posted on July 7, 2001 07:27:58 PM
I have been reading this board with a lot of negativity towards Paypal. What is a better alternative, if Paypal is so bad? Is Billpoint any better? Or is there another credit card payment plan better then the above?
posted on July 7, 2001 07:34:53 PM
They all have their good points & they all have their bad points.
You can spend all your time running about trying to find the latest "free" offers & convincing your customers (and yourself) they are safe to use or pick one or two YOU like & go with them.
I recall these boards when BillPoint was introduced, it was considered the Devil Incarnate & PayPal could do no wrong.
Some HATE PayPal, some HATE BillPoint, some HATE C2it...none is going to be perfect.
Look at everything based on the average amount you'll be selling..what their fees will be, how much chargeback risk you are willing to take & what you think your customers will use. Decide from there.
posted on July 7, 2001 07:35:33 PM
I've had no problems (yet) with Paypal. They are also sending me a Debit Card which just upped my interested in them. Direct access to my funds there are important.
I just had three payments with Billpoint and so far, only one has made it to my bank. The others are on the way, I am sure (they were staggered days, so nothing is amiss), however the delay (for me) is longgggggg.
With Paypal, I can use the funds in that account to pay others. With the debit card access, it makes it more like an online banking account.
I am considering dropping Billpoint for my next round of auctions.
posted on July 7, 2001 07:50:12 PM
yeah paypal is like a online banking account but there not a bank and they are not FDIC insured if paypal fails say byebye to your funds.
I use paypal not many people pay that way i still have a personal account paypal sent me a debt card I cut it up I tranfer fund from there to my bank within hours of getting a payment where the money is safe.
like the others have said both services have there ups and downs paypal is working more like online banking and is working hard to make its self community of users billpoint is totally service orented.
Propay is another service your buyer dont have to register with them to pay your for sales this way you can even take credit card payment from buyer at your yards sales but your buyer must trust you enough to send there CC number experation date and billing address so you can charge there credit card for there purchases.
posted on July 7, 2001 09:09:46 PM
i go with the customer,what ever they prefer is fine with me.
paypal,bidpay,yahoo direct,billpoint,paymentech,money order,personal check and cash.
for the five years i have been selling,i only have one bad personal check which i cannot recover.
i think it has something with what you sell,if you sell hot electronic goods,you could have more problems.
i do not sell electronic goods,expensive jewelry and expensive antqiues.
posted on July 8, 2001 04:21:45 AM
I prefer PayPal. Since I've started making purchases off of eBay (my own mini protest) I've found few opportunities to use BillPoint as a buyer.
posted on July 8, 2001 08:12:52 AM
As eventer said, they both have good and bad points.
Billpoint is integrated into eBay in some nice ways. For instance, when you do Buy-It-Now, you can pay right then and get an experience similar to a regular shopping site. I think that decreases the NPB %.
Billpoint has some bad points, for instance, it does not have any protection from chargebacks, and there's the 0.5% non-optional fee they charge you to sweep payemnts.
Paypal is marginally cheaper than billpoint on purchases over $15 (by a razor thin margin of 0.05% only and only if you qualify for their special rate using their as-yet-unspecified criteria).
The negativity towards paypal comes from their well-documented tendency to say one thing then do something else. The primary and enduring example of this was their initial slogan that they would be "always free".
You see a lot of beefing about paypal on this board, but the simple fact remains that their rates are cheaper than most conventional solutions, they do all the work for you (you do not have to maintain a swipe terminal or website), and they offer chargeback protection which you do not get anywhere else.
Anyone who is serious about running a business on eBay will look to the bottom line, and that is: Paypal provides a valuable business service that increases sales and saves time. They are entitled to be compensated for this. As long as the fee is cost-effective for your business, you pay it and suck it up.
There are people who will not bid unless you offer paypal. If you want those sales, you offer paypal. End of story.
In the same vein, there are people who will not use paypal but want to use CC. So you offer an alternative. Billpoint is the most logical one. All the other services are just noise, IMO, but I think c2it shows the most promise.
posted on July 8, 2001 10:45:07 AM
I always preferred PayPal until recently as Billpoint is now much cheaper to use. Yes, they don't deposit the $ into my checking account until the next day, but paying 1.75% instead of 2.9% is certainly an advantage!
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posted on July 8, 2001 02:03:03 PM
We use PayPal without problem.
About 80% of our auctions are paid for via PP.
(2 more today)I use the PP debit card all the time and get the 1 & 1/2 percent back, which lowers our overall cost and gives me direct access to our funds without waiting.
If I was starting over and doing anywhere near the sales that we used to I would probably use BP & PP both.
Whatever makes it easier for the bidders to do.
But because we list only about 1/4 what we were before, PP has been working out fine.
posted on July 8, 2001 04:07:11 PM
Yahoo PayDirect is catching on fast, and I have received quite a few payments through it. It is faster than PayPal for getting the $ to your account, although from what I have heard their customer service sucks.
I am still waiting for c2it to transfer my first payment into my account, so I don't know how they are yet.
posted on July 8, 2001 10:08:05 PM
I prefer Billpoint because it's very simple for customers to use -- no giving some company every bit of information possible including blood type and mother's dog's middle name like PayPal does.
I still use PayPal because so many buyers want it, but I don't have to like it.
posted on July 9, 2001 04:36:28 AMrewasaggo - If you have money sent to you via c2it, you have to click on the 'get cash' button - that brings you to a page where you see all the transactions. It doesn't just automatically move them to 'Your account' under the 'My c2it' button (like I assumed). No, they don't explain it well.
On the other hand, I called their help desk - got a real live person on Sunday afternoon within seconds. She was exceptionally pleasant and explained what I had to do and said she'd send a note to engineering (I had several other 'suggestions'). And she was actually writing them down because I heard her typing and she asked me to repeat myself a couple of times.
That's what I like - wonderful customer support and the backing of a 'real' bank.
posted on July 9, 2001 07:13:23 AM
I will still accept a PayPal payment, but I no longer list them since switching back to a personal account. They have a major credibility problem and will continue to raise fees every few months under some ruse or other. I expect they will even begin to start charging the bidders within a year or so at which point they will become the next dot bomb.
Billpoint takes a bit longer to get you your money, but is fine for eBay and saves sellers' time because it integrates with eBay.
