I can't think of a company that has done more to democratize banking than PayPal.
Setting up a Merchant Account can be a real pain (and I too hope PayPal improves in this regard), but I really hope the author thinks harder about the title next time before making such a generalization.
If you want to know why PayPal is not evil, try this experiment:
Go to your bank and try to open a checking account with a debit card with no minimum balance, a positive interest rate, ability to transfer money instantly without writing a check (basically a wire transfer) for free, no insufficient fund charges, no monthly fees, free online and mobile banking, etc.
PayPal offers this to everyone, regardless of how rich or poor you are. If you don't have a lot of money other banks such as WellsFargo, Bank of America, etc., could care less about you and will try and take as much as they can from you in the form of ATM charges, monthly fees, overdraft charges, etc. Of course, I may be making my own over generalization here, but suffice it to say that I don't think PayPal is evil.
It is worth noting PayPal's activity is regulated within the EU:
"On May 15, 2007, PayPal announced that it would move its European operations from the UK to Luxembourg, commencing July 2, 2007 as PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A.[33] This would be as a Luxembourg entity regulated as a bank by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the Luxembourg equivalent of the FSA.[34] PayPal Luxembourg will then provide the PayPal service throughout the European Union (EU)." -- PayPal's Wikipedia page.
This status, within the EU, provides some protection for both businesses and customers.
For example, Soldier's Angels had their entire PayPal account disabled for simply processing the payments for a raffle where one prize was a pistol.
They were simply selling raffle tickets for someone else's raffle, and they're a registered charity, but PayPal is very strict: it's "relate[d] to sales of … (h) ammunition, firearms, or certain firearm parts or accessories", so boom, account disabled.
"Go to your bank and try to open a checking account with a debit card with no minimum balance, a positive interest rate, ability to transfer money instantly without writing a check (basically a wire transfer) for free, no insufficient fund charges, no monthly fees, free online and mobile banking, etc."
ING Direct doesn't have a strict minimum balance, but will close your account if you use too many "free" services or if you need to much personal support.
"We fire our customers is a colorful way of putting it," said ING Direct's Kuhlmann. "While the banking business says the customer is always right, we're online guys and you can only do business with us in a certain way."
I've not had my account closed despite being a customer for almost 5 years, and I've been everywhere from broke to carrying a modest balance.
It's probably fair to point this out, though: at least ING Direct is highly unlikely to arbitrarily close my account and freeze my funds because they think I ripped someone off on eBay.
>Go to your bank and try to open a checking account with a debit card with no minimum balance, a positive interest rate, ability to transfer money instantly without writing a check (basically a wire transfer) for free, no insufficient fund charges, no monthly fees, free online and mobile banking, etc.
You can in fact open bank accounts like that in many countries (e.g. England). Charging for simple services like wire transfers is an odd US practice.
Just because you do a lot of good does not mean you can just get off with a lot of bad. Their customer service is horrible and they don't deal with issues such as this the proper way. I agree with you, they've done a ton to democratize banking. What good is all that if you lose all the money they've allowed you to make because they have poor customer service practices?
I disagree, to me when you don't offer customer service availability to departments and don't offer any real explanations for denial of service, that is bad.
Just because a "big bank" is worse, doesn't make Paypal "good". Credit Unions are the only true "good" in the banking industry. The credit unions are non-profit and thusly they don't try to gouge you.
To each story there are both sites of the story. No point was being written outlining the reasons why his accounts was being closed.
If he would be serious about doing business, he could have provided all that information in the beginning.
Four Bean Soup's account wasn't closed, the paypal account is fine. Paypal disabled the gateway credit card processing with no explanation of why. Providing paperwork is easy, but they never asked for more of it to get the gateway set back up.
"Go to your bank and try to open a checking account with a debit card with no minimum balance, a positive interest rate, ability to transfer money instantly without writing a check (basically a wire transfer) for free, no insufficient fund charges, no monthly fees, free online and mobile banking, etc."
I don't think anyone actually thinks PayPal is "evil" (in the Jungian sense), but, as this story suggests, and the story it linked to suggests, and as the number of upvotes its received suggests, there is plenty of evidence that indicates PayPal isn't known for stellar customer service, and therefore you might at least want to consider having a Plan B before signing up with them.
I typically upvote articles to "save" them for future reference. It doesn't in any way mean I "agree" with the point of view, just that I think either the article or the discussion attached to it is something I might want to revisit for some reason.
I can't think of a company that has done more to democratize banking than PayPal.
Setting up a Merchant Account can be a real pain (and I too hope PayPal improves in this regard), but I really hope the author thinks harder about the title next time before making such a generalization.
If you want to know why PayPal is not evil, try this experiment:
Go to your bank and try to open a checking account with a debit card with no minimum balance, a positive interest rate, ability to transfer money instantly without writing a check (basically a wire transfer) for free, no insufficient fund charges, no monthly fees, free online and mobile banking, etc.
PayPal offers this to everyone, regardless of how rich or poor you are. If you don't have a lot of money other banks such as WellsFargo, Bank of America, etc., could care less about you and will try and take as much as they can from you in the form of ATM charges, monthly fees, overdraft charges, etc. Of course, I may be making my own over generalization here, but suffice it to say that I don't think PayPal is evil.