PayPal? - vs. other online escrow services

[cscgal]

I was just thinking about how much the webmaster community relies on PayPal. Do you think we'll see some competitive alternatives in the near future? It's driving me crazy how PayPal is getting greedier and greedier with commissions, etc.

[rex_b]

You might but Paypal has the tap on the market right now. I am not sure if paypal does this or not but they should do a graded commission rather than just a flat one.

[cscgal]

If you're a personal user, no commission. If you're a business user, commission is about 2% of all money people send you. You're forced to be a business user if you accept payments through your website or else you can't accept the payments at all.

[TheOgre]

There are a few alternatives to PayPal, but I can't think of their names at the moment. They don't have the world-wide recognition PP does, nor the built-in interfacing to things like eBay, but they are an alternative to receiving online payments. I'll let you know when I find out what they are.

[cscgal]

Well, I know there is 2Checkout.com ;)

[TheOgre]

I wouldn't recommend them if I got paid to :)

[cscgal]

I never used them. Why not?

[TheOgre]

Because you don't get paid until after they've called the buyer to verify they've received whatever service they bought from you. If the buyer wanted to save money (read: screw you) all they'd have to do is claim they never received the product, and you wouldn't get paid. Period.

I signed up with them for about a week, and then I got curious why the test purchase I made never went through. After reading (again) their FAQ, I found that statement. If you're selling service-type items (i.e.: labor), or non-physical items (i.e.: web hosting) and the customer never "receives" the merchandise, you don't get paid. They also only pay you once per month, instead of x days after they receive payment from the customer, like a regular merchant account.

[cscgal]

Eww, thanks for the 411.

[TheOgre]

n e time :)

[Patrick]

Hello,

I use PayPal and 2CheckOut and, for the moment, I have not had the problem that TheOgre mentions. I know that they said that in the beginning they wanted to confirm a few purchases, but it never got beyond that and they assured me that it was a rare thing. I sell domain names through them and have yet to have a payment refused and not get paid, etc.

Also, you get paid twice a month - on the 1st and 16th of every month.

[cscgal]

I work a lot with PayPal. The only experience I have with 2CheckOut is on a rare occassion I'll purchase something online from a site that uses them.

[floris]

My experience with paypal is good as a verified dutch premium member (probably upgrade to business in the near future for some specific reasons)

Either inform your possible clients about an additional fee for paying using paypal, or increase your prices with the % yourself.

Each online payment processor that is quite good, asks money. They have to earn too. I think 2checkout and paypal and the others all have different type of rates and means to have income. Having a few of them as alternative ways for paying things online over a secured connection is a good way to get your income. Users are familiar with them and you have a broader end of income this way.

[ice2003]

I think paypol's commision is really high!and the service of paypol has some problems! I can not get paid for one of my deals last month! and i e mailed there surport and have not got answer till now!and lucky part is that the deal is small! but i think i should switch to other company!such as www.2checkou or www.ikobo.com .

[cscgal]

I have heard much better things about PayPal then about 2Checkout.com ... it's also a lot more popular. Did they always take a commission? I just became a Verified Premier partner recently and that was when they started stealing from me.

[RC_Razor]

PayPal has lots of kudos from me once you use there service for more than a year they lower there commission and or remove... and anyway i got my biznez on ebay and its worth them taking commisions out all the stuff they do for me.. notification exepting payments and now shipping.. i havnt found a more trusted and more reliable payment source...

[gul]

There are always alternatives to paypal. My experience with ikobo.com gives me pleasure to invite others to ikobo. Ikobo charges low rates on their online store facilities. Their coverage is in more than 170 countries and in 220 regions internationally. They also offer online money transfer service which is fastest in industry so far.

[forgotten]

I too use Paypal and haven't had any problems with them execpt for their comission getting a bit greedy. They tried to help me with an insurance claim so they do try I suppose. Try PPPay.com if you want a cheap way to transfer money but beware that they don't except all cards, I think they are biased towards cards that they can verify with their credit checking system, or so I've been told.

[BountyX]

use stormpay, their mroe secure

[ice2003]

I have switched to use ikobo now. Ikobo is really good. Its price is lower than that of paypal and its coverage is wider than paypal too.