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Today I learned that random people can send you money on PayPal and disputed it

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Re: Today I learned that random people can send you money on PayPal and disputed it

#11

Post by seanhunter »

Dah00n wrote: post #2

For the life of me I cannot understand anyone would use PayPal. I'd rather trust the postal system with an envelope of money. I have yet to see an area where there aren't better options.

At the moment I use paypal when my bank rejects a credit card transaction due to fraud risk. For example this happened yesterday when I tried to make a payment to a (very reputable) educational institution for an application fee. This is by no means a high risk transaction. In fact I would go so far as to say the payment could never in a million, billion, Brazillian years be fraud, but it was rejected.

But they take paypal also, so no bother. Do the transaction on paypal.

This kind of thing happens maybe once every couple of months for me, and is why I keep paypal around.

Edit to add: I think some UK banks are much more trigger-happy than the global average when it comes to flagging transactions as possible fraud. I once had to pay my tax bill (to the UK government) by paypal because the debit card transaction was declined.

Re: Today I learned that random people can send you money on PayPal and disputed it

#12

Post by killingtime74 »

astrange wrote: post #3

Despite being the only person who's ever owned my email address, someone else somehow has it added to their PayPal account. Last I checked, Google's survey app inexplicably pays out to PayPal even though they have Google Wallet, and doubly inexplicably will only pay to what it thinks your email address is with no option to change it. So… someone in Brazil has my survey payments.

Don't do any more surveys?

Re: Today I learned that random people can send you money on PayPal and disputed it

#14

Post by addandsubtract »

Dah00n wrote: post #2

For the life of me I cannot understand anyone would use PayPal. I'd rather trust the postal system with an envelope of money. I have yet to see an area where there aren't better options.

Paypal is useful, because it transfers money instantly. Sending money in an envelope isn't an option when you want something instantly. As a buyer, it also offers a form of protection from fraudulent sellers, which you also don't have with the postal service.

Re: Today I learned that random people can send you money on PayPal and disputed it

#16

Post by hexfish »

Dah00n wrote: post #2

For the life of me I cannot understand anyone would use PayPal. I'd rather trust the postal system with an envelope of money. I have yet to see an area where there aren't better options.

10-15 years ago (when I started using paypal) most Europeans didn't have a credit card and most US-based services (and things like Ebay and Dealextreme) didn't accept anything but credit cards and paypal. And this sometimes is still the case.

Re: Today I learned that random people can send you money on PayPal and disputed it

#17

Post by astrange »

addandsubtract wrote: post #10
astrange wrote: post #3

Despite being the only person who's ever owned my email address, someone else somehow has it added to their PayPal account. Last I checked, Google's survey app inexplicably pays out to PayPal even though they have Google Wallet, and doubly inexplicably will only pay to what it thinks your email address is with no option to change it. So… someone in Brazil has my survey payments.

Umm... just do a password reset on their PayPal account?

Sounds illegal?

As in, I thought about it and that's the reason I haven't done it.

Re: Today I learned that random people can send you money on PayPal and disputed it

#18

Post by arcticbull »

danShumway wrote: post #6

I know that FedNow isn't really a digital currency system and I'm not making any assumptions about how it's going to play out, but I hope one consequence of it is that sites like Paypal start seeing a lot more competition and lose a lot of power. I know other countries have similar systems, but the US being a holdout and having terrible money transfer options despite being a massive market in the tech space maybe (ho…

The dollar is already a digital currency, and its issuance is largely decentralized. Most dollars are issued by retail banks. What you can't do is self-custody the digital dollars or have an account at the Fed.

FedNow is going to be fine, just like ACH but faster. PayPal sucks in a lot of ways, but there are reasons you would use it over an actual money sending service like Zelle, FedNow or Wise. For what it's worth it's pretty rare that I have been materially adversely affected by the latency of an ACH payment. That's not to say I don't welcome FedNow with open arms, though, I very much do.

Re: Today I learned that random people can send you money on PayPal and disputed it

#19

Post by SCdF »

Dah00n wrote: post #2

For the life of me I cannot understand anyone would use PayPal. I'd rather trust the postal system with an envelope of money. I have yet to see an area where there aren't better options.

It depends on what you mean by "use PayPal". To give out my debit card details as infrequently as possible, if a business supports paying with paypal I'll use them as the payment provider. I don't store any money with them though.

Re: Today I learned that random people can send you money on PayPal and disputed it

#20

Post by BrandoElFollito »

hexfish wrote: post #16
Dah00n wrote: post #2

For the life of me I cannot understand anyone would use PayPal. I'd rather trust the postal system with an envelope of money. I have yet to see an area where there aren't better options.

10-15 years ago (when I started using paypal) most Europeans didn't have a credit card and most US-based services (and things like Ebay and Dealextreme) didn't accept anything but credit cards and paypal. And this sometimes is still the case.

Almost nobody in Europe uses credit cards. We use debit cards, various types (immediate, deferred, ...).

It was also the case 10-15 years ago. The usage has became much higher, but it was already all right by then.

Except Germany, for cultural reasons.

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