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Good riddance, PayPal

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Re: Good riddance, PayPal

#71

Post by meanguy »

dangrossman wrote: post #12

The premise of his "vehemence" is untrue: banks can and do have the exact same policy regarding terminating merchant services accounts. They can terminate you at any time, without reason, and when they do so, hold any undisbursed funds in a reserve account for exactly 180 days. There is no regulation banks are subject to that PayPal isn't that would have an affect on that. PayPal did not make up this policy; it's bas…

I can echo the same treatment with two different merchant account providers across three companies. Didn't matter if it was a $10k month or a $1MM month or if the company was new or old--it was a constant battle. In one case it was only my personal credit rating (which happened to be spotless) that saved my business.

Yes, think about that. A merchant account -- where they hold your company's money -- relies on your personal credit score.

Anecdata: I had two chargebacks in five years of web software sales. Both claims were buyers ripping me off. I provided signed FedEx receipts for boxed software shipments and IP addresses/dates/times when the customer registered the software and downloaded updates. I ate the full cost (plus investigation and chargeback fees) both times. (This is "cost of doing business" and not an opportunity for a blog post, IMHO.)

From the post: "And thank god I made that [five figure] withdrawal when I did, because yesterday came the second phone call, informing me that a reserve would indeed be placed on my account."

I believe this action is what actually triggered the issue. If he paid the costs of running his business out of his PayPal account and took consistent monthly paychecks, it would have been far less of a flag.

Sucks that you have to do it, and we software types are famously short-tempered when it comes to dealing with real-world bureaucratic nonsense, but sometimes a bit of careful planning and playing the game wins the race.

Re: Good riddance, PayPal

#72

Post by rthomas6 »

reitzensteinm wrote: post #68
scottshea wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PayPal's freeze on that money means their end is covered, and you can still bring the sales to a bank and get a line of credit to cover the printing costs So your suggested way around this is to incur credit charges & pay for the credit risk baked into the interest rate all so that Paypal is covered?

Frankly, yes. The merchant is, if I understand the post correctly, taking orders, using the money to print a run, then shipping them. The risk is caused by the merchant's business model. It may not be high, but it certainly exists. Either the merchant, PayPal or consumers themselves must pay for it. Who would you pick?

The merchant. It's the merchant's business. The merchant should be the one taking the risk.

Re: Good riddance, PayPal

#73

Post by milesskorpen »

In Europe, PayPal actually is incorporated as a bank, so all normal rules apply. Merchant accounts for digital goods are subject to a lot of risk!

Stripe et. al. are the credit unions of the card processing world -- they can offer more personalized service. But they also can't really scale and meet all demand, or handle the very largest accounts, without putting many PayPal-esque structures in place.

Re: Good riddance, PayPal

#75

Post by kintamanimatt »

gadders wrote: post #61
kintamanimatt wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they have! I knew they were transitioning, but it appears they're just about done with the change. Skrill is such an awful name IMHO!

"Skrilla" is slang for money: www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=skrilla See also the lyrics for "Cash in My Pocket" by Wiley: > All I really want is money in my pocket > Cash in my hand, oh, skrilla in my wallet > All I really want is money in my pocket > Cash in my hand and skrilla in my wallet, yeah http://www.metrolyrics.com/cash-in-my-pocket-lyrics-wiley.ht... NB: This doesn't stop it still being an awful n…

That's absolutely hilarious! They should have just stuck with their original brand, which wasn't all that terrible either!

Re: Good riddance, PayPal

#76

Post by ios84dev »

meanguy wrote: post #71
dangrossman wrote: post #12

The premise of his "vehemence" is untrue: banks can and do have the exact same policy regarding terminating merchant services accounts. They can terminate you at any time, without reason, and when they do so, hold any undisbursed funds in a reserve account for exactly 180 days. There is no regulation banks are subject to that PayPal isn't that would have an affect on that. PayPal did not make up this policy; it's bas…

I can echo the same treatment with two different merchant account providers across three companies. Didn't matter if it was a $10k month or a $1MM month or if the company was new or old--it was a constant battle. In one case it was only my personal credit rating (which happened to be spotless) that saved my business. Yes, think about that. A merchant account -- where they hold your company's money -- relies on your p…

Why would a merchant account provider have your personal social security number/be doing credit checks? Assuming its an incorporated C corp?

Re: Good riddance, PayPal

#77

Post by hackerboos »

mattmanser wrote: post #18
dangrossman wrote: post #12

The premise of his "vehemence" is untrue: banks can and do have the exact same policy regarding terminating merchant services accounts. They can terminate you at any time, without reason, and when they do so, hold any undisbursed funds in a reserve account for exactly 180 days. There is no regulation banks are subject to that PayPal isn't that would have an affect on that. PayPal did not make up this policy; it's bas…

Just to note, the's author's not in the US, he's in the UK and Paypal's a regulated bank over here. I always have mixed feeling on these stories. On the one hand, if you operate almost entirely online, you're in amidst a mass of scammers and conmen, it's a much higher risk, hence everything being more draconian. So there's always problems. Brick and mortar businesses are much less as there's a real presence, etc. On…

And as a result of being a Luxembourg bank

>It is therefore not possible for UK customers to obtain legal redress from the company in the English, Scottish, or Northern Irish Courts.

So he's not getting his £600 back through the courts.

Re: Good riddance, PayPal

#78

Post by tptacek »

ios84dev wrote: post #76
meanguy wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can echo the same treatment with two different merchant account providers across three companies. Didn't matter if it was a $10k month or a $1MM month or if the company was new or old--it was a constant battle. In one case it was only my personal credit rating (which happened to be spotless) that saved my business. Yes, think about that. A merchant account -- where they hold your company's money -- relies on your p…

Why would a merchant account provider have your personal social security number/be doing credit checks? Assuming its an incorporated C corp?

Because merchant banks require them. Anyone can create any number of C corporations at any time. Merchant accounts are one of several business services that young companies can't set typically set up without somehow binding the contract to the business owners themselves.

Re: Good riddance, PayPal

#79

Post by rscale »

ios84dev wrote: post #76
meanguy wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can echo the same treatment with two different merchant account providers across three companies. Didn't matter if it was a $10k month or a $1MM month or if the company was new or old--it was a constant battle. In one case it was only my personal credit rating (which happened to be spotless) that saved my business. Yes, think about that. A merchant account -- where they hold your company's money -- relies on your p…

Why would a merchant account provider have your personal social security number/be doing credit checks? Assuming its an incorporated C corp?

If you're a relatively small or young company, the merchant account providers often demand that a principal signs a piercing agreement and personally guarantees the account.

For the first few years I was in business my corporate credit lines were effectively personal credit lines that happened to have my company name on them.

Re: Good riddance, PayPal

#80

Post by tylerrooney »

michaelt wrote: post #44
tylerrooney wrote: post #27

Perhaps someone who runs their own company can answer this question for me: If you don't use PayPal, how do you receive payment from customers who don't have credit cards? Are your customers exclusively in North America? Or do you just write those customers off (which is a valid option if PayPal integration would be that painful)? Adding PayPal as a payment option has been an enormous pain for us but a non-consequent…

If you don't use PayPal, how do you receive payment from customers who don't have credit cards? If a customer doesn't have a credit card or a debit card that your payment gateway accepts, you deal with them the same way you deal with customers who don't have computers.

We have a staggering number of customer who pay us through PayPal because they don't have a credit card or a debit card which clears through Mastercard/Visa (which is the standard in most countries).
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