posted on August 14, 2001 08:04:55 PM
It works just like a Mastercard. The money comes right out of your paypal balance and it puts the vendor on your history log. Paypal doesn't charge you any fees for its use (yet).
If you become "Paypal Prefered" you get a 1.5% rebate as well, which is a great deal. However I have a lot of people use billpoint IP and so I haven't become prefered yet.
posted on August 15, 2001 05:13:12 AM
There are no charges for using the PayPal debit card. As stated. the money comes directly out of your account.
We get the 1.5 percent back every time it's used which makes it very worthwhile as it lowers our overall PP fee to just .7%!
(you HAVE to use it as a regular CC to get the cash back........i.e. SIGN the receipt, no pin numbers)
Many of our customers pay us via PP so the card comes in very handy at the PO.
(never fails I have $30.00 worth of shipping to do and only $31.00 cash on me for lunch)
posted on August 15, 2001 11:44:07 AM
i see. i'm not sure about the 1.5% cash back thing. that does mean now everytime people pay you, you will only be charged a 0.7% fee instead of 2.2%?
How do you become paypal preferred? by just accepting paypal? what if someone send you money order/billpoint payment without letting you know first (how would paypal know whether you accept it or not).
Fees do apply for ATM withdrawals using the debit card.
Will I be charged for using my PayPal ATM/Debit Card to withdraw cash from an ATM?
A $1 ATM fee will be assessed each time you use your PayPal ATM/Debit Card to withdraw funds from an ATM. This fee is in addition to any fees charged by the bank which owns the ATM.
Using the card for purchases will not incur any fees (using it as a MasterCard).
posted on August 15, 2001 12:02:58 PM
> i'm not sure about the 1.5% cash back thing. that does mean now everytime people pay you, you will only be charged a 0.7% fee instead of 2.2%?<
Sorry, let me explain.....
...by using the PP card, you get 1.5 percent returned to your account, in essence that lowers your cost from 2.2 percent (merchant rate) to only .7 percent.
(2.9 to 1.4 for the others)
We use our card all the time, no problems and easy to track in your PP account.
posted on August 15, 2001 12:46:13 PM
soldat2: You said "We get the 1.5 percent back every time it's used which makes it very worthwhile as it lowers our overall PP fee to just .7%!"
While this is TRUE, it is also MISLEADING. See, you only get the "rebate" if you SPEND the money. If you take it as a check, or put it in your bank account, then, NO REBATE. Even though you've "stopped" taking other forms of payment, and ONLY advertise paypal.
PayPal's claim is so misleading, I see no difference between this and when they accused Billpoint of mis-leading all of us.
Bet paypaldamon won't comment or better, acknowledge this.
I used to LOVE paypal, but they've lost my trust. After breaking their "We'll NEVER charge fees promise", it is like the dam has been opened. No credibility left. I still love the idea, but I DON'T love the service.
All you paypal lovers out there, it is NO LONGER cheaper than other forms of payment. Billpoint is now cheaper than paypal for transactions less than 15.00. Yahoo's paydirect is still FREE to both the buyers and sellers, and if you've got halfway decent credit, you can get your own merchant account for 1.79% plus .27 cents per transaction, with a 5.00 monthly fee that is negotiable if you complain loudly enough. C2it, moneyzap, and ecount are still out there experimenting and when they figure out solutions that work for their business, they'll challenge the "dominance" of paypal.
PayPal isn't the only game in town anymore, and if they'd figure it out and treat me like a HUMAN BEING, I'd stay forever! My money says they won't and three years from now we'll be saying "PayPal who?"
posted on August 15, 2001 12:53:26 PM
Hi retailguy,
The only time a cashback occurs is when PayPal Debit Card is used as a MasterCard (purchase). It does not apply to ATM withdrawals and it is explained in the PayPal Preferred details. I am a little confused as to why you would think it is mis-leading.
You DO get 1.5% cash back of PURCHASES made with the Check Card. If you read the normal-sized print on the information page, you see that. It doesn't strike me as misleading at all.
I've not asked for a check out of PayPal since I got it. No need to. I just use that to pay business expenses and it works A-OK. Plus I get 1.5% back. Not much, but better than nothing.
posted on August 15, 2001 01:13:26 PM
Yes, I use the card extensively now as a credit card because of the 1.5% - I actually transfer money in from my checking account to paypal, and spend it everywhere that accepts credit cards (i.e. movies, grocery store, restaurants, etc.) - By doing this, it reduces the cost of a paypal transaction (and by transfering money in and using it, it brings down my paypal costs further, since this is money that I would spend ANYWAY!)
Now, the only problem with this is that if it is too much of a good thing, paypal has no problem changing the terms. As soon as the 1.5% cashback disappears (and I am sure it will at some point) then I will just go back to using other cards for transactions.
posted on August 15, 2001 01:20:52 PM
paypaldamon: I object to the following statement:
"Earning 1.5% cashback is like reducing your transaction fees from 2.2% to .7%."
While you clarify elsewhere that it's on DEBIT purchases only, it IMPLIES something that is only accurate if you spend all the money. IMO, that is NOT what most users do with the money they earn from their "business".
My major point is that paypal's marketing uses the same MIS-LEADING tactics that Billpoints marketing uses. Yet in the last 3 months I've received numerous emails from your company that attack Billpoint for phrasing things along the same lines. Why is deceptive marketing "ok" for paypal, but something Paypal believes should be pointed out to me in relation to Billpoint?
I will say that your company emails in the last 6 months are clearer than they used to be. I'd guess that means you're spending my fee charges on better attorney's. I long for the days when you didn't have them.
I will also give you credit for the quick reply in this forum. If your customer service people were half as responsive, I might think the higher fees an investment.
Off topic: Your email "congratulating me" for earning merchant status back in June (I think) also failed to disclose that fees were still going up (again). Mis-leading..... or perhaps just hoping that I wouldn't realize it was the 3rd fee increase in 6 months? Also, the email warning me that my volume loss in July "endangered" my "preferred" fee status just really made me realize how un-important my business is to you.
posted on August 15, 2001 02:14:49 PM
>While this is TRUE, it is also MISLEADING. See, you only get the "rebate" if you SPEND the money<
retailguy
True but misleading?
Maybe a bit but as long as it's more true I can accept it.
I also said that...
"We use our card all the time"
...so we really do lower our PP costs to .7 percent. I have no problem using every penny that we have in our account every month!
retailguy states
>
All you paypal lovers out there, it is NO LONGER cheaper than other forms of payment. Billpoint is now cheaper than paypal for transactions less than 15.00. <
Not really true and also a bit misleading.
Maybe for some people whos sales are all under $15.00 if they don't take advantage of PayPals card, but for those of us that only pay 2.2 percent to begin with, and then get the 1.5 percent rebated, PP is still the best deal! (plus PayPal is still the most widly used service out there)
posted on August 15, 2001 06:27:57 PM
I'm waiting for someone to offer evidence that PayPal causes cancer in white mice.
I don't argue anymore with the prophets of doom, I just use. I use it as a seller and buyer all over the internet, donations, membership to private ftp sites, auctions, private transactions on the usenet, etc.. PayPal is part of my online world. Imitated but never duplicated.
BTW: For what it's worth I think the PayPal/MasterCard is great, I've used mine heavily.
posted on August 15, 2001 07:50:20 PM
Although I DON'T hate PayPal, I DO find that Billpoint rates are cheaper now. Just looking at the 1.75% vs Paypal's 2.9% it is much cheaper. PLUS paypal charges now for the $15 & under transactions. And the only dif on the Billpoint side is the half of a % they charge for the transfer to your ck acct and that doesn't even make up the difference btwn the 1.75% and the 2.9%!
Oops! I lied! fixed it...
[ edited by Triggerfish on Aug 15, 2001 07:53 PM ]
posted on August 15, 2001 08:01:07 PM
In a way PayPal and Billpoint aren't even the same kind of service. PayPal is so much more feature rich and flexible. I have numerous options for rejecting payments, shopping cart, subscriptions, debit card, integration with some of the auction management services, web accept/instant purchase buttons, access from my cell phone, etc. Billpoint essentially provides one service and won't even let you know if the address they pass to the seller matches the buyers credit card.
The latest update I received from PayPal said that they are working on some features to make it easier to add in sales tax and shipping charges.
[ edited by bemused on Aug 15, 2001 08:03 PM ]
posted on August 15, 2001 08:04:45 PM
With my Paypal card, I have my money now. This can be handy when you are selling an item with high shipping. With Billpoint, they hold the money for 3 days and then another couple to get it into your account. People who pay online do not want to hear about waiting 5 or 6 days for funds to clear before shipping. I do not always have the cash on hand to pay for 2 or 3 large (25.00 - 45.00) shipping bills.
posted on August 15, 2001 08:13:50 PM
I gave up Billpoint in favor of the cash back with Paypal ~ and I have no regrets. I pay UPS and USPS with my card ~ then I use the rest to pay for things such as the phone bill, the ISP bill, supper with the family ~ so I get cash back on all my Paypal money......although I had never thought of adding money from my checking account to the Paypal account............clever idea......
posted on August 15, 2001 10:08:22 PM
I began using the PayPal debit card, and I really like it. In less than a month, I've allready gotten over $25 back. I don't really see a downside. Also, debit cards tend to regulate spending to what you have. So that's also good.
posted on August 15, 2001 10:19:08 PM
I LOVE mine. I use it for purchases all over the place. The one thing I have noticed that no one has mentioned using it for is to pay their Ebay bill.
I don't have a CC registered with Ebay. I pay when my account gets low. It gives me a thrill to pay ebay with their online payment competitors debit card and know that PayPal just put a few auctions worth of fees back in my PayPal account.
posted on August 16, 2001 05:20:33 AM
>I don't argue anymore with the prophets of doom, I just use. I use it as a seller and buyer all over the internet<
...and that pretty much speaks volumes, uaru!
Agreed.
I hope xellos got the needed info.
PayPal subjects often result in a word war.
(however it is nice to see a few pro-PP users step up!)
posted on August 16, 2001 05:25:34 AM
Despite what others may think, I am generally pro-PayPal. They provide a useful service which is affordable and has some interesting features.
The downside is that they have some very poorly thought out processes, they are too willing to change the rules midstream, and they do not place their sellers ahead of their buyers (e.g., the PursePal incident).
Also, the doubletalk we get from PaypalDamon can become a little tiresome after awhile.
For what it's worth, I think Paypal is better than Billpoint. At least Paypal keeps trying new things such as the shopping cart feature and the debit card feature. Billpoint hasn't added any major functionality since they launched months ago (over a year ago?).
[ edited by wbbell on Aug 16, 2001 05:34 AM ]
posted on August 16, 2001 05:21:55 PM
Paypal 2.9% is just paper talk...figure it out...I had a sale of 5.99...Paypal took 47 cents in fees...2.9% of 5.99= around 17 cents...add the .30 cent transaction fee= 47 cents...Total percentage??? (give or take a 10th of a percent) is 8%!!!!!! I am no genious but a rose by any other name still smells the same! ...call a spade a spade... 8% to paypal...now wanna add in Ebay and AW fees and glean the overall total %??? of shared profits..Not me...sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof...
