Jun 02, 2001 10:27 PM
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Do you like to buy and sell at Internet auctions? Are you, like me, sick of your bank charging you a hefty fee for the privilege of depositing a cheque of another currency into your account? Wanting to take advantage of ‘get paid’ reward schemes on the net but don’t want to lose your payment to your bank in commission charges? Wondering how you can buy that must have auction item when the seller wants paying in their currency and not yours? Well, you may find that PayPal is the answer!
If like me, you spend a lot of buying and selling at online auctions, or have a website where you want to sell to folks worldwide, sending and receiving payments overseas can be a nightmare! Banks and Building Societies can charge you a fortune in commission for converting cheques into your currency (and vice versa) and you can lose a lot of profit. An alternative is PayPal, a simple and reliable way to send money to any email address in the world and accruing no commission charges, other than a small fee in some cases.
Although American based, international users can now take advantage of this useful means of sending and receiving cash anywhere in the world. It’s also a boon if you sign up to lots of ‘get paid’ schemes on the Internet, as more and more are now offering PayPal as an alternative payment method. No more hefty commission charges! UK subscribers can register a credit card or bank checking account at PayPal and have funds transferred directly from and to them. It’s very easy, very secure and very reliable. It is also a well-established programme that is serving thousands of Internet customers. The program is available to most countries in fact, including India.
Signing up for a personal account at PayPal is very straightforward and completely free, well, almost! You fill out some basic details including name, address, telephone number, email address and your selected password. Plus there are a couple of extra security questions to prevent fraud. Your email address becomes your log in name.
Next you are required to enter details of a credit card or debit card (currently only Visa and MasterCard are allowed) under a secure server. The card details have to be confirmed and verified, so you will be debited the sum of $1 (USA) from your card, which is completely refundable to your PayPal account once your card has been validated. What happens is that the $1 debit is shown on your credit card statement along with a numeric code, you enter this code into your account at PayPal and your card is then confirmed and a refund given. You can choose to enter your card details at a later date if you are wary at registration.
Then it’s a matter of responding to the email you receive from PayPal to verify your details and your account is then set up and ready to go!
Once registered, you have a number of options. You can link your own checking account to Paypal so that amounts in your PayPal account can be transferred to and from it at a mere click of the mouse button. You can also add funds to your PayPal account from both credit card or bank account, and vice versa! Be aware however that all funds in your PayPal account are in American dollar currency and not British Sterling! When you transfer them to your bank account or credit card, these will be converted to pounds, but expect a conversion fee in some cases. You can also add additional email addresses to your account, up to 8 in all, which is useful for those that have separate addresses for rewards schemes, auctions etc.
I recently sold a Britannia Beanie at auction to an American customer, and despite my making clear that I would only accept payment in sterling funds, he was insistent that it was dollars or nothing. PayPal was the answer, he was able to transfer $50 to my account that I was able to either withdraw to my credit card or bank account, or leave there in readiness for the next time I needed to make payment to somebody with an email address. You can also top up your PayPal account at any time using your credit card or bank account.
As another bonus, many Internet based retailers are now offering PayPal as a payment option and as mentioned above, lots of ‘get paid to be online’ schemes now offer PayPal as an option for being paid. Considerably better than banking a $10 dollar rewards cheque for instance, and losing practically all of it through bank commission charges!
Currently, PayPal has a customer base of over 8 million users; I’m one of them! I find it reliable, fast and efficient and auction bidding has taken on a new lease of life! Check out the website for more details. Incidentally, PayPal make a big thing of telling you that you will be rewarded $5 in your PP account for each friend you refer who sets up an account…..sadly, this applies to USA account holders only. The meanies!
