal

github.blog

171–180 of 204 posts

Re: GitHub Sponsors will stop supporting PayPal

#171
post #88

We hear a lot from people who have had a bad experience using PayPal. But is there anyone who has had a good experience, either as a merchant, or as a customer?

As a customer PayPal works great for me. I much prefer it over typing my credit card number. Subscriptions over PayPal also work well. Just cancel in PayPal and it’s done.

Re: GitHub Sponsors will stop supporting PayPal

#172
post #56

Guess I won't be able to sponsor anyone anymore. I guess as a US based company they are expecting everyone to just have a credit card.

The HN community absolutely hates crypto but this is an example of where stablecoins would be great. No dealing with the logistics of international bank transfers or services like Paypal.

Re: GitHub Sponsors will stop supporting PayPal

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't blow your mind if you did a bit of research. Payment processors will ALL (including stripe, authorize, adyen, etc) lock your account (with your money still in it!) if: 1) You're taking money for a product that will be delivered in the distant future (like tickets for an event, or preorders) 2) Your account has a sudden change in ticket size or quantity 3) You're violating their TOS. On HN that might look…

I wonder why they are even allowed to do 1). There are entire industries (like airlines, for example) which rely on negative working capital to operate at all.

[deleted]

Re: GitHub Sponsors will stop supporting PayPal

#174
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They say that in the article, but at the actual checkout the only options listed rn are paypal and credit card. Also, honestly not even sure my banks debit card would work with something like that, only thing I ever used for paying online is ideal (a dutch payment standard)

In the US (and GitHub is a US-designed site) "credit card" is used to generically refer to any payment card, whether it's a credit card, a debit card, a pre-paid universal payment card (not a gift card, but a prepaid Visa or MasterCard or similar).

Debit cards routinely get rejected in the US even though they can be processed without PIN entry like a normal credit card. The IRS verification system to receive COVID benefits wouldn't allow them. Gas stations can be unreliable. It's a crap shoot. When given the choice I used to select debit to save the merchant money but I've gotten fed up with being screwed over for no good reason to bother anymore.

Re: GitHub Sponsors will stop supporting PayPal

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US (and GitHub is a US-designed site) "credit card" is used to generically refer to any payment card, whether it's a credit card, a debit card, a pre-paid universal payment card (not a gift card, but a prepaid Visa or MasterCard or similar).

By you, maybe. The gas station down the street from me, due to fraud, has to make an distinction between credit and debit cards because it doesn't accept credit cards.

Lol that's because they don't want to pay interchange fees, not because of fraud. Any decent credit card has 2% cashback/miles. That money has to come from the merchant.

Re: GitHub Sponsors will stop supporting PayPal

#176

Looking at all the PayPal hate in this thread, I have to ask - what do you guys use instead of PayPal? My main use case for PayPal is to avoid giving my credit card directly to merchants I don't fully trust. I considered switching to using virtual credit cards instead. But being outside the US, the options (at least those I'm aware of) are quite limited and inconvenient.

If you don't trust a merchant your credit card company should have your back, there are chargeback processes you can go through in the event you get defrauded. Just make sure you never use a debit card online. With PayPal you risk PP defrauding you or otherwise screwing with you, I've personally had them overdraft my linked bank account for no reason. My bank was pissed at them and only reversed the charges after I p…

> If you don't trust a merchant your credit card company should have your back, there are chargeback processes you can go through in the event you get defrauded.

Sure, but it’s still quite the pain to deal with. Your card can stop working at an random inconvenient time, you quickly have to switch any upcoming recurring payments, you have to spend time on hold with the CC company, etc. My last CC I had compromised I got into a bananas situation where I was having large/expensive packages I never ordered getting dropped off at my door and was then having to deal with the rigmarole of my CC issuer telling me I needed to return them to the shipper for a refund.

Re: GitHub Sponsors will stop supporting PayPal

#177

Open collective exists, although the current open source collective fee is brutal(10% from all transactions)

> although the current open source collective fee is brutal(10% from all transactions)

Open Collective doesn't charge fees to hosts that don't charge fees either [1], and most collectives can "self-host" themselves.

It's a great recurring payment option that we're using for our local hackerspace [1]. Though I think their checkout process could probably work better with a bit less friction.

And to stay on topic, we always prefer GitHub Sponsors over Open Collective, since they absorb payment processing fees. :)

[1] https://opencollective.com/pricing

[2] https://opencollective.com/hackerspacesg

Re: GitHub Sponsors will stop supporting PayPal

#179

Off topic, but is there a patron style support service where I can pay a flat fee once per month, and that money is split among my chosen targets? So I could have something like 20$ per month, split to 3 developers.

That was what Flattr's goal was but we don't hear so much about them anymore. BAT also has a similar business model but it's crypto-based and requires use of the Brave browser.

Re: GitHub Sponsors will stop supporting PayPal

#180
post #111
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or a debit card.

They say that in the article, but at the actual checkout the only options listed rn are paypal and credit card. Also, honestly not even sure my banks debit card would work with something like that, only thing I ever used for paying online is ideal (a dutch payment standard)

As said elsewhere in the comments, if your card has a Visa / MasterCard logo on it, it should work here. I'm personally sponsoring a bunch of folks using a Visa card connected to my business account on Wise.
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