Is Paypal Being Sleazy?

Anyone notice that they cannot make Instant Transfer payments through Paypal lately? I noticed it the other day, but figured it was a restriction put in place by the seller. An odd restriction, of course, but whatever.

Today I made another payment through Paypal, and again I couldn't select Instant Transfer. My options were credit card and e-payment. So I checked their forums and it appears this has happened to a lot of people. General consensus is that Paypal is trying to force people to make e-payments, that way they get the interest on the money while they hold it.

I've been using Paypal since 2000 and have never had any issues, but this is shady stuff. I don't like using my credit card, but I also don't like waiting a week just for funds to clear, funds that I know I have, you know. And I'm sure the sellers don't want to wait either.

Irritating.

It's been almost a month since I used my Paypal account, but I didn't notice anything different when I did, business as usual. Is this a recent developement?

Yeah, I noticed it about a week or two ago. No problems before then.

I haven't noticed any issues and used it a couple days ago

I haven't had any problems with my account yet, but now I'll be watching out for that.

I haven't used Paypal for a few months, so I didn't notice anything unusual. Anyways it's not really an issue for me since I use my debit card for all my Paypal transactions anyways.

Could be a random thing, you know. They'd make tons of cash by just doing this to a small fraction of their users.

Yea I used mine a few times in the last couple of weeks and everything seemed fine.

I think it's just Eyesore. They're tracking all his music purchases and figure they can make a mint if they skim a little off the top.

Probably! Haha.

By the way, your avatar is reminding me of that old PC game The 7th Guest. Anyone remember that? It was awesome. Had a sequel called The 11th Hour.

thejokeriv wrote:

I haven't noticed any issues and used it a couple days ago

Same here.

wow. It doesnt surprise me if they are - after all they are an evilbay company...

Eyesore wrote:

Could be a random thing, you know. They'd make tons of cash by just doing this to a small fraction of their users.

Nah, I've always found paypal to be above the board. I have heard that some of the others like Alert Pay are a scam

I noticed this last week myself. I thought it was odd, but just figured something was wrong with the system that particular day.

Last year, they changed my account to E-transfer payments, and demanded further info of my bank account or a credit card to make instant payments.

I could not see the reason why they stopped, and now this is happening to others, that means they still would collect interest.

Besides practising usury, now they are easily allowing buyers to get back their money, even when sellers provide tracking info.

One person I know that Paypal did this too, is considering calling the RCMP since the transaction took across the border which makes it an international crime/fraud.

I've used mine a couple of times this week and havent had any problems.

Used mine yesterday and didn't notice anything different.

My guess is that this happens only with specific banks, whichever bank you have setup with Paypal. They have issues getting money from a specific bank, so they put in a waiting period.

Something like that seems to make the most sense since it isn't happening to all users.

Quote :

Last year, they changed my account to E-transfer payments, and demanded further info of my bank account

They did this to me with no warning or notice and I only found out after I had won an item on ebay. Which I could then only pay for by providing them the banking info they wanted. Forget that. Really shady in my book. Fortunately the seller was cool about it and I paid up off site.

You would think they would want to keep customers like me who were always using ebay (weekly transactions/perfect feedback) to continue. Guess running those users off is part of some successful plan they've implemented. Haven't used ebay since.

jstate wrote:

You would think they would want to keep customers like me who were always using ebay (weekly transactions/perfect feedback) to continue. Guess running those users off is part of some successful plan they've implemented. Haven't used ebay since.

that is ebays game plan, which is why i dont use them anymore.

Not a problem here at all.

Wargo

me neither. I just used it yesterday and no problems.

Paypal and eBay are both rip off companies who I avoid whenever possible. eBay are trying to force casual sellers off in favour of businesses. It's the reason why they give discounts to powersellers and the more recent basket feature to make it more like an online store. The fees they both charge extortionate and make selling on eBay a last resort for me. I wouldn't be suprised at anything they do. For example, it takes days to withdraw your balance from your Paypal account. Handily for them it means the cash stays in their account for a few extra days.

I also read that Paypal don't guarantee any balances (unlike banks), so if they go bust, you'll lose everything in your Paypal account. I always withdraw any Paypal balance I have because of this, luckily they don't charge you to withdraw anymore.