For new web hosts, is PayPal Website Payments Standard a well-rounded solution? If you aren't ready to make a commitment to a credit card merchant account provider yet, PayPal seems to get you up and running, accepting online payments quickly.

My questions about using PayPal are:

Does using PayPal meet the need for most customers?
What percentage of customers would be turned off if they didn't already have a PayPal account?
Is there any marketability to being able to tell potential clients that their credit card information is safe since it isn't being given to your web site?
PayPal takes credit cards, but do they take online checks? How about other payment methods?
What percentage of customers could you expect to lose if you only offered PayPal?
Would using PayPal free you from the need to purchase an SSL certificate?What about 2Checkout? Is it a viable alternative or companion to PayPal?

Since web hosting involves recurring payments, you would be forcing everyone to sign up for a PayPal account. I am trying to analyze the repercussions of this action.

It's all my hosting company offers for online payments. Clients we get off the internet haven't had any problem: Paypal has been fine with them.

Local clients are another story. We'd lose significant business if we did not accept cash or check, and the inability to accept credit cards directly (i.e. input information through a virtual terminal) has been a detriment.

It's all my hosting company offers for online payments. Clients we get off the internet haven't had any problem: Paypal has been fine with them.

That's good to hear.

Local clients are another story. We'd lose significant business if we did not accept cash or check, and the inability to accept credit cards directly (i.e. input information through a virtual terminal) has been a detriment.

In this case, wouldn't PayPal Website Payments Pro make a good addition? With that, you could accept credit card payments for those local clients who do not have PayPal accounts.

In the interest of PayPal and checking accounts, CAN PayPal operate as your only checking account? Even if it's not considered to be a checking account, if you had a PayPal debit card, it could be considered as working like a checking account. All you need to do is be able to deposit checks that your clients give you into the PayPal account. Does (or can) PayPal work like this?

You can't deposit checks into your Paypal account. You can, however, deposit those checks into your business bank account and transfer the money over to your Paypal account. Remember, in order to get a Premier Business account with Paypal, you have to have a 'real' bank account to get verified anyway.

--Tina

I think that it would limit you some. However for just starting out I feel that it would work just fine for now. I would consider changing it some in the future..

i was just googling for the paypal site and i have this result http://www.paypalsucks.com/ after searching for paypal site.

Those of you using paypal can you confirm that is such that problematic using paypal? If not please let us know.

thanks

i was just googling for the paypal site and i have this result http://www.paypalsucks.com/ after searching for paypal site.

Those of you using paypal can you confirm that is such that problematic using paypal? If not please let us know.

thanks

I have been using PayPal for my company and myself for six years with no significant issues. Thousands and thousands of transactions processed and over one hundred thousand dollars.

That said, I do not recommend using PayPal alone. You get more control and better rates with a real merchant account.

i was just googling for the paypal site and i have this result http://www.paypalsucks.com/ after searching for paypal site.

Those of you using paypal can you confirm that is such that problematic using paypal? If not please let us know.

thanks


Paypal has over 86 MILLION registered users and less than 4000 BBB complaints, most of which were from people who were complaining about the person they bought an item from (not Paypal directly). That's an amazing ratio, if you ask me.

We've processed around a 1/2 million dollars through Paypal over the years...very few problems and none that weren't resolved with a quick phone call.

--Tina

You can't deposit checks into your Paypal account. You can, however, deposit those checks into your business bank account and transfer the money over to your Paypal account. Remember, in order to get a Premier Business account with Paypal, you have to have a 'real' bank account to get verified anyway.

Tina, I already have a PayPal account that is verified, but the account it is verified with is no long active. I was just wondering if I could use PayPal as a standalone business account with functions similar to a checking account. Now that you have verified that I can't deposit checks into a PayPal account, that helps me answer that question.

Another question I have about PayPal is that they want you to enter a credit card for verification. What do people do who don't have a credit card?

Paypal is great - but why would you want that to be your sole processor? There are still a lot of people that don't use Paypal.

Keep in Mind That Paypal does not Support Certain Countries

I didn't say I wanted PayPal to be my sold processor, but you have to start somewhere. I am not prepared to get a merchant account yet, so I thought PayPal would be a good place to start. I realize PayPal doesn't support some countries, but why is it that PayPal doesn't work in some countries but other merchant accounts do? I wonder if PayPal Website Payments Pro will accept credit cards from countries that PayPal doesn't normally work in?

I would get paypal, nochex and a merchant account. Some of my customers hate paypal, and rarther use nochex or a merchant service.

I have people who wont sign up to paypal, and are asking me to get a credit card service or nochex. It's well worth having the merchant service and paypal.

Paypal also have a credit card server with lowered rates, but they charge $20 monthly for it. You should look into that and AWBS.

Paypal is great - but why would you want that to be your sole processor? There are still a lot of people that don't use Paypal.

You don't need to sign up for a paypal account anymore in order to use it to pay for something. Also, with their credit card processor...the customer doesn't even need to go to the Paypal website.

--Tina

We use paypal as our sole processor and have had no problems.

--Matt

Paypal has recently (within a few months) changed the way it works to accept payments via their business accounts.

Now when the user pops in to pay it has a section below the login part for them to just put in credit card details and even explicitly states there's no need for a paypal account.

I've been using them as my sole solution as 2checkout has silly requirements (and I hate putting their ugly logo on my site :))

Depends upon the amount you are expecting to process with and your business location/client you are going to deal with. However paypal with 2checkout might be a good combination.

Depends upon the amount you are expecting to process with and your business location/client you are going to deal with. However paypal with 2checkout might be a good combination.


Why does the amount you're going to process make a difference?

--Tina

AH-Tina,

To manage risk, not more than one can afford to loss if some thing goes wrong.

AH-Tina,

To manage risk, not more than one can afford to loss if some thing goes wrong.


Then that logic would apply to any payment processor you use...not just Paypal. However, I don't agree that you must use different payment processors at the same time. Just make sure you have a backup plan.

--Tina

Why does the amount you're going to process make a difference?

--Tina

If you're using a merchant account, your volume typically affects your rate (higher volume, in general = lower rate).

You don't need to sign up for a paypal account anymore in order to use it to pay for something.

True, if you are using Buy Now. But if you are using it for recurring payments they will need an account.

Paypal is the main payment system for WHT. If your main market is WHT then be prepared for low-profit, low-loyalty customers. If you are a paypal only host then you wont seem very professional, so try and get 2checkout aswell.

Paypal is the main payment system for WHT. If your main market is WHT then be prepared for low-profit, low-loyalty customers. If you are a paypal only host then you wont seem very professional, so try and get 2checkout aswell.

2CO isn't any more "professional" than Paypal.

We have used paypal with no issues. just very slow support...which you hardly ever need, if you ever need at all. They also seem to be on top of fraud, and catch every person.

Take a look at PayPal Website Payments Pro. We use this for credit cards and we also take regular paypal. There is a $20 monthly fee and a small per transaction fee. For me this works great for now.

Keep in Mind That Paypal does not Support Certain Countries
yeah, That's why we use 2CO but that doesn't work out well for us because it takes upto 7 days to recieve payments and our business just cannot run that way :(

PayPal is good but I'd also go for World Pay as well so you get a wider demographic.

Chris #

I would be cautious while using PayPal. Remember, they are not financially insured by the federal government so if they go out of business, any money in your Paypal account is gone.
They may have some type of pass-through insurance, but I'd play it safe and use a merchant account through a bank or something like that.

Paypal also seems to be one of the worst online payment systems with stolen accounts, so be weary of that too.

I ran a website hosting company (small scale, about 4 full shared servers) for about 3 years, using only Paypal.

Never had any major problems at all, clients seemed happy.

PayPal has been doing the trick for a while now and I have no complaints. As for starting out in the biz it's easiest to stick with PayPal until you are grossing enough to warrent a real merchant account IMHO. 2CO is also a good way to go for people who choose not to use PayPal and it's not a big investment but there is almost no control for the merchant I've found, so I would not use them starting out.

i was just googling for the paypal site and i have this result http://www.paypalsucks.com/ after searching for paypal site.

Those of you using paypal can you confirm that is such that problematic using paypal? If not please let us know.

thanks

This is one issue that has been covered in the past! Paypal has hundreds of thousands of clients using their services and where you deal with mass volumes you are always like to get some people who arent happy. At the end of the day Paypal is practically free (eg no set up fee's etc.) and provides the perfect very low budget payment solution!

Sure there are sites like PayPalSucks.com but then again there are websites moaning about Microsoft and pretty much everything else you could possibly think of! At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference and the view that nothing is 100% perfect (not even PayPal). There are always bound to be people who arent happy with a service (even if it is free).

I use PayPal to process all my payments and find it most convenient. I have a script (TinyTool) which takes a customer to PayPal to pay, then uses IPN to instantly set up there account on WHM - its simply great!

Here is what the authors of TinyTool have to say about PayPal, which is very convincing:
We use PayPal because we don't want to spend a lot of time keeping books and tracking customer accounts. PayPal keeps a ledger of our Subscribers, provides us with statements and up to the minute balances on demand. PayPal manages recurring payments, debits bankcards on time, and re-attempts failed transactions. PayPal takes care of the SSL and provides maximum security for our Subscribers. PayPal does our screening for us by verifying the Subscriber's address and bankcard. That makes us confident we are supplying legitimate buyers, not rip-off artists, scammers or SPAM ho's.

PayPal serves our customers by providing them with an account they can use almost everywhere on the Internet. PayPal watches our customers' bankcard expiration date which keeps them up to date, thus helping us retain them with no hassle at all. We even like PayPal Shops and EBay which provide our customers other goods and services that may interest them. And is any other payment processor FDIC insured?

PayPal does all this for a tiny percentage of each sale. In fact, PayPal takes far less than our bank would if we asked them to process Visa and MasterCard for us.

PayPal sends us email for every transaction. That alone would be enough, but they've gone the extra mile with super-simple Subscription Buttons and IPN. Where else on the Web can you get instant notification for free with PayPal's degree of security. And no one else provides documentation and support equal to PayPal.

That's at least ten good reasons why we (and four million other merchants) use PayPal exclusively.

I have used paypal for many years for a range of services and i have only had one problem - one charge back from a client using a hacked account. lost about £70 ($122)

I have used paypal for many years for a range of services and i have only had one problem - one charge back from a client using a hacked account. lost about £70 ($122)

I don't think thats PayPal's fault. If you thoroughly screen signups, you shouldn't have such issues. Of course there is the one or two that do get by but thats a cost of running a web host business.

Paypal has always been my clients preffered method of payment