PayPal Goes Mobile 103
Stitch_Surfs writes "PayPal has gone mobile. MobileCrunch breaks the news (with images) of PayPal's (un) surprising move onto mobile phones. According to the site, money can be sent,received and goods purchased all via PayPal from your mobile phone."
Not surprising (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, it turned out that the the secondary feature was the one that took off and the one that was originally the whole point eventually got dropped. So this is really just a return to their original concept from 8 years ago rather than some suprising new idea.
Re:Not surprising (Score:3, Interesting)
i thought i heard there was some issue with security, or people not hot syncing enough or something that helped end the Palm based payment fun?
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Re:Not surprising (Score:3, Informative)
No. X.com was a banking service that was later merged with Paypal. Paypal existed for processing payments before X.com was absorbed. I know this because I had accounts with both, and after X.com was taken over, they killed off the checking services.
I was rather pissed that Paypal dropped the beamable cash idea (I chose not to pursue the same line of business for my startup at the time because they already had one up and running), so I'm glad they're finally putting
Re:Not surprising (Score:3, Funny)
I don't get this (Score:1)
Re:I don't get this (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, PayPal will allow you to buy all sorts of products, and it will handle the ordering, payment, and shipping, all you have to do is read the confirmation emails.
Re:I don't get this (Score:1)
Yes, operators charging usurious rates to use such a service is not good, but with sufficient competition in the
Re:I don't get this (Score:2)
For that to be done through a cell phone, the phone would have to somehow carry a pre-pay balance, or they'd have to extend credit, which requires a banking charter in the US. So really what you'd essentially be doing is tying a Visa account to your cell phone, rather than a plastic card. One less item to carry around.
PayPal will probably enter
Re:I don't get this (Score:2)
If that's the case, then won't they be bound by banking laws that they're basically immune from right now?
Re:I don't get this (Score:2)
Re:I don't get this (Score:1)
2. There is no reason to extend such functionality backwards to people who aren't willing to upgrade.
3. Surely you don't take the smart chip out of your security badge every time you need to unlock a door! The SIM stays inside the phone and the smartcard talks to the reader via radio. Also see FeLiCa.
Now, it requires a bit of motivation on the part of operators, and that's the primary reason why we're all stuck without this functionality.
Re:I don't get this (Score:2)
I don't know what your point in saying that was, but the OP stated a fact. Not all phones have SIM cards; what does 3G have to do with anything? Not all phones are 3G.
Ask anyone with service through Sprint - our fancy CDMA phones don't have a SIM card.
Re:I don't get this (Score:2)
Strip clubs... (Score:4, Funny)
Oh, wait... at least with my ATM card, I'm limited to *TWO* days maximum withdrawls for monetary damage (max out before midnight, max out after midnight).
Re:Strip clubs... (Score:2)
With paypal phone...what am I supposed to do? shove it up there?
Grump
Re:Strip clubs... (Score:2)
Yes. Just don't ask for change.
Re:Strip clubs... (Score:2)
-- still looking for a wife...
Go figure.
Re:Strip clubs... (Score:1)
Yes. But put it on vibrate mode first.
yaeh scary (Score:2)
Key West though. . . the only rule is "don't put your fingers in my poon" . . . and they encourage you to squeeze their fake breasts. I lost hundreds of dollars finding that out, then "experimenting" with the rules. I should have just gone right for the poon and gotten banned for life.
More info on PayPal site (Score:2, Insightful)
How do I activate my phone to send and receive mobile payments?
You can activate your phone for use with PayPal by following these steps:
Here's How:
Go to https://www.paypal.com/mobile [paypal.com]
Click the Activate button.
Log in to your PayPal account or sign up for a PayPal account.
Select or add a phone and create a mobile PIN.
Click Continue.
PayPal will call and prompt you to enter your mobile PIN to confirm that you have posse
Easier way... (Score:1)
It's also important to note that you only have to activate to be able to SEND money to other people. If you have a paypal account, and have put in your phone number and such, then people can send payments to your number and it will know it is you. You may need to activate in order to receive the payment though.
Actually, from further reading, y
Security? (Score:2)
Mobile sounds well and good, but.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Wouldn't it be harder to spot a phishing scam over a mobile device considering that the display on a mobile is pretty limited in screen real estate ? On good ol' 'puters you can just move your mouse over the hyperlink and make out that it's a scam.
Re:Mobile sounds well and good, but.. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Mobile sounds well and good, but.. (Score:3, Informative)
Technically, no..
Mobile to Mobile - shows the phone number "MIN" of the original sender
SNPP and Email to SMS - shows the same MIN as destination. IE. it appears to be from myself
Which basically leaves only a few options left, but this Paypal thing I presume is
Phone/wallet (Score:2)
Looks like it could be handy, and there's a lot more info at the PayPal site, do a search for 'phone'.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
PaypalSucks (Score:3, Interesting)
I am eagerly looking forward to an alternative like GBuy (is it really?) so I can feel a bit safer making transactions on the web. Knowing that I might create something that finally allows me to make a decent bit of money only to have PayPal lock my account and take all of it isn't very reassuring.
Stories are old. PayPal got better. (Score:2)
The point is that many of these s
Re:Stories are old. PayPal got better. (Score:2)
Look at the number on the website. Area code (402)? Doesn't look toll-free to me. Of course they make you wait on the phone. It's not costing _them_ anything to leave you on the phone for 20 minutes.
Until they provide a 1-800 number that works from Canada; then they're still scumbags.
Re:Stories are old. PayPal got better. (Score:2)
Who TF actually pays extra for long distance these days? No one. What, are you calling paypal from a coinop pay phone or something?
Until they provide a 1-800 number that works from Canada; then they're still scumbags.
They may be scumbags, but not catering to the whims of one guy in canada who can't be bothered to get reasonable phone service isn't why.
Not everyone is in the US (Score:2)
Re:PaypalSucks (Score:1)
Me too. I have an excellent business idea that will only work if transactions can be accepted for less than $0.30 + 2-3%.
I'll be dealing with a few thousand transactions for items in the $1-$2 range, and unfortunately I don't see any current method of making this work based on transaction fees.
Mod parent up... (Score:2)
But who knows. Maybe this'll get them in shape... at least enough to not fuck with people's money.
Re:Cool, but I'm still nervous about the firm (Score:2)
I'm by no means a high volume Paypal user, but these stories do make me suspicious, especially when someone is advertising some competitor I've
Re:Cool...Hacks Author (Score:2)
Thanks.
SS
Um... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Um... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Um... (Score:2)
Re:Um... (Score:1)
If some yahoo tried to buy my car with paypal, I would make him get a cashiers check.
Re:Um... (Score:2)
Maybe. The UK press have been running ads for 'ebay on your mobile' for a couple of weeks now. Google says: Monitor Ebay on Your Mobile [whatpc.co.uk]
Also qicture [qicture.com]
PayPal already has a mobile (WAP) interface... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/mo
Are you freakin' kidding me? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Are you freakin' kidding me? (Score:2)
They should have called and confirmed that you made the purchase if they suspected fraud, like any responsible financial institution. Perhaps they locked the account temporarily because you weren't reachable?
I have yet to be marked for "suspicious" activity for something so silly. PayPal did limit my account until they had a verified banking account & verified identity (by that point, I had made a lot of transactions already
Re:Are you freakin' kidding me? (Score:1)
If you have a way of making payments that's currently working for you, my advice is to stick with it.
Re:Are you freakin' kidding me? (Score:2)
Re:Are you freakin' kidding me? (Score:1)
Re:Are you freakin' kidding me? (Score:2)
TextPayMe? (Score:5, Interesting)
Muggers (Score:2)
It is Intriguing (Score:1)
Sounds easy, I could see merchants (or vending machines) having barcodes that you take a picture of and do this all automatically. I do wonder though, what happens if someone else is using your phone, I don't see where you'd endter a pin or password, s
Re:It is Intriguing (Score:2)
It calls you back a few seconds after you press SEND for you to enter your pin. It addresses you by name, I just tested it by sending some money to my wife's phone - confused the hell out of her (she *was* sitting beside me) cuz I didn't tell her what I was doing ... now I need to sign her up for a PayPal account.
Re:It is Intriguing (Score:2)
great, that's all they need, another way to get money out of us!
Number spoofing risk? (Score:3, Interesting)
When you consider the lengths that identity thieves and phishing scams will go to, it's not completely unfeasible.
But I could be completely on crack so if what I'm saying is completely ludicrous, please disregard.
- tokengeekgrrl
Re:Number spoofing risk? (Score:1)
I'll feed the troll. (Score:2)
Besides, I remember hearing that the encryption was blatantly crippled with digital cell phones when they first came out. Not sure if anything was improved or not.
Re:Number spoofing risk? (Score:2)
So should be okay.
It uses a callback methodology... (Score:2)
1. You text message them or call an 800 number and tell the system to send money to another phone number.
2. The system calls you back and asks you for a PIN for confirmation. You put in the PIN.
3. Money gets sent.
Activating the service to work from your phone in the first place requires a) A paypal account, and b) for you to do the whole PIN confirmation thing once to get the idea of it and make sure that you have the phone and that they can
Aircharge (Score:1)
This is exciting news! (Score:1)
Re:This is exciting news! (Score:2)
I just tested it. It takes longer than swiping a debit card and typing in a PIN. It'll be useful in some situations though.
Why not? (Score:3, Funny)
Why not. Everything else about my cell phone is designed to suck money out of my wallet.
TextPayMe (Score:2)
No PayPal for me, I'll be usin
Just about time... (Score:2, Flamebait)
Direct Linkage (Score:4, Informative)
Would be even better for merchants (Score:1)
PayPal started on PDAs, so returns to roots kinda (Score:2)
The problem it was too clunky. You could get real money, but you'd have to have a computer, connected to the palm, and the internet. You'd upload your transactions, backing it with your credit card account.
Eventually PayPal learned that the clunkiest part was gett
this doesn't change something important... (Score:1)
No, their service is kind of solid but...
You'll never want to be a merchant with paypal and get frauded/scammed or so forth... in fact, not as a customer neither. You'll never see your cash again... In fact, you'll never hear of customer support neither...
Oh yeah, and apparently "No one" gets the cash, in this case, the no one is Paypal.
(I've had this happen, somebody buys some stuff of me with stolen paypal info. This is shortly catched and paypal is informed etc.
Why not a J2ME application? (Score:1)
Paypal Mobile More than a little underwhelming (Score:1)
Re:Paypal Mobile More than a little underwhelming (Score:1)
Micropayments using cell phones is a great idea, but I see I'm not the only one who thinks Paypal's solution is an underwhelming mess, especially when much better solutions are right on the horizon.
I've been beta testing a mobile money solution for a few weeks now from a startup called Obopay, and from what I've seen it's a much smarter solution than what TextPayMe offers, or even the service that Paypal is preparing to offer.
It's really all about creating a robust, simple
Re:Paypal Mobile More than a little underwhelming (Score:1)
Re:paypal..there are continents other than EUROPE/ (Score:2)
yeah, there are also people living INSIDE uk/us/canada, what's your point?
Aside from the "under no obligation to offer a service" issue, do you have any idea how much work's involved in rolling out a service, worldwide, that's reliant on each different network operator in each country, all at once? Especially with the required security in place for this kind of service?
The fact that they'd want to try it in some places, monitor it's success, tune the s
Re:paypal..there are continents other than EUROPE/ (Score:2)
It doesn't seem that complicated to me.
Re:paypal..there are continents other than EUROPE/ (Score:2)
Paypal is evil ! (Score:1)
For example they held back a lot of donated money for Katrina victims:
Click [somethingawful.com]
What credentials are they going to use to verify ? (Score:2)
Not using Paypal (ex spamcop mail user) (Score:2)
I reported every single paypal phishing mail to Paypal. Paypal was even refusing them for sometime, they reenabled them.
As I have guts (in fact, since I use OS X) I kept on checking the sites I reported using report history feature. Even after a WEEK later, the phishing sites were well and alive asking for paypal account details.
98% of users has no sort of "sense of security" on Mobi
interesting (Score:1)
So far, this is HORRIBLE. (Score:1)