PayPal
61Internet payment processor - Paypal
Paypal is one of the most well known and widely used payment processors. You can use it to send and receive money on the internet.
A reliable payment processor is one of the most important things in an online or e-commerce business.
Not everyone loves Paypal. Take a look at the site: Paypal sucks to get an idea of some of the problems of using Paypal. Personally, I have never had a problem using Paypal and have sent and received thousands of dollars using my account. Paypal Wars is a great book detailing the problems Paypal had in the past.
Paypal was bought out by Ebay and is the default payment processor for the auction site. Fees for Paypal can be slightly expensive, but for me the convenience that it offers, far outweigh the costs of using it.
If you have an online business, I believe it is imperative to accept Paypal payments. Perhaps selling very expensive products, you could have problems with fraudulant transactions, but for items less than say $100, Paypal couldn't be more convenienent.
If you receive a payment to your account you receive an email notifying you of the transaction. There is nothing like getting an email telling you, you have made money.
Paypal accepts multiple currencies. So if you receive a payment in a foreign currency you can leave it as that currency in your account, or you can convert it to your preferred currency.
Paypal is good where you need to charge a regular subscription fee, for a membership website for example.
In conclusion, Paypal is a reliable and efficient payment processor. It does have some problems but it is above all of the competition in its field.
Glenn Stok Level 6 Commenter 2 years ago
Great article. I had a positive experience using PayPal for my business. Once a customer disputed the charges on his card for an item I shipped. He said someone else used his card. Per PayPal's policy, one is protected when one ships to the address PayPal confirms as the same that the credit card bill goes to. So when this fellow tried to dispute it, PayPal protected me and I kept my money, since it was obvious that the product was delivered to the cardholder.