I got a message saying my custom title was expiring. I clicked on the button for payment through PayPal only to get a PayPal website log-in screen with no option just to pay with a credit card. I don’t like or trust PayPal, and will not register with them. Too many entities already have my credit card information anyway.
I don’t care that much about the custom title, but the next time my membership comes up for renewal, if I have no other option for payment, I’ll have to let it lapse. I use Adblock on my iPad and Noscript on my desktop, so at least I won’t get the pernicious ads from this place, but I’m sorry I won’t be supporting the Straight Dope financially anymore.
Is there any way the options for payment can be expanded? Like payment through Amazon maybe, or some entity that will just take my card info and doesn’t require me to register with them so they can retain it?
What browser are you using? This came up for me a couple of years ago. On Safari, the PayPal website didn’t have a “just use a credit card” option without registering, but going to the PayPal via Firefox showed that option. No idea why the browser made a difference, but I’ve always been able to pay using a credit card through PayPal, without registering.
Firefox on Ubuntu in this case. I have never had this problem before. If other people aren’t landing on the website login page by default, maybe it’s just privacy badger, or they’re using a new script site that I haven’t white-listed. I’ll keep messing with it then.
I haven’t tried safari on the iPad because I knew I’d had a problem with that before, but that at least took me to a page that actually asked for a payment, instead of a login page.