Paypal is TERRIBLE for merchants.
Here is what happens in far too many transactions.
1) Payment is made, item is sold.
2) Buyer lies to to Visa sometime down the road, Visa takes money from Paypal,
Paypal takes money from merchant's account w/o warning.
3) Paypal claims to investigate. Asks for evidence and patience.
4) Shockingly, Paypal says you lose and to pay up if they have not already stolen
the money from your account.
Your best level of protection is with a direct merchant account.
I have not heard any complaints from four square users yet.
If you "must" use Paypal, never keep more than a token amount in the bank
account you associate with them. Keep in mind, if you do further transactions
they will immediately steal that money until "your" debt is paid. Unless
Paypal has completely cleared you, you will need to stop using them
immediately. Again, never, ever keep more than a token amount in your
account.
Look on the web and you will find many, many people complaining on how they
were ripped off by Paypal.
PayPal today announced Here, a mobile payments system that will allow small businesses to accept payments through a smartphone.
Much like the service Square, PayPal Here accepts debit and credit cards via an encrypted, thumb-sized card reader. It also can use a phone’s camera to scan and process cards or checks.
The concept is simple: customers get to use their preferred mode of payment; merchants get to accept exactly that, plus invoice directly from a mobile app; PayPal makes money (2.7 percent; Square is 2.75 percent) by using its traditional web-based service as the anchor.
PayPal is billing their service as the world’s first global mobile payments system, a dig at the more popular Square, which as a startup does not have the scale to match. It will be available on Apple iOS and Google Android devices.
There’s no question that PayPal has significant weight to throw around in this arena; what must be proven is merchants’ willingness to adopt the device. Based on Square’s reception, retailers seem to have interest in the technology — the question is how many dongles (and accounts) they care to have on the way to generating revenue in unlikely places.
Related on SmartPlanet:
- Pay for your taxi ride via mobile phone
- Wait, what, another mobile payments standard?
- With NFC technology, shop in Spain with a single tap
- Time for retailers to check out self-checkout technology
- Jack Dorsey’s design strategies for Square
- Google introduces Wallet; brings NFC tech to cash register
- How mobile tech is changing the retail experience
- Visa In2Pay: payments on-the-go, using your smartphone
- Square brings swiped credit card transactions to your smartphone; aims for small business
