You'll have better protection if you use your credit card, but not all sellers can accept credit cards throuhg PayPal...it's only available to those who pay a fee to become premier members or something like that.

I'm not sure you have much protection with a cc either when its a private individual. As I understand with say House O Bikes if you pay with a cc, then dispute the charge, VISA will subtract that amount from H O Bikes next payment. When the charge is settled they will either add it to a future payment or not, depending on the outcome of the dispute.

With a private individual once they have the money VISA can't get it back, unless they get a lot of regular payments from VISA.

Not sure if this is really how it works, but thats how it was explained to me.

Styrrell

I've never had any problem with anyone on the ST classifieds, and I seem to have spent a lot of money these last 6 months! Have sent cheques, mainly. Maybe I'm naive, but I do believe we're an honest bunch here. Have faith.

Cheers

Barry

With private individuals VISA can get the money back. A merchants CC MUST be tied to a bank account. VISA will simply take the money back out of the persons bank account when it is disputed. CC companies wil protect the consumer in ALL situations before they protect the merchant. Which sucks!! I'm a merchant and have been screwed by a few "bad people". They'll refute charges to the point that the CC company will, by mistake, double charge the merchant. I had a couple stay with us that ended up MAKING money from me. When all was said and done, our Inn had PAID them nearly $500 for their 2 night stay at our Inn. Oh well.....you win some...ya lose some!! I don't worry about the minor stuff, I've too busy with more important things!!

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Paul

I'd say ditto to this. I've yet to buy anything, but I've sold several items and done everything with checks and it's worked out just fine.

Wow, thats scary. If I understand you correctly for me to accept cc on paypal I have to give visa (or whomever) the right to take money out of my bank account? I realize that I could dispute it but still it seems nuts if you aren't a merchant.



Styrrell

Paypal is a middle man sort of. As a merchant you accept CC and the CC company places the funds into your bank account. As soon as a dispute is filed by a consumer, the funds are removed by the CC company from your bank account until the dispute is settled. But, using Paypal and taking CC does not make you a merchant. The CC companys give merchants a "merchant number" for identification. Paypal probably does not have authority to remove money from your bank account. Remember, Any money paid to you by someone using Paypal is placed in your Paypal account, not in your bank account, until you move it to your bank account. So the dispute thing is different when Paypal is involved

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Paul

if the seller stiffs you and they're a reg..out 'em..we deal with that sort of thing in house..the old fashioned way

I've sold things over the internet before, accepting cashier's checks, personal checks, and money orders (i.e., send check, once it clears, I send item) and this has worked without any problems. I do make sure that the person buying knows this and is in agreement, and I have remained in e-mail contact with them.

I did use www.escrow.com recently for another sale (buyer's request). It worked without a hitch, although there is a transaction fee that is a %age of the item price. You might want to take a look. In summary: 1) buyer sends money to escrow.com; 2) seller sends item to you; 3) buyer has 48 hours to inspect and accept or decline item; 4) if accepted, money is released to seller. If not accepted, buyer pays to ship item back to seller and money is returned to buyer.

Seems like the people on this forum are generally decent (and honest), though, so it may not be an issue.

Richard

Not sure if it still works this way but as explained to me by the post office. If you use thier postal money orders and the person sends the worng thing or does not send it at all nd you can prove it then they will go after them for mail fraud. If i dont use paypal then postal money order is the only other way i send money, except for that guy that was in sudan but lived here and had a partner that owed him money. he wanted to use western union. I even made $300 bucks for sending him the rest of his check. lol