Sponsor's Message

The simplicity and effectiveness of the PayPal model has seen tens of millions of people from all across the globe sign up, and today PayPal is a very real force in online commerce.

Using PayPal, it becomes possible to virtually dispense with "real" cash or credit cards when buying and selling over the Net.

Much of the (admittedly small) amount of money that flows into my PayPal account through the donation buttons on my website ends up going straight out again in the form of payments to vendors for products or services related to creating, updating and maintaining the site.

Since many of these payments are made to US companies and represent charges billed in US dollars, the fact that my PayPal account is denominated in that currency saves a lot of currency-conversions and the associated fees that banks usually impose.

Unfortunately however, not everyone is happy with PayPal.

Some people are so pee'd off with Paypal that they've gone so far as to create websites to share their problems.

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It seems that everyone loves PayPal -- until something goes wrong and they lose whatever money happened to be in their account at the time.

But surely customers must have some protection in law?

Well it seems not.

PayPal isn't constrained or regulated by the same laws that apply to the banking industry and their "terms of service" can be summed up in one simple phrase: "all care, no responsibility."

If you have $1,000 in your account and PayPal decides to freeze it (for whatever tenuous reason) -- you've probably lost your money.

So far, PayPal has been able to dodge the law by not being a registered bank - but it seems they're not immune to government scrutiny or prosecution and word is that they may have infringed the US Patriot Act.

I can already hear the less than muted cheers from those who claim to have unfairly lost their dosh to PayPal.

My own experiences with PayPal have been more than satisfactory -- but then again, the amounts of money that has passed through my account are pretty trivial.

What does cause me a little concern however, is that even though eBay has purchased PayPal and now promotes the service heavily -- they won't accept PayPal as a method for paying auction fees and commissions.

I wonder why that is?

Isn't it just a little odd that the very company which touts PayPal as the world's leading online payment service refuses to accept it as legal tender?

I'd be very interested to hear readers own experiences with PayPal. Are you a happy camper like me or have you been screwed?

Do you have an opinion on today's column or want to add something? Have your say

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