| ▲ | unixhero 20 hours ago |
| In the real world, not in computer user world, people use what is avilable to them that works. Paypal is that. |
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| ▲ | mapmeld 19 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| I think it's from people who are programmed from early e-commerce days to think using their credit card online is an extreme risk, and that Paypal is shielding them or insuring their purchase in some way.
That said, I know some small nonprofits where that's their preferred way to donate online. |
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| ▲ | internetter 17 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > and that Paypal is shielding them or insuring their purchase in some way Yes, I absolutely do think that. When I make a purchase through paypal, I am redirected to an authorization page hosted on paypal's domain. The recipient never sees my card number. I must authorize each charge. Whereas when I give my card number, the recipient can charge whatever they want, whenever they want, however much they want* * subject to fraud protection. This matters because sites do get hacked. The paypal horror stories you see are typically not consumer sided. | | |
| ▲ | kragen 14 hours ago | parent [-] | | These are mostly the same features Bitcoin/Ethereum provides to senders. But the cryptocurrency transactions are nonrepudiable, which is beneficial in some contexts (a friend of mine had his laptop stolen via a PayPal chargeback, and porn sites have had lots of problems opening and keeping credit card merchant accounts) and a drawback in others (the ripped clothing shipment mentioned in a sibling comment). And of course the main feature of cryptocurrencies is that PayPal can't freeze your account when you try to withdraw money. | | |
| ▲ | internetter 14 hours ago | parent [-] | | > These are mostly the same features Bitcoin/Ethereum provides to senders. Sure, as does Apple & Google pay. I'm not saying PayPal is the only way, but I am frequently faced with either paypal or credit card, and in that situation I will do paypal every single time | | |
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| ▲ | Reason077 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I like to use PayPal when signing up for subscription services with recurring charges. It keeps billers that you have authorised in a nice list and you can cancel/deauthorise them directly from PayPal. No surprise charges months/years later from something you signed up for and forgot about... | |
| ▲ | mastazi 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > that Paypal is shielding them or insuring their purchase in some way this is absolutely the case for me, multiple times I had a great experience getting refunds with PayPal and multiple times I regretted not purchasing something using PayPal because getting a refund was much harder. I now use PayPal exclusively for any online purchase > $500 precisely for this reason[1]. [1] unless it's a vendor that I know has a good return policy, such as JB HiFi. | |
| ▲ | bze12 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Nonprofits are major targets of card testing fraud, I wonder if that is related |
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| ▲ | lucb1e 19 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Only when it's the literal only option at checkout. Then it's the merchant's choice, not my problem. When possible, I'll always opt to use a different instantaneous method (e.g. iDeal or direct debit), or give the merchant my money directly and wait 3 days for the IBAN transfer to go through. Using paypal just risks the money being indefinitely frozen on either side and them taking a cut for the privilege, if it works on a particular day in the first place (no mysterious errors or infinite loading screens) As for "the real world", there's cash and chip+PIN. Never used paypal IRL. Is that a thing in your country, did you mean that literally? If so, where are you from? |
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| ▲ | tgsovlerkhgsel 18 hours ago | parent [-] | | If the merchant screws you on a transaction paid via IBAN transfer, how do you get your money back? |
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