Paypal advice

[Onkel Neal]

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?

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

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?

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. 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. I'm a cash money fetishist.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

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?

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.

[Takeda Shingen]

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

[Gargamel]

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.

[troopie]

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.

[HunterICX]

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

HunterICX

[Betonov]

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

[sharkbit]

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.

[flostt]

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

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

[Egan]

Used it 4 times this evening. I probably use it hundreds of times a year. Never once had a problem with it. I pretty much don't buy from a website - with a couple of exceptions - unless they accept Paypal.

Originally Posted by flostt

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

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

You can set Paypal up so it sends an sms code to your mobile phone which you need to enter to log in as well as username and password!

Paypals ok but the one problem I've got is the imaginary exchange rates they use for the Australian dollar to the U.S dollar ,they're alot less than the real rate ,not much if it's a small purchase but for big ones it's alot of money they get for nothing!!

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by flostt

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

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

PayPal automatically and instantly sends a email to you every time your account is used. You actually have some time to examine and cancel any transaction. After that they do a good job of handling any complaints, and they will go to bat for you if something bad has happened. PayPal is proud of its reputation, and deservedly so.