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Payment via PayPal ONLY?
Several rather interesting offers lately.
Even had a cart loaded only to get to checkout and find (much to my amazement!) the store won't accept my debit card. What year is this?
Why are so many enthralled by a single source of payment they will accept? Several stores are loosing out on a large number of sales.
Even had a cart loaded only to get to checkout and find (much to my amazement!) the store won't accept my debit card. What year is this?
Why are so many enthralled by a single source of payment they will accept? Several stores are loosing out on a large number of sales.
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PayPal makes this easy for many sellers because they extend where debit cards from many countries can be used.
I long for the day when PayPal crashes and burns, but today is not that day
Afterall is said and done, customers expect things to be at their convenience.
In this case, I am the customer - to use other than my debit card is inconvenent!
Second, please note that I have dealt with a dozen stores thru BrickOwl - all of which honor debit cards.
The stores in question sought my business by advertising. Out of curosity, I looked, picked out a few things and went to pay - only to be rejected.
Thirdly, (6:28) there must be a way to pay with debit via PayPal - as I mentioned, I've done it recently.
Seems there must be a way for stores doing business across foreign borders to limit payment to PayPal and allow other types of payment within their shores. This could be a splash sceen announcement as to payment limitation.
Keep in mind, within your own borders a great deal of business goes wanting!
You can see what payment methods a store accepts on the right-hand side of the store's home page or at the bottom of every page within that store, though I'm not sure if this information changes depending on where you're located and whether or not the store limits payment methods for that location.
If you've been at a store that didn't allow you to checkout with PayPal even when they say they accept it, it's possibly an error with their store's settings - a quick email would possibly resolve.
As a customer, I fail to see any advantage in becoming involved with an additional form of credit/payment.
Most sellers are hobbyists or very small businesses, for which Paypal is by far the most convenient option.
I'm not sure it works like that here because of the API call towards paypal, buyers are redirected to Paypal with the API and invited to put in their Paypal details (aka login). This is different when a buyer is being 'invoiced' trough Paypal, as at that moment the buyer can decline to login and still move forward to use his/her credit card for payment. So I'm not even sure it would work here, maybe @lawrence can fill us in indeed. Or it could be tested between 2 members.
@Eddie630
I'm not sure which kind of sites you are referring to, but large companies like Walmart or Amazon are working straight with credit card companies, they are set up for such. Here, all sellers are individuals, many are small business sellers or hobbiests, and occasionally the very large seller (who might offer straight CC payments), for most it doesn't warrant the cost of affliating with CC companies. Brickowl cannot 'host' this either for example, as it isn't a financial institution, so not an option either. Paypal is the most commonly used payment method for small purchases (or larger ones offcourse), the conveniance is that people can ideed attach their CC or other debet possibilities, or combine them, and have it all processed by a simple login, while with credit cards the process is usually slightly longer. The result in the end is the same, it's debited from the Credit card, you just have an intermediate processing the payment, as a buyer this doesn't cost you a thing...
Last time I looked (and just did again) Stripe is still in 'Beta' for several EU countries, so for me it means it might contain bugs and not be 100% reliable. It's certainly something I'll be exploring in future, and then it will still depend on the involved fees for using it, might be worthwile, might be not... We do have the easy IBAN option here, so adding another method, just for a few users, might not be worthwile at all ;-)
I submitted two orders using PayPal and one using my debit card.
The 1st PayPal entry was a bit of a hassle. Clicking on PayPal option took me to PayPal (no surprise). It took me a fair amount of time to resurrect a PayPal account - primarily since I forgot a 16 yr old password - but sure enough they still had all my information, including the bank account number. Okay, the 1st one went through, try another.
The 2nd was painless - went through very smoothly. Asked for my PayPal password as opposed to my 16 digit card number, the expiration date and 3 digit security code. Seem a fair trade. That is a far cry from problems PayPal seemed to have years ago.
On to the debit card ................
I tried with one of BrickOwl sellers. Failed miserably! Error message that took me to Swipe.com ... instantly I knew there would be a quiz ... questions I wouldn't have answers to. Contacted the seller, who in turn found it was setup in error. The seller corrected it. Try again.
This time the debit card worked fine. No problems, seamless and smooth.
I then checked my bank account. The debit card transaction are there, but where's the PayPal entries? No sign of them. No reserve or encumbered balance. It's almost as though they honor it without checking balances. Maybe just for low value transactions, what's the risk.
As luck would have it, PayPal transaction(s) were posted overnight - like clearing a check.
I don't know for a fact, but I would imagine that over a weekend, a late Saturday afternoon transaction won't be cleared until early Tuesday - even longer for 3 day weekends.
That's the only drawback, like the old days, keeping track of outstanding checks. I haven't written a check in over 4 years! No longer can depend on the bank to have a current balance. Seems wrong.
Aside from the posting delay, I suddenly receive notice of shipment from PayPal. This is separate from the BrickOwl notice of shipment. Relatively useless, just delete it. The PayPal notice has same info, but far less of it.
I therefore must agree, you could use PayPal with the ease of using your debit card.
All else being equal, as a customer, I would say without crossing international borders, the bank card being posted immediately is the way to go.
If you have your bankaccount attached as debit method, it always takes 2 or 3 days before the debit comming from Paypal goes through, just in the same way, when a seller withdraws money from Paypal, it takes that amount of time before it reaches the sellers bankaccount. Nothing abnormal therefor. However, during that timeframe, if paid with that method, on the sellers side, the amount would be visisble in the sellers Paypal balance, but with the notice that the payment isn't actually there yet, and that the seller should hold of shipment untill the balance 'clears'. Keep that in mind, most sellers will keep an eye out for that, so don't assume they are slow 'shippers', technicly, they don't have actual payment yet untill they have the 'cleared' sign from Paypal ;-)
With a CC attached to the Paypal account, it's different, that's instant, soon you make a payment trough PP from CC, it is processed in full for both user and seller, and the debit can be seen on the CC overview (oftenly available online these days), the only difference is that the withdraw from the bankaccount will be once per month, together with every other CC expense.
If it's a debit VISA card (very common in the U.S.), then it's instant for everyone involved, even if it's debit. I assume that's what Eddie630 meant (rather than withdrawing from a bank account linked to Paypal).
As for why the transaction didn't post instantly... I believe some banks still don't show all transactions online instantly, for some reason. I know mine used to be that way, some 5-6 years ago!
Why the delay and who notices, I can only guess. Keep in mind that I didn't change any options, just sign-in to PayPal and set a new password. Problem was get validated just to reset the password. Any options are what they were several years ago. Such could look like "some 5-6 years ago" - is there a specific option to be concerned about?
RobErNat may have pinpointed a major flaw in using PayPal without realizing it.
A buyer using PayPal believes everything is done, just waiting for Mr. Postman. While from the buyers prospective thats true, the reality is we're awaiting the bankers. So, there are delays built-in! Placing an order expecting it to travel on the weekend may be a dream. The buyer sees his confirmation, expects to see shipping notice later that day or early the next day, But wait PayPal is still talking with the bank. For how long?
When does "clear" sign show-up?
Would the same be true using a debit card or credit card?
Regardless, not many will disagree with you that it would be better for each store to receive card payments directly without the need to rely on PayPal, but the cost is prohibitive for many small businesses, particularly for online card transactions where the cost of fraud protection bumps up the cost.
CC withdraws trough paypal are always instant (unless there is something wrong with the CC offcourse), only when the withdraw is made straight from the bankaccount there is a delay as indeed PP need to 'talk' with the bank, e-checks as well, they need clearance also, this shows on Paypal (however it shows 'paid' on Brickowl), reason most sellers will always doublecheck on Paypal before shipping out an order ;-) In case of a delayed payment, PP does mention it in the mail they send and clearly advise to wait to ship untill it clears, they also send a mail when it's cleared. Dunno whether the same thing shows on buyers side when they log in to PP, I'm not confronted with such as I have my CC attached for debits and use bankaccount only for withdraws.
You're clearly not on a 'selling' side :-) (I could be wrong offcourse).
Doublechecking payments is like a safeguard, you make sure there is nothing wrong (or delayed) with the payment (but obviouly PP tells a seller so in the mail they send), but it's also a matter of checking buyer details and compare them to 'subscription' details, they do not always 'match', a little less likely here because the BO/PP API gives an automated doublecheck, but on other sites this isn't always the case... As a seller you prefer to make sure you're shipping to the correct address, so the 'check' also includes that part ;-)
The disadvantage as a seller ( but I cannot speak when using 'stripe') is that 'funds' only appear on the 'deposit' CC when the CC company makes up the total for past month (I know this from refunds for example), up to 4 weeks after the deposit was send, this also means the seller needs to wait to 'receive' the cashflow, while in 99% of cases the cashflow is instant on PP, the seller can use it to cover his/her own purchases, or can easely transfer it to a bankaccount (transfer period of a few days). So from a sellers side, this is a significant difference, sure at the end of the month you get a 'big' transfer for the CC company (who 'used' your money in the mean while, and they don't give 'intrests' on that), or the seller disposes of it right away... I prefer the 'right away' option, as it allows me to re-invest right away ;-)
Hi Brian, many thanks for the information, a day or 2 is very acceptable and no 'worse' as in transferring PP funds to my bankaccount, so great (I guess I need to wait for an approved working 'Stripe' site in my country before even trying ;-) ).
And I never mark my orders shipped when they are not, I mark them shipped (or my wife does) when they left our hands and are in the hands of the postal services, so not an issue anyway :P
BO logs shipping dates and exact times, as I keep postal tickets, I prefer them to match as closely as possible to my shipped orders, preferably within the hour me or my wife mark as 'shipped' for that reason ;-)