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Comment on Ask HN: Experiences with PayPal? Would you recommend or kill it with fire?

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Call me greedy but the fees associated with money transfer systems like PayPal for amounts of $500+ are just too big for me to bother using PayPal for anything but small stuff (mind you I do love it for that and online shopping cart payments). Unfortunately there isn't much else besides old school cheques or money wiring (which is inconvenient for the client).

Pros of PayPal IMO: ~Handles multiple currencies well (I get paid in CAD, USD, and EUR). ~Easy for clients, takes care of basic invoices, keeps a history of everything. ~Payments from other accounts or credit cards are nearly instant ~Decent API for implementing a 3rd party shopping cart quickly (selling goods, donations).

Cons: ~Bank transfers take 6-8 business days (very inconvenient, I understand things take time but c'mon, we live in a very automated world now). ~It's digital money, PayPal could go bankrupt and you'd be, well, screwed over. ~Support emails generally take awhile, from other peoples experiences, this seems to be a Canadian thing.

mayOP

Re: FDIC. One is quasi-OK if the bank holding the money fails, but if PayPal itself goes under, you could be in deep shit.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/travelers-ou...

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