PayPal versus C2it

A personal PayPal account is useless, since you can only receive money from someone with a cash balance, which is only about 5% of the people out there buying, from my experience.

I got one for ya. A buyer was interested in an item I had for sale.--Said he was going to paypal me. 48 hrs go by no money was sent. I assumed he changed his mind. Then he sends the money (unannounced).My piece, I found out in the meantime, had a problem. I didn't want to sell it broken. I just never claimed the funds. Then we find out they are already in my account. ( Without my actual claiming) I had to pay the fee.I sent the original amt back;he ALSO had to pay the fee.--We each lost--Paypal won twice. Don't ya just love it??

The reason I started this thread is because of the (continuing) less than steller experience people have had with PayPal. I use it to pre-pay shipping charges for COD items, usually around $100 but unless I verify soon I will lose that capability. I have no plans on verifying given all reported hassels.

Looking for an alternative - C2it - seems pretty good. At least Citibank is behind it! So I'd still like to know if anyone is using c2it?

I think that Agon shoud look into it and offer it as a standard pay option like they do PayPal.

Sugarbrie, you could also do a bank transfer when paying and not incurr any fees. You don't need to have funds in the account.

Avguygeorge, did you call Paypal about this error?. They have a toll free number and are easy to access.

I just can't see what the big deal is with Paypal.

I use paypal frequently. For low-end items it is downright convenient. For high end, it's too expensive. And, it is a myth to think you're being "protected."

If you send someone money via paypal, even if the money comes from your credit card, the risk of fraud is entirely on you. This is different than vendors which have an account with that credit card, and the issuing bank has recourse: If they agree with your dispute, they simply dun the vendor's account, and that's it. It's the power of the paycheck.

But if you send $3000 to Danny De-Man, for a purchase of whatever, and he takes the money--you're then at Danny's mercy. If he stiffs you, your credit card company or issuing bank will tell you caveat emptor. They don't have an account with him, you authorized the money to go to him, and that's the end of the story. He may not be able to do business on paypal again, but that may be okay with him.

I read over as many of the C2it terms as I could, and this same lack of protection exists. But if in fact you save on the exorbitant fee, then, yeah, it is a no-brainer (note that the site says that the credit card issuer may choose to charge a fee). If there's a 3% bite being taken out of my $3000 transaction, then it really costs $3090. If you save the $90, as opposed to not saving it on paypal, then that seems worth it to me.

Big thing is getting it to catch on. It'll be interesting, but I expect it to be a major competitor of paypal quickly, which has enjoyed a sort of only-game-in-town status for far too long.

Nick