These words that you deliver here Sky, could form the basis of any business, and paypal or Amex, etc, but my general opinion is that the paypal and Amex have good security.

@OP

I have used Paypal for about a year - and I was not thrilled with the idea - but so far I have had NO problems whatsoever.

@Skybird - I work in IT for a major bank. Where do you think all the financial data is kept? On servers. Lots of them. All over the place. We have a HQ, and a backup HQ just in the US. Every branch office you can visit has a server. It doesn't matter who you use - somewhere your "money" is sitting in digital format on a server. Which means its possible it could get hacked. Which means your financial institution is a target. Better run and put your money under your mattress - but wouldn't that make YOU the target for the thieves?

Do you want them hacking one of "my" servers, knowing I have a large, dedicated team of people doing Intrusion Detection and Response, another team concerned purely with Data Security - or do you want them "hacking" down your door with an axe to get to whats under your mattress?

At least in the US - if your personal info is breached - there are remedies you can make use of. If it was the waitress at the diner stealing your card info, then she can get busted. If your financial institution does not adequately protect your data - as stated in the law if they did not do their due diligence - then you have a claim against them. Also - deposits are insured by almost all financial institutions (using the FDIC) up to 250k.

I was another who was leery about PayPal at first, and for a long time. Now I use it whenever I can. They gave me credit when no one else would, but that's only part of it. With PayPal I don't have to give anyone my credit card number, just my PayPal account. They have my CC (well, debit card actually, since no one will give me credit) number, and everything goes through them. Amazon has lost some business to eBay from me, because Amazon's bank won't give me the credit.

PayPal is now sending me a card I can use that works in stores, as it ties in with my bank account. Maybe it will even work on Amazon.

PayPal rules! :rock:

I have had no issues with PP.

I even had a money market / savings account for a while with them and a Visa debit card that tied right into that paypal account.

Debit card is definately the way to go if you are still a bit concerned aout it all. It's all your money on it so if it gets abused you can loose a little but you'll never end up owing anything.

I just keep enough in there to cover bank fees ($10-$20 or so) and then put the amount I need on the card when I wish to make a transaction; once complete there's nothing left to steal.

Using Pay Pal for 2 years now, no problems and it's an excellent way to do purchases online.

HunterICX

Perfect timing for this thread.

Received my Visa yesterday and I can finnaly make an account on PayPal.

I understand Skybirds fears and have them myself, but risk is something we have to take. Anywhere and anytime in life. That's why it's called life

Hope it all goes swimmingly for you, Bet. Don't go overboard with your Visa though. :up:

Used PayPal for years and never had a problem, I even have a separate bank account dedicated to it but only transfer sufficient funds into it just prior to making a purchase.

It's Visa Electron, pre-paid. Before a purchase I'll just wire some money onto it. Can't spend if I don't have.

Oh, the first thing I do with my new PayPal account is wire Neil €20 for the subsim fund (finnaly)

Haplo, every place where your data or a shopping account with access to your bank account is stored, is a risk. Obviously, the more such places exist where you have placed your data/accounts, the higher the chance that you get hit, in other words: the risk grows. That'S why it is a good idea to limit the number of such places. Not to have a hundred different shops on your shopping list, but just one or two. Not having five different banks for onlöine activity, but just the one that is needed as minimum. Not having a dozen credit cards, but just one - if even that.

Also, every shopping order done on a 'PC, is a risk. The system could be ifnected, keyloggers could be installed that either track keyboard activity or make screenshots after every keystroke. You can try to bypass that by using paste-copy via USB sticks. Then there could be other trojans. Read-out hardware installed on card readers, even that of your banking office.

I do not ring the panic bell, I just think it is smart to be aware opf all these things, instead of carelssly spreading your data and accounts and vulnerabilties all over the world. I compare it to watching left and right before crossing the street. Internet crime is exploding, the national police authorities warn of it again every year. the growth rates every year are deep in the two digit range.

I have one card by my home bank. I do online banking. I prefer cash payments in shops (also goes faster) and to get money at my bank to get over the month or week, instead of using plastic money all the time. I have cancelled my Visa and Paypal, although that was in protest to both companies submitting to US pressure over the Assange case. But I must tell you: a life without credit cards and paypal and internet shopping is possible. :) And often, it is a better life. :yep:

And another, very different thing. Electronic payment turns you allk into people made of glass. Authorities do track and record every payment that you make, and can establish a behavior and history profile of you by that. Not to mention what the business world and advertising companies make of such datasets... For people (Americans) that so often are about themes like "freedom" and "as little state as possible" and "not totalitarian control", it surprises me how careless Americans are regarding protection of privacy in the internet, and safety of financially relevant data, and exposing themselves to the total x-raying of themselves. It should be us Germans loving to be registered by state institutions and authorities and having their data stored away and never deleted for eons to come, that's our reputation, isn't it, the obedient, authority-loving German "Untertan". But Americans beat us easily regarding blind trust in authorities, law texts and state offices. ;)

I have two reasons for using PayPal:

1. Some places accept either credit card or PayPal but not my Visa Electron debit card.

2. I don't want to give my debit card information to every shop and service I use. I see PayPal as more secure option - its not perfect but thats true with my bank too (I'm not aware of either having had security problems).

I haven't had any issues with Paypal myself. In fact, I prefer to use Paypal if available. Just seems safer than giving my information to a lot of different companies online. If I understand it correctly, vendors that accept Paypal won't see your credit card information.

Many, many, many years ago I was always leery of buying things on the internet and giving out credit card info. Now it is second nature.
Up until a few years ago, I used to play a fair amount of online poker and I just got used to moving money around on the internet from account to account, even transfering funds to and from my checking account on occasion.

:)

Logging into PayPal is like logging into an e-mail account....user name and a password...that's all... is this safe? :o

Every bank having an online banking service has more validation features in order to authorize / check if you may access the account or not....