I know this has been probably discussed before, but I must ask again.

Can Paypal be used as your main payment processor? I see no need to have any other processor. Paypal accepts all credit cards so why need another merchant account, such as 2checkout?

I'm going to be launching soon and I want to use Paypal ONLY as accepted methods. Would this be a very bad idea? I don't want to go through the hassle of getting another merchant account.

I think the main problem people have with PayPal is their (PayPal's) habit of freezing accounts and the like.
We use them as an alternative for members that want that.
But, we maintain a low fund balance (just in case).

IMO, using them as your sole processor is not a great idea. Infact, you would likely lose customers because of it. For one, it doesn't look very professional, and second, anyone who wanted to pay you would have to take the time to create a paypal account if they didn't have one already.

I currently use Paypal as my only processor and haven't had any issues until about 3 weeks ago. One of my clients from 4 months ago said the charge was not authorized and they froze the amount in question.

I spoke with a representative and they informed me that Paypal offers no protection for people in the Hosting industry. He said that anyone can claim that the charge wasn't authorized.

I have written them and called them for 3 weeks and the amount is still pending.

Just a heads up....I will be getting a regular merchant account soon.

Checkout 2checkout.com instead. PayPal is a nice service, but one has to be a member to use it, so it's like adding a whole new hurdle to your signup. In addition, paypal has a "personal use" stigma to is and only accepts members from within the US. There are lots of hosting prospects outside the US!

I tried 2Checkout before but got my moneyback. I don't know why, service was just slow and I kept getting fraud warning messages.

We currently use PayPal for our only processor (though this is changing shortly to accomodate more people) ... I have had not a SINGLE problem with them, but have lost a few potential customers because of it.

Like I said, we're adding something soon, but so far PayPal has been fine.

Yes, they do run like 3 or 4 fraud tests, which a couple of them are a tad overzealous if you ask me, but they are just warnings and don't hold up the payment any do they? I belive when I get a warning it just recommends that I hold off on filling the order for 24 hours until the payment is batched.

They did throw me a curve ball in that I jammed on some business one day and had several thousand I was expecting to have deposited only to find out they have a $1,000 max deposit per cycle. That kinda ticked me, but a cycle is every 48 hours I think, so it all worked out OK. Unfortunately I don't have too many multi-$K days! :)

I currently use Paypal as my only processor and haven't had any issues until about 3 weeks ago. One of my clients from 4 months ago said the charge was not authorized and they froze the amount in question.

I'm familiar with PayPal, but this one threw me for a loop. How could there be any unauthorized charges... when the customer has to actually pay themselves? I mean, you can't just go and charge them. They must have considered the charge authorized when the paid it, right?

Me too. I had the distinct understanding that Paypal has this excellence fraud checking system where when you signed up, they would bill you something and you would need to enter some authorization code which appears on your credit card statement. It is only at that stage that they allow you to use their service.

But there was a short period in which I decided to use them as an alternative means of payment for our clients but got the shock of our lives after they said that there was a chargeback made on an order some 5 to 6 months before.

They basically do not provide any protection to vendors who do not offer physical products which uses traceable shipping methods. The user was stated as registered.

Anyway, after that incident, I decided not to use them anymore.

They are probably appropriate for personal use and in the auction environment when you need need a medium to transfer funds.

They do not work on a limited list of countries and you might be
losing some opportunity when you use them.

not that good experience with paypal..... better go with another real third-party credit card processor

We were one of the first IPP companies to jump on the Paypal Bandwagon, and while they provided good service for the first year we were with them, since then their service has become nothing but trouble. Visit http://www.paypalsucks.com/ for more information. I found this website in Forbes Magazine. My suggestion to you, especially if you plan on doing business with credit card holders for the long run, get a merchant account. Don't use free credit card processing companies like Paypal. A good idea is also to have your Lawyer read over the fine print of whomever you choose to go with, because only Lawyers have eyes that sharp.

I think that if you were going to offer paypal as an alternative means to clients like SWR said then that is fine, however to offer it as your sole means of accepting credit cards is not. My reasoning behind it is 2 fold.

1) I have heard like SWR said again that they have a habit of freezing accounts, imagine if that happened to you.

2) On the internet, there should be a certain image that you want to project something of quality, class, and the like, and I don't feel that offering paypal only accomplishes this monumental feat.


-Steven

Paypal can be and is used on many sites as sole payment system. You can also go with it. An alternative solution is always better though. So, you can couple it with Authorize.net/ibill.

Use Paypal as an added alternative, not a primary.

There are tons of ebay people and others that have become acustomed to their quick and painless payment process.

Getting another merchant account, especially a third-party solution, is not that painful.

I would *definately* not use paypal as a primary means of taking in customers.

We used to offer it as an option about a year and a half ago for hosting and shells, it was the source of about 20% of our signups, to this day, we still have $300 tied up because they refuse to honor a copy of a picture ID and a copy of the credit card itself as proof of us having a legit customer's authorization. This was over about $100 of charges too, which I told them to just keep for the bother, but to release the rest of my funds.

Complete mess, and I steer anyone I can as far away from those ripoff artists known as paypal.

Can ya tell this is still a touchy subject? ;)

Cya,
Cloak

I decided I'm going to use Revecom as my main processor and Paypal as my side, although I did get a few signups through it :)

I use paypal only mostly because its what I started with in the beginning but am kinda stuck now because I rely on the subscription option to automatically bill my clients so I don't have to keep track of when people need to renew. I want to add something else but I have only had about 2 people really have a problem with it. I have gotten over 300 clients in 4 months, so it doesn't have to make a huge difference. I may have lost out on sales, I'll never know but it works good for me right now.

Ryan
RCTHost.com