Yahoo Shuts Down Their PayPal Competitor 257
LostCluster writes "MSNBC and ZDnet are both reporting that Yahoo and HSBC have announced a shutdown plan for their PayDirect service which was their rival to PayPal. Since CitiBank abandoned their c2it service last year, PayPal now seems to be a monopoly by default." There are other players in this field, though, like bidpay and worldpay.
Will they allow us to roll our funds into PayPal? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yahoo Stores (Score:2, Interesting)
NoChex (Score:3, Interesting)
In the UK we still have NoChex [nochex.com], which is a very similar kind of thing...
Re:Paypal still poorly integrated with eBay (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I have never understood... (Score:5, Interesting)
*WHY* people use PayPal? Well, there are those who don't have credit cards, to start. (I had a bank account _long_ before I got my first credit card, many years ago though that was.) Beyond that, there have always been people who, for whatever reason, prefer to e.g. write checks, or use their debit card. PayPal is/can be the on-line equivalent. Not to mention literally thousands of reasons of which I haven't thought.
http://www.theboyz.biz/ [theboyz.biz]Your source for computers, parts, electronics, small applicances and more!
Re:The problem: (Score:5, Interesting)
However, this is also an area where a monopoly is least desireable. This is shown by the abuses PayPal has done with their shoddy customer service, and the ripoffs they've done against many people. What it comes down to now is that you either use PayPal or you don't ... and a lot of people don't. If a seller is able to take my credit card directly, fine. If not, maybe I'll send them a money order or cashier's check. But I'm not risking my money [paypalwarning.com] in PayPal.
I do have an alternative system idea in mind, and I am preparing a document on how it would work. It involves a new exchange system between banks that parallels their existing money exchange systems. An auction seller or shopping site would generate an "open transaction" through their bank (or equivalent service provider). The transaction code is given to the buyer, who then can submit it to their bank for payment. The security is a function of buyer's arrangement with their own bank. Once the bank has determined they are truly dealing with their own account holder who has approved payment on the transaction, payment is sent through a central clearinghouse. It should take under a minute to go through to the seller. Responsibility for fraud would be at the sending bank. The system would also send no private information on the transaction; it would be a blind, and non-reversible, payment. Seller would not know where the payment came from, but would know it cannot be reversed within the system. If the sending bank made a mistake, such as letting an unauthorized person access the buyer's account, that's the responsibility of the sending bank, and buyer's would choose their bank on the basis of how well they deal with security. Both parties would never have to deal with entities other than the one they chose to be their bank.
Bank of America Bill-Paying Service (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd much rather get services like that from a legitimate commercial bank than some flakey service like PayPal.
Realistically, you don't want to send money to a "merchant" that can't qualify for a Visa/MC merchant account. I've run mail-order software sales out of my house, and I had a real merchant account from a major bank (not a reseller), a business license, a fictitious name filing, and a Dun and Bradstreet rating. All those things are easy to get. Someone who doesn't have them is probably doing something wrong.
Re:I have never understood... (Score:5, Interesting)
Moreover, the other advantage to you as a buyer is that you can easily and conveniently do business with a HUGE range of people you could not previously do business with. That increases merchant competition and keeps prices lower.
Re: Pay Pal Censorship (Score:3, Interesting)
While PayPal may not yet be a monopoly, it could be. Right now PayPal is the 800 pound Gorilla of online payments. They have millions of dollars of float from customer accounts, issue a PayPal bank card and yet aren't regulated as a bank. They also will freeze a customer's account, including the funds, at the drop of a hat.
If PayPal is left unchecked as on line commerce continues to grow, it will threaten our ability to buy products without censorship and it will put our finances at risk in an un-regulated bank.
paypal under investigation (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I have never understood... (Score:5, Interesting)
I bought $82 worth of magazines from a seller in Colorado. Seller never shipped the item. I issued a chargeback request with PayPal, who then said it would take 60 days to 'investigate.'
After about 60 days (right after my chargeback privilege with my issuer expired), they sent me an email stating, "We have found in your favor. However, the seller has a zero balance in their bank account, so we cannot give you your money."
The seller continues to do business through PayPal through the same account, with no further attempts by PayPal to hold the money or withdraw it. I've issued further complaints to PayPal, which have been ignored. Needless to say, I will be claiming my money back through the class action lawsuit already in progress.
Re:I have never understood... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a hassle to get it back, but if you're defrauded with paypal you can't get it back. Personally I'd rather have trouble getting it back than to not be able to get it back at all.
Also, if your card number gets stolen out of a database from someone you gave it to, visa usually quickly finds out and issues you a new card. I've had this happen to me once, when one of the sites I had purchased something from had their server hacked into. VISA had replaced my card before the bad guys got around to trying to charge me for something.
Re:No Alternatives (Score:3, Interesting)
Which ones?
Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, etc. All are democratic EU countries and their residents cannot create PayPal accounts.
Why don't the banks implement this? (Score:5, Interesting)
It became quite common for me to go out to lunch with my colleagues so that someone would pay the bill, and later everyone else would transfer some money instantaneously to his bank account. When I moved to the US in 1999, I was most puzzled by people having to mess with personal checks for such things, and the inconvenience they had to go through whenever they needed to make payments to anyone (e.g. utility bills).
Things like PayPal, various (paid!) bill payment systems and other things like that are simply hacks built on top of an antiquated banking system and would not be necessary if we had a decent cross-payment system between the banks. So can anyone please enlighten me and tell why we still don't have one??
WRONG - PayPal is dying!! (Score:1, Interesting)
Up here in Canada all the major banks are now letting you pay other people ONLINE with your debit card!
I myself use it often
US banks are set to follow suit soon..
I think that Yahoo just realized that there is no way that they can compete with a system like that
Re:Nigging out? (Score:1, Interesting)
These words are similar enough to the word nigger, which is a racial slur. Therefore, words that sound similar to the word nigger should be removed (or, as a followup suggests, moderated out of existence) despite having no association outside of how they are spelled or sounded out to the slur.
So instead of educating people as to the MEANING of the words, having hope people will have the comprehension and ability to self-regulate themselves as to the uses of the wors at issue, learn about their various definitions, their cultural and historical significances, you want to ban them.
Lovely. I'm reminded of a story I heard in DC about a DC associate to a council person get heat because he used the word niggardly. Nothing was meant, in context or intent, to be a slur. Yet the members, instead of asking for an explanation, showed their ignorance, stupidity, and intolerance by getting up and walking out, leading to the "perpetrator" being asked to resign. Even when they realized their mistake, they still believed 2 wrongs made a right.
iow, the council people didn't "get it" and hence they marginalized themselves.
Even more, you take the absolutist position that those who have the notion that 'all free speech is a good thing' is bad, and a second absolutist position that all hate speech should be abolished as well.
Frankly, you just come off as someone who has an inferiority complex, unable to grasp the complexities of the world and knowing it.
Nigger in some ways is similar to the word Jap. Jap became a slur during WWII, despite it's obvious roots being short for Japanese, and it remains to this day. Similar to the word Nip, short for Nippon (see SPIN magazine issue). The word nigger's roots came from the various words with the Latin root meaning black. You want those root words and all their offspring rooted out from the Lexicon?
Hell, in some circles, being "white" is used very negatively (eggplant, mainstream, etc.). Should we also root out all words for white as well, e.g. blank?
I guess some people still want people to be stupid and ignorant, like those who still believe herstory is an appropriate adoption to history, utterly ignorant of the history of the very word they wish to butcher.
Re:Alternative: Yow Cow (Score:4, Interesting)
I did a story [jackwhispers.com] about the problems that paypalsucks and yowcow pose.
google (Score:1, Interesting)
gpay.com anyone?
Re:What sucks now (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:In other news... (Score:2, Interesting)
You will have liquidity issues as well, which is what money is supposed to prevent in the first place. That means that people will experience barriers to trade when they have to find a common currency to use. It's like trying to get a bunch of Linux geeks to agree on a common distribution. The Fed keeps this to a minimum by forcing us to use one common currency.
Also, if I'm not mistaken, it's unconstitutional in the US to have arbitrary monetary systems besides the dollar.
pick a competitor - there are plenty! (Score:1, Interesting)
But there is also 2CheckOut, iKobo, NoChex, Epassporte, e-gold, authorize.net, iBill, Kagi, ClickBank, DigiBuy, VeriSign Payflow, Affero, BTClick&Buy, CCAvenue, CCBill, CCNow, ClickBank, DigiBuy, DigitalCandle, FastPay, ImagineNation, InstaBill, Jettis, Kagi, MembershipPlus, Moneybookers, MultiCards, MyPaySystems, PartyKey, Pay-Line, Paymate, Process54, ProPay, Reg.Net, RegNow, RegSoft, Share*It, StormPay, SWREG, V-Share, Verotel, VolPay.