Paypal advice
 

Hello Subsimmers, I have made a purchase on Paypal and wonder what people think of its reliability and security compared to other people etc.

I've been using Paypal for over 8 years, not had any problems with it at all. :up:

When their server get hacked and your account info gets stolen, you're prey.

Been using Paypal for thousands of transactions since 2002, never had an issue. They have support you can speak with by phone.

Skybird, that's true with any bank, merchant or utility. Has Paypal's server been hacked?

Despite my worries i never had any problem with it, or charging fee problems. I like it for very fast payment, so the seller instantly saw that i paid, and i will often have the product the next day, or a day after.

It is also great for buying all kind of things abroad with no problems, e.g. via eBay. I think it is very practical, which again this is why they will at some point tighten the thumb screws, and charge so much it will become a real pita :)

So much for my optimism ..:smug:

I guess I'll join in and say that I've been using Paypal for about three years now and never had a problem.

Remember Sony's promise some years ago at launch date of their PS3 that their servers are "unhackable"?

Where there is gold in a chest, pirates are not far away. And banking accounts on a server are chests bursting with gold and jewelry.

I just remind of that collections of such data are prey attracting a lot of attention.

I also remind of the many data accidents we have seen with military data. Lockheed loosing some terabyte of data on the F-35 to a probably Chinese hacker attack. Employees in the British MOD loosing or misplacing notebooks and datasticks. And so on.

Paypal may not have been hacked so far. But they sure as hell are positioned right in the centre of the crosshairs.

It is sound advice to instruct your bank to have limits on money that can be transferred per day. I have set that limit to the highest regular monthly payment that is automatically made for house maintenance costs. Any abuse of your paypal account would run into a wall there at the latest, plus it would ring the alarm bell.

And you are right, my criticism is valid for every shop I use online. That'S why I have deleted my ebay account this summer, my paypal account longer time ago (in protest over the Assange affair), my Visa-card. All transaction I cannot or want not to avoid I do via other people'S accounts. :D Only Amazon I risk to leave active, but I know that there is a risk for sure. Else I only use shops where I can pay via manual money transfer after delivery.

Sorry dear BND and NSA, I think my electronic signature is relatively small for today's standards. :D I'm a cash money fetishist.

No wonder - Paypal IS Ebay. ;) That'S why they push it for professional sellers at ebay, it is an additional money collector for ebay.

Been using it for years. :up:

To Skybird :- I presume then, that you never cross a road ?
If your bank account gets hacked because you took a risk with someones server, you lose some cash.
If you get knocked down because you took a risk with someones driving, you could well lose your life.
I think I know which is the bigger risk. :yep:

I've used it for hundreds of transactions since 2002, not one problem with PayPal. You get risks with everything in life, and I'm sure some people have had an issue, just like some have with education, work, insurance, banking, or as above - crossing the road, or using Google. :03:

:O:

I think it is just sound to minimize known risks and not to use carelessly and easy-minded technologies that have inherent dangers and risks. We have lived ourmloives with cellphones, smartphones and internet just two deacdes ago, and I just say: it was no worse life, not at all.

Such a life is possible. ;) And it has nothing to do with wanting back the safety of the cave in the stone age.

I am not against technology. But I think that many people, especially in America, and especially younger ones not knowing it differently anymore, take it for granted too carelessly, and have too uncritical an attitude towards it, and reflect too little about inherent problems, may it be regarding security, may it be regarding cultural changes that get enforced by changes in the technological world. Heck, Windows alone even changes our cognitive and psychological working modes, and I bet most people are not aware that instead of having a machine following the human they now work and organise their working processes according to the demands of the computer world. And this means a limitation and channeling of possible options. You do not think openly in creative terms, anymore - you think in terms defined and dictated by the working procedures of the OS and the used software. The machine is no longer there for you - you are there for the machine. ;)

Some awareness on these and other implications cannot hurt, I think. Else the homo sapiens' evolution sooner or later ends at a walking Gameboy set to endless demo-mode.

Awareness cannot hurt, you are correct, but you do come across as someone who is awfully paranoid about most things modern.

Embrace the modern era, because we won't be going back to an old one, even when the oil runs out it'll not be an old one - just another new modern one without all we've come to rely on. :yep:

Paypal's local servers may have been trespassing, but no serious errors, for me it has worked perfect for eight years, and then it is about transactions around our globe.

I've used paypal for SubSim donations and for selected online purchases. No problems what-so-ever for the past 10 years.

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.