Alternatives to PayPal~

Factual Questions
1

A friend has had enough of PayPal not sticking up for her with cheating eBay vendors & now suspending her Buyer Protection because she has, with good reason, opened up four cases in the past six months. This is the latest offense she wrote me about-

My sister in-law also has had a bad experience with paypal but as a seller. She sold a dress to some girl and after 20 days decided she wanted to refund it. My sister in law clearly posted that exhanges need to be within 7 days. Anyway the girl made a complaint to paypal who ordered my sis to give her a refund because since she was utilising their service they offered 60 days return policy and she had to obide by their rules, so they actually did on her behalf. When my sister actually received the item it was torn, the tags were gone, and the straps were not in the original plastic bag. She made a complaint to paypal who kept closing the case. My sister ended up just giving up as it was too stressful for what it was worth. That girl that made the complaint has conveniently closed her account. I feel so frustrated for my sis as i cannot fathom the injustices that occur constantly!

Since my friend is also an eBay Seller- this also has particularly upset her.

So basically, we are looking for alternatives to PayPal, including setting up her business website to directly take credit cards. What are your suggestions?

2

There’s Google Checkout and Amazon Payments (or becoming an Amazon merchant outright, depending on what she sells).

However, if you’re on eBay and don’t take Paypal, expect to lose at least some customers. Dealing with Paypal and user assholeness is just a cost of doing business there, really. There are a heckuva lot of complaints but eBay and Paypal don’t really care because they essentially have a monopoly, at least in the US.

3

Thanks- now does anyone have experience setting up directly to take credit cards?

4

Online, because the barrier to entry is so low and fraud is easy, people are usually wary of giving out their actual CC numbers to merchants they don’t know, which is why so many people use Paypal, Google, Amazon, etc.

In a brick and mortar store, you could consider SquareUp or its competitors who run off an iOS or Android device for 2% to 3% per swipe, no other fees.

5

Wikipedia has a list of online payment service providers which you might want to use as a starting point.

6

Do you have a cite for that? (specifically, for the number of people unwilling to use direct CC payments)

7

No, I don’t, and I shouldn’t be making unsubstantiated claims like that in GQ. I apologize.

8

You may well be right, I’m genuinely interested in the numbers if someone has done the research.

9

I’ve recently started using WePay with merchants that use their service.

So far, so good!

10

Dwolla is a good online payment system, with lower fees than Paypal. The problem is that many people are very used to Paypal and don’t want to try anything else.