Looking for some "Proper & Appropriate" information regarding Paypal

So I recently opened a bank account, deposited money etc. I'm still waiting for my debit card to come in the mail, anyway. I know a lot of users on here have PayPal and what sounds to me like a better vending and transfer service used by everyone. But I've also read some pretty negative things with PayPal and it's lack of security and poor communication between the PayPal themselves and the consumer.

What I was wondering was what is your take on the service? What would I need to set one up? What is the major advantages, disadvantages, and/or risks doing so. What should I know? I honestly trust people on here more then I would from the internet itself considering I've been around here for over a year now. So I hope an experienced user can fill me in on the details. Thanks again.

Been using PayPal for years and it has so far worked like a dream most of the time.

The only advantage you have is that it's used and accepted almost everywhere on the internet for if you want to purchase something online. It has got a ton of different downsides, mostly being able to freeze your account - and trapping all of the money - at a moment's notice, for no reason at all. Also it reduces A LOT of tax on money that you receive that isn't marked as a gift. Beware of fees as well, they've got a lot of hidden ones.


I try to avoid PayPal whenever I can, and only use it as a last resort. I've already run into a bunch of problems with them (freezing my account, deducting fees that weren't necessary etc.), so I only really use it due to it being the only option for international payments.


Luckily, iDeal is huge in my country, which allows you to pay online directly from your bank account. It sometimes adds a €1 for each transaction, but with the ease of use, I'd gladly pay for it.

I have been using Paypal for years and I never had a single problem. :)

I wonder how the story is on Bluesnap, formally known as Pilmus.  I see they have a lot more to offer then PayPal and I see some verification awards on there as well. They also accept people who pay though PayPal too.

As Plimus it had problems, and as Bluesnap it's had some serious knocks to it's reputation, so I'd be cautious about using it.

Pay Pal will freeze your account and trap your money without warning.


Also don't use Skrill/Money Bookers, they have unreasonable customer service that will not attempt to help you if you don't follow their scripted conversation. Seriously no human being works there, they all sold their souls to cooperate.

I've used PayPal for years without much problems to pay for things, but they require a valid and full identification before allowing someone to use received money for transactions. If an account is not authorized to their liking, you can't use that money you received in any way until that authorization has been achieved.


I once made a second paypal account to be able to differ payments for different purposes easier, and for the second account I didn't enter a bank account but planned to use money transferred from my first account. That money was received in the new account, but all tries to pay something with it were blocked without any details in the error messages.


I then called them and talked to their hotline, and was informed that the new account needed validation with a bank account before any money in it could be used- the hotliner confirmed that he could see that it was a legit transaction because both accounts were from the same name/adress, but to prevent several forms of money laundering and internet crimes their servers needed a valid bank transfer confirmation before allowing that accounts money to be used.


If I hadn't called them and gotten that explanation - nothing on the account itself said that it needed a bank account confirmation before it became usable.


I believe that a lot of those "account freezes" were for similiar reasons - and had similiar problems because the error messages given by their servers are of... let's say very low quality, this is a forum with minors and we should watch our languages.


But if you can link the account to a valid identification according to your countries legal requirements, then I think Paypal will pose no problems - and I rather have an internet payment service that blocks transaction if they are not fully authorised than one who doesn't care about abuses, even if that were three days of guesswork until I got said problems sorted out...

Well I know your pretty much screwed on any service but I thought one of the indie devs on here was using pilmus (there is no second i in it) for their game millennium or something. PayPal is used by most people because its common I need some sort of vendor to use though.

Edit: I'm also (slowly) reading each of the EULA's of each vendor just to see about fees on my end I see Paypal requires I hidden signup fee? I lf I read it correctly

It also depends of your country. PayPal over here is just awesome as fees are quite low.


I use Visa Electron through PayPal for direct payments as I don't like to use wallet systems when possible.

@ Zane

Yes Indinera was using Plimus for Millennium but now uses BMT

I live in the US and BMT Micro right?

Really? Plimus is Bluesnap now? Avoid them AT ALL COSTS!!! Just do a search on here for Plimus to find out why.


I've used Paypal for a long time, and the only time I had issues is when they froze my account after I transferred several thousand dollars into it from my bank account to pay a commission. It took a bit of mucking around to get it sorted out, as I had to find a number of business documents and scan and send through to them, and I had to change my paypal account name to the business name. It was an inconvenience, at most - nothing shady about it, just that my commissionee had to wait a week or so longer to be paid.