Which one is safer?

[Conglomer Group]

Hello Everybody,

I got confused in PayPal and credit card. Over 100 million people use PayPal to buy products and services online—but how does it compare to using a credit card?

If you’ve never used PayPal, it’s a service that allows you to pay online—using money in your PayPal account, your bank account, or with a credit card—anywhere a merchant displays a PayPal checkout button.

Whats your suggestions

[jamesray50]

I think either one is safe. For people who do not have a credit card PayPal is an excellent way for customers to pay online for products or services. For businesses who want to accept credit cards and also offer PayPal as a method of payment, I don't see the need to have a separate merchant account. PayPal only charges when a payment is received. Most merchant accounts have a monthly service fee in addition to fees charged for each payment.

[Harold Mansfield]

Customers don't have to have a Pay Pal account to pay something via Pay Pal. Pay Pal acts as a payment processor just like Authorize.net, 2CO, Amazon Checkout, Google Checkout and all of the others.

Pay Pal is plenty secure and offers a few more services and options than most. I've been using it for years and have NEVER had any major problems with processing payments or security in sending invoices, using it for ecommerce, sending money to friends and family, nor anything else.

[MyITGuy]

Credit Cards hands down.

From a consumer perspective, PayPal offers no protection for people who buy 'virtual goods' which they pretty much leave up to the seller to decide. If you buy a website from someone who doesn't deliver, and pay them via PayPal - You're out of luck since its a virtual good that can't be tracked/confirmed as being sold.

From a Seller perspective, PayPal offers no protection/means to dispute a transaction that is initiated via a Credit Card Dispute (I.E. I call my CC Issuer and state I didn't authorize that charge). So if you deliver a service/product, you're out the money they paid with no recourse (Unless you take it further via civil action).

[Harold Mansfield]

Credit Cards hands down.

From a consumer perspective, PayPal offers no protection for people who buy 'virtual goods' which they pretty much leave up to the seller to decide. If you buy a website from someone who doesn't deliver, and pay them via PayPal - You're out of luck since its a virtual good that can't be tracked/confirmed as being sold.

From a Seller perspective, PayPal offers no protection/means to dispute a transaction that is initiated via a Credit Card Dispute (I.E. I call my CC Issuer and state I didn't authorize that charge). So if you deliver a service/product, you're out the money they paid with no recourse (Unless you take it further via civil action).

If you are paying with a Credit Card then you already have protections. To me that's more the responsibility of the buyer to know their rights and protections, and which payment options is going to be best for them to use in different situations, than it is a fault of Pay Pal.

I've purchased digital goods and paid via Pay Pal, and had a problem with the product and Pay Pal totally backed me, reversed the charge and refunded my money in a matter of hours.

I'd say every situation is different.

[jamesray50]

I have never had a problem getting a refund from PayPal either. From a consumer side, I would rather pay with PayPal when purchasing online. I just find it convenient, I choose PayPal as my payment method, sign in to my PayPal account, pick which account to pay from, confirm and all done. If PayPal is not a choice then I have to get my credit card and enter all the info from the credit card. Then I have to decline the offer of the website storing my credit card info (personally l don't like the idea of every website I order from keeping my credit card info on file).

Then there are websites that have recurring payments, i.e. GoDaddy. PayPal is convenient for that. Have you ever had a new credit card issued? With a different account number. If you are using the credit card for recurring payment, you have to go to the website and change your credit card info. Monthly recurring amounts are easy to remember to change, but, for me at least, annual recurring payments are harder to remember. Using GoDaddy eliminates that process.

I guess you can say I am a fan of PayPal.

[Brian Altenhofel]

From a Seller perspective, PayPal offers no protection/means to dispute a transaction that is initiated via a Credit Card Dispute (I.E. I call my CC Issuer and state I didn't authorize that charge). So if you deliver a service/product, you're out the money they paid with no recourse (Unless you take it further via civil action).

This.

Between PayPal's high fees and their policy where the buyer is always right (except in very extreme circumstances... for example, it doesn't matter if the package was signed for when the buyer tells PayPal it wasn't delivered...), I won't accept PayPal and I don't recommend PayPal unless it's a niche where PayPal is already universally expected (and even then I recommend using another processor for credit cards).


Then I have to decline the offer of the website storing my credit card info (personally l don't like the idea of every website I order from keeping my credit card info on file).

Most websites don't actually store credit card information. They store a token that is typically only good for that particular set of API credentials.

[Harold Mansfield]

Every argument I've heard against Pay Pal always seems to be personal. From someone that had a bad experience where they feel Pay Pay personally screwed them becuase a dispute didn't go their way. Understandable and I'm not saying that's not a valid reason for not liking a company personally.

But as far as business goes, I never hear anyone say that Pay Pal isn't a safe, easy to use, completely valid, widely acceptable and reputable way to process credit cards. I never hear anyone call it a terrible service.

I don't like a lot of things personally, but for business they make sense. I don't make a whole lot of decisions based on spite. At least not anymore.

Just sayin'.

[Brian Altenhofel]

Every argument I've heard against Pay Pal always seems to be personal. From someone that had a bad experience where they feel Pay Pay personally screwed them becuase a dispute didn't go their way. Understandable and I'm not saying that's not a valid reason for not liking a company personally.

It's nothing personal for me. It's simply a business decision after examining their policies and getting professional consultation on risk vs. benefit, as well as the extremely high fees.

For a business that doesn't run a lot of cards, 2.2% (or $2,640 in annual fees on $120,000 in annual CC sales, not including $0.30/transaction fees) may not be significant. But if they shop around, it's fairly easy to get a sub-1% rate (or very close to it, depending on industry and volume) including transaction, batch, and processing fees. At $10K/mo in CC sales, it may or may not be worth it to put in that extra effort to get a decent rate. At $100K/mo in CC sales, you're getting into the territory where the difference is significant enough where reinvestment within the company (through marketing, R&D, or even just an extra brain) can have a huge effect.

[Twhansbury]

Internet commerce Paypal does best. They have the best tech and protection for both sellers and customers.

[RiskyBusiness]

Every argument I've heard against Pay Pal always seems to be personal. From someone that had a bad experience where they feel Pay Pay personally screwed them becuase a dispute didn't go their way. Understandable and I'm not saying that's not a valid reason for not liking a company personally.

But as far as business goes, I never hear anyone say that Pay Pal isn't a safe, easy to use, completely valid, widely acceptable and reputable way to process credit cards. I never hear anyone call it a terrible service.

I don't like a lot of things personally, but for business they make sense. I don't make a whole lot of decisions based on spite. At least not anymore.

Just sayin'.

I definitely agree. Like all things, paypal has it's good points and not so good ones. I've been in merchant services for a long time and I've often referred a potential customer to paypal because their business couldn't justify the fee's associated with a normal merchant account. Paypal is great for online businesses that are just getting started or have a very low monthly volume. Paypal is a decent way to get started but most businesses outgrow them pretty fast. And when that happens, I'm here! lol