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Hi everyone.
I will do my best to keep this blog positive, helpful, and informative, but this morning I’m afraid it will only be 2 out of the 3. I’m going to use my little virtual soap box to rant/vent against a certain payment processing company that is a subsidary of eBay.
Getting straight to the point – fair warning to everyone who earns a living online – Pay Pal is not a bank! They can and will freeze your account at any time, without warning, and without possibility for appeal or correction. It happened to us a few months ago, and it has happened to many other internet entrepreneurs.
I will spare you the details, but the short version is I have used Pay Pal for years without a hitch, then one day POOF both of my accounts are frozen. When I called them to ask why, they said they couldn’t tell me, since if they told me why I might be able to figure out a way around it (?) !
For those of you who are friends of mine on Facebook this is an old story already. The reason I am revisiting it is this morning I got an email from PayPal asking me to “Please Restore Your account Access.” Like an idiot I logged into each accounts, only to go through the same loop I went through the last time. Bleh.
I called them, they agreed that no, there is nothing I can do to restore my account access, ever. So I asked them to *please* not email me any more.
Point being – if you are using Pay Pal, keep as little in the account as possible. Also, be careful when linking your Pay Pal account to your bank account. I have read of situations where Pay Pal reached into someone’s bank account and took money from them long after their Pay Pal accounts were frozen.
We set up a merchant account for our Segarra Estates business, but after one month we decided to stick with using Google Checkout instead.
Google Checkout is a payment processor also, but it works differently from Pay Pal. To use Google Checkout as a merchant you have to link it to your bank account. Any payments you receive are deposited straight into the account, after Google takes their cut. Works great for me!
I am well aware that Google Checkout could, at some point in the future, decide not to process our payments. This doesn’t concern me much because – 1. They do not keep a balance and 2. We already have a merchant account we can reopen if we need to.
The disadvantage of Google Checkout vs PayPal is Google Checkout doesn’t allow for recurring payments (subscriptions) – yet! This has caused a small wrinkle in our Second Life business, since we used to have a reucrring payment option for our residents.
Again, if you earn your living online, beware of PayPal. If you are using PayPal now, I strongly encourage you to seek out a Merchant Account option, and/or set up your Google Checkout account – Before you need it.
That way if and when you run into issues with PayPal, you can keep doing business without losing too much time or money.
Have fun, and good luck!
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