Why Paypal only?

[Graphicism]

Why on earth do 90% of people buying and selling domains on this forum ONLY accept Paypal? It's not just the new ones, it's people with massive domain portfolio's too... I would of thought people that do a lot of buying and selling would at least have a method of accepting credit cards, like a merchant. It's 2008 and 90% of people on here don't accept credit cards, what is going on!

- A 2checkout account costs $50, after you set this up you can accept credit cards.
- Even better... Google checkout is FREE and takes a LOT less of a percentage compared to Paypal, and allows you to accept credit cards.
Now to mention with a CC merchant you can invoice your clients via e-mail and be a little more professional.

Here's something for you all to consider.

I don't use Paypal any more, and guess what, they DO NOT cover digital purchases, this means your digital transactions ARE NOT covered against fraud or anything what-so-ever!

Hypothetically speaking... If jack sells me a domain for $5,000 and I pay with Paypal he could send me nothing, I could complain to Paypal, he could tell Paypal it was a 'digital good' and thus not covered by Paypal.

Hypothetically speaking... On the other hand, if Jill uses a stolen Paypal account to buy a $5,000 domain and after a week the money that was in your account disappears due to this you cannot get your money or domain back!

Further more the account doesn't even need to be stolen, hypothetically speaking if the $5,000 purchase used credits from the attached CC/bank, the purchaser could contact the CC/bank up to 30 days after the transaction to say they didn't receive the product... it's a digital good and you wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

I don't use Paypal for this very reason, those of you that do are skating on thin ice! You would have more security sending someone the domain on good faith and waiting to receive cash in the mail!

- Dan

[fab]

I think it's mostly do to habit. It's been around the longest. But thanks for the other services. Yes there have been numerous complaints regarding PayPal.

2CO applies a 5.5% commission on each transaction, plus a $0.45 charge per transaction.

Sounds steep to me.

[Banned: theinvestor]

Most people use paypal for small transactions. If they decide to use paypal for large transactions. (With trusted members)...paypal masspay charges $1 fee.

Usually escrow is used for large transactions though. So, since most people are familiar with paypal...why would they use google checkout?

[draggar]

Right now for me Paypal is the best solution out there, even though it is not secure. I'd love to go though Escrow but the fees are too high. Who would want to pay $50 in fees for a $30 domain?

[Graphicism]

fab - The extra 2% is for a secure transaction, even if Paypal was free I wouldn't use them... Did you take a look at Google checkout? Free setup, low %

theinvestor - Would an escrow even cover you? The escrow takes what, 1 week? 2 weeks top? what if on the 3rd week the money disappears from your Paypal account? Can you go back to your escrow?

draggar - Why is it the best solution for you? Why can't you setup a real merchant account?

[Banned: theinvestor]

Graphicism, i'm referring to escrow.com.

There is no risk in escrow.com unless the domain name is stolen. It has nothing to do with paypal.

[krossat]

Always wanted to ask this:
I know you can keep two accounts with paypal, so lets say you create two accounts one of yours and second some close relatives. Now whenever there is a major payment to be accepted you accept and transfer to your other account using masspay.
Isn't this a safe solution to the chargeback thing?
Even if you get a chargeback, you dont lose the money and can still co-ordinate with your registrars to get the domains back and then transfer the chargedback amount to paypal? Isnt that legal and safe both?

[randomo]

I'd never thought about Google checkout, but just looked at it and it seems interesting ... anybody have experience selling that way?

(Key part of their sales pitch: "Unlike other services that immediately deduct funds from you for chargebacks, Google does so only after a decision has been made as to who is at fault.")

[DNGeeks]

To me users that only accept paypal seem completely unprofessional from a business point of view.

They can't care about their money because it's unprotected. All it takes is one email from a jerk to have a paypal account frozen, even if it is temporary. Paypal offers no recourse if they decide to freeze or close your account.

Sure it's cheap, but you get what you pay for.

[thevirtual]

Always wanted to ask this:
I know you can keep two accounts with paypal, so lets say you create two accounts one of yours and second some close relatives. Now whenever there is a major payment to be accepted you accept and transfer to your other account using masspay.
Isn't this a safe solution to the chargeback thing?
Even if you get a chargeback, you dont lose the money and can still co-ordinate with your registrars to get the domains back and then transfer the chargedback amount to paypal? Isnt that legal and safe both?

That wouldn't work. Paypal will charge the amount to your account and your account balance will go into negative, or they will take it out of your linked bank account or credit card.

[Graphicism]

theinvestor - Ah ok, so you can't use Paypal credit for that?

krossat - Yeah your account will just go negative and you will be blocked until you either pay them back or they take it out of your bank account, when you sign up you agree they have the authority to do this.

randomo - Yes I use Google checkout for my design business, I also sold my first domain on here, I simply sent the buyer an invoice from Google checkout.

DNGeeks - Exactly my point! The people on here only accepting Paypal are IMO only accepting money under the table... like a dodgy Italian restaurant.

[mibworld]

I think it's because the ease of use. Many people prefer to pay through Paypal because they don't need to give card info with each buy. However, I think most domainers should accept at least another payment method like moneybookers, that is as easy to use as paypal and probably safer.

[hugegrowth]

Paypal had first mover advantage so it has the most users, and everyone knows it. It mostly got big with ebay then moved on to everything else. And people can use a credit card with paypal to make a payment.

For small amounts, like less than a few hundred dollars, if your buyer is a familiar person on the forum with lots of positive feedback, there is little risk IMO of a bad transaction.

If it's a big amount, then both buyer and seller are going to want to use some kind of escrow anyway, like at sedo, afternic or escrow.com.

I've used paypal since late 90's and never had a problem, you just have to know the pros and cons of when to use it. Luckily, I've never had a new member with '0' feedback buy from me, but I'd hesitate to use paypal with them and try to come up with something different.

In Canada, we can do email money transfers between all the banks, which works great.

I plan to look into google checkout at some point, since everyone knows google it will probably become big in time.

[rentdn]

I would say for me it is just a habit , if buyer or seller have no paypal account i always use moneybookers.com ( it's surely better then paypal ) or webmoney ( if dealing with Russians )

well for bigger ones escrow.com or monikers escrow service is the best

[James]

Why on earth do 90% of people buying and selling domains on this forum ONLY accept Paypal?- Dan

Good point..and posts.. ..I'm in.
jim

[tekz999]

I use all to satisfy all my buyers' preference.

[dotNetKing]

I used Google checkout for two sales and had no problems.

I had to find out how it worked the first time, so possibly best to use for a lowish value sale first until you become familiar with how it works.