Why I’ll Stop Using PayPal

I’ve been using PayPal fairly regularly, recently. The main reason was that I’m trying not to use my credit card so much, so I don’t build up a balance. But a debit card doesn’t offer much protection when shopping online.

PayPal also means I’m not continually giving out my card details to people – so I thought that I could use lesser-known sites for shopping, with no fear that they’re likely to abuse or lose my details.

However, recently I didn’t get something that I paid for with PayPal. The seller hasn’t acknowledged my emails, or responded when I raised a PayPal dispute. I’ve escalated the dispute to a ‘claim’ where PayPal will look into it and, I assumed, give me my money back.

However, I’ve just noticed this in PayPal’s terms:

If PayPal decides the claim in the buyer’s favour, the buyer will receive a refund only if there are funds in the seller’s account.

So, if the person I bought off has moved that money into their bank account, I get nothing!

Which means anyone can set up a PayPal account, fleece a few thousand people, withdraw the funds from their PayPal account, then disappear. If the bloke who mugged you is caught but has spent the cash, you don’t get it back.

In other words: outside of eBay, PayPal offers NO BUYER PROTECTION WHATSOEVER, for which they receive a hefty chunk of all funds transferred through them.

I’ll go back to my credit card.