I must be dumb, but...

Micropayments, Macropayments, Subscriptions, etc.

Moderator: Moderators

Locked
A.D.
Forum Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2002 7:00 pm

Post by A.D. »

...I can't see the advantage of the Paypal thing. I guess there's something I donno about Paypal. I mean: u still need a credit card to pay. So why not using the traditional form with credit card payment?
I'm a very bad economist, I can't easily figure out how banks work and thing like that. Yes, u can cheat me like a kid if we talk about money.
So I would like to know exactly about this Paypal thing works. Does it allow micropayment, rather than the traditional method? Is this the advantage?
To me it's still a big limit to rely on a credit card to pay smth. I'm waiting for someone to create a sort of internet-card to do online shopping...
Thanks in advance for your replies. :grin:
User avatar
Greg Stephens
Forum Founder
Posts: 3862
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Contact:

Post by Greg Stephens »

The advantage is that the person who receives the payment does not need to be equipped to accept credit card payments, thus you can transfer money from one individual to another individual. Credit card companies charge a fee to businesses that want to accept credit cards as payment from their customers. Simply put- If I am a business and I want to allow patrons to pay for goods and/or services with Visa, I need to sign up with the Visa corporation and pay them a service fee on every transaction that is made between me and my Visa-wielding customers.

Also, Paypal allows people to use personal checking accounts as sources of money rather than only credit cards, so there is that advantage as well.

Additionally, it allows transactions over the web, using email as confirmation so that people on opposite sides of the globe who have never met may conduct monetary exchange.

It's not a perfect system, and not a real micropayment system, but it's performing a valuable service.
Good morning! That's a nice tnetennba.
buzzard
Frequent Poster
Posts: 70
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2001 7:00 pm
Contact:

Post by buzzard »

Actually I just attempted to send money to someone by paypal from a credit card, and it said back to me:

<blockquote>Your payment was funded with a credit card. The ability to accept credit card funded payments is reserved for Premier and Business account. Since the recipient of your payment has a Personal account, he will be asked to upgrade to a Premier Account in order to accept your payment.</blockquote>
D.J. Coffman
Forum Member
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

Post by D.J. Coffman »

Actually Paypal was initially setup to work where you could use your checking account, when you sign up they take deposit like 2 cents in your account to make sure the routing number is open. SO you can exchange funds that you actually have in the bank, and when people buy with credit cards, or checks, the money goes directly into your checking account.--

If you upgrade to Premium, they take like 5-9% of the transaction, but only because the credit card compaies were making Paypal pay the percentage that people weren't. Confusing.

It's a simple thing to use, but I really don't trust having my checking account out there.
Tailsteak
Frequent Poster
Posts: 98
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: London, Ontario
Contact:

Post by Tailsteak »

Is that how that works? All this time, I just assumed you needed a credit card...
reinder
Forum Member
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2001 7:00 pm
Contact:

Post by reinder »

On 2002-02-10 14:49, Tailsteak wrote:
Is that how that works? All this time, I just assumed you needed a credit card...
Well, it changes all the time. The policies get updated with great regularity. I'm not surprised that people get confused.
Reinder Dijkhuis, samizdat@bart.nl

Daily fantasy strip: Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan http://www.rocr.net/
Retro-Science Fiction at its best: White House in Orbit http://whio.keenspace.com
User avatar
Greg Stephens
Forum Founder
Posts: 3862
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Contact:

Post by Greg Stephens »

On 2002-02-11 05:39, reinder wrote:
Well, it changes all the time.
Yeah, apparently. When I first used it (in early to mid-2000), Credit Card transactions weren't restricted. Didn't realize that had changed.
Good morning! That's a nice tnetennba.
glych
Frequent Poster
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: So' Cal, USA
Contact:

paypal

Post by glych »


Well, I think it's cool... With me, i hate credit cards, and use my checking account- I'm with Washington Mutual, so it's a free checking account, meaning I don't pay any fees to use it...Only the money that's in there...

Well, what's cool about this, is I have a debit card attached to my checking account that takes away from said checking account when I use it like a credit card-

For Paypal, it works like a debit, but for places that don't take checks, but do take Visa, it works like a credit card when it takes from my checking account-

the trick is to know how much money you have in your account at all times, which is what good bookkeeping is for...

Like it was re-interated before, it's not a perfect system, but it is a start...

-glych
---
"I may not be able to move that rock, but -man- can I make that rock think it's been moved"-Corran Horn, Star Wars

Glych's Experiment
Locked