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Yahoo Shuts Down Their PayPal Competitor

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the imagine-that dept.

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.

21 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Canada still has CertaPay by bcs_metacon.ca · · Score: 5, Informative

    A consortium of Canadian banks (BMO, CIBC, RBC, ScotiaBank, and TD) offer "email money transfers" through CertaPay. My wife and I use it for almost everything we used to do through PayPal because -- unlike PayPal -- it's free for both the sender and receiver (as long as you have a banking plan that gives you a number of free transactions per month).

    --

    How appropriate. You fight like a cow.
    1. Re:Canada still has CertaPay by gbjbaanb · · Score: 3, Informative

      Anbd in the UK, you want to check out Natwest's FastPay. Much cheaper than Paypal, in the few areas where it isn't free.

    2. Re:Canada still has CertaPay by Sentry21 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The original poster pointed out the same service I was going to, but a few things are worth mentioning.

      Certapay isn't just a method of paying vendors - it's often referred to by banks as an 'e-mail money transfer', and this is what it is. I can put through a transfer from my online banking and send it to my roommate, and the system sends him an e-mail. When he recieves it, he can confirm and accept payment, and the money is automatically put into his bank account. Thus, I can send money from my account to his between banks instantly, at almost no charge (I get billed a $1.50 charge when I send). No reliance on credit cards, external companies, no worries about getting your accounts frozen for doing a lot of transactions (I have friends that have had this done by PayPal). Very nice, very handy.

      --Dan

  2. Re:I have never understood... by DoorFrame · · Score: 4, Informative

    Paypal is a hell of lot faster and easier than using credit cards. Also, as someone who sells things on eBay on a regular basis, it allows me to accept payments both from paypal people and from people with credit cards, which I wouldn't have otherwise been able to do. Also, I can dump money directly from paypal into my bank account, which I cannot do with my credit card.

    So there you go.

    --

    --
    RumorsDaily
  3. Competitors by mr_sas · · Score: 3, Informative

    Worldpay is not really a competitor to the main paypal market, since iirc it costs GBP100ish (USD 180) a significant amount (to an average part time ebay seller) to set up, plus an annual yearly fee, plus they take so much per transaction. Nochex is a competitor, but it was limited to UK customers only last time I checked it out.

  4. Re:Nigging out? by polecat_redux · · Score: 2, Informative

    No matter what I do I can't even figure out from the context what it's supposed to mean. I can't think of any words that it might be a typo of either.

    Perhaps he was thinking of reneged?

  5. Re:In other news... by mochan_s · · Score: 3, Informative

    The dollar is not a profit-maximizing corporation.

    What next? Water has monopoly over showering substance?

  6. Re:I have never understood... by etymxris · · Score: 2, Informative
    The costs involved in getting a merchant account are reasonably large, too much for small ebay sellers and companies with small turnovers. Paypal is very cost effective in these cases (mainly due to no gateway fees).
    IIRC, it is something like $700 USD yearly for each of Mastercard and Visa to get a merchant account and accept credit payments. I was looking into selling file hosting bandwidth, and seeing what it would take to get payment services set up. But the initial cost is just too high for a small time operation like I was planning. I don't like paypal, but it was pretty much that or nothing.

    If you only buy from people that take credit card payments directly, you'll end up paying for that privilege.
  7. Re:I have never understood... by dissy · · Score: 2, Informative

    > I have no doubt that it is advantageous to you as a vendor, but I utterly fail
    > to see the advantage to me as a buyer

    I guess the main problem is, when set up correctly, you do not need a paypal account as a buyer to do business with someone using paypal on the vendor side.

    So the advantage to you is that you refuse to do business with the vendor unless they accept your credit card, and paypal allows them to accept your credit card.

    Additionally, all the disadvantages you claim are bogus.

    > With credit cards the burden of proof is on the vendor. With PayPal the burden
    > of proof is on the purchaser.

    Seeing as you as the buyer are using your -credit card- in both situations, there is no difference what so ever.

    You can have your credit card company issue a charge back aginst ANYONE you use your credit card with, the actual merchant being used, visa or mastercard directly, one of the millions of other merchants/banks, or paypal. That doesnt matter, because your credit card company simply sees a purchase, and can void that purchase just the same.

    Being no different than with a credit card (because thats exactly what you are using to make the purchase) i fail to see how you think the burden is now on the purchaser...

  8. Paypal alternatives by wikinerd · · Score: 3, Informative
    http://www.ikobo.com/ allows online money wordwide transfer and gives you an ATM card to withdraw monies from ATMs all over the world. In contrast with PayPal, iKobo supports much more countries in EU and the rest of the world.

    In addition, there is http://www.moneybookers.com/ that also allows online money transfer and is based in UK and supports more countries than PayPal

    What sucks is that both services want you to have a user ID before using them.

    There is also Western Union that does online transfers but it is only for USA I think and their charges are high IMO.

  9. Re:Nigging out? by polecat_redux · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is one of those words that we could easily remove from the lexicon if we could get over the absolutist position that ALL free speech is a good thing.

    It is interesting how some words for some reason have a negative connotation attached to them, while others, although with the same meaning, do not. For example, the "N"-word has its roots in the word "negro" - the Spanish word for "black". I personally believe that "black" is a pefectly acceptable, descriptive word, just as "white" is. But once a word has a negative context associated with it, it becomes forever unsavory, despite the benign etymology of the word.

  10. Paypal.... by creaturespeaker · · Score: 1, Informative
    Almost all of the top power sellers on eBay use PayPal. In fact I have a guide to selling on eBay book and it says when selling on eBay, you should only accept PayPal because its the least problamatic. If PayPal was so bad then all these powersellers would not be using it. Its really easy to read a few horror stories and not get the big picture. Fact is, 99 percent of the people have had no issues with PayPal. Go look at the Better Business Bureau rating of Pay Pal and you will see that its rated very highly.

    Free Flat Screen HERE!

    1. Re:Paypal.... by wamatt · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually they have a class action lawsuit pending. http://www.settlement4onlinepayments.com/

      Then there is also the recent update to their TOS which allows them to start FINING you.
      http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5992067/

      They really ought to be some regulation if they act like a bank cos they running wild baby.

  11. no options by Tom · · Score: 2, Informative

    The listed alternatives aren't. They take somewhere between 100 and 300 Euros/$ in setup fees, which means you've gotta shell that out before you can make any transactions.

    For a small site taking donations, that kills the option right there.

    The only real alternative I found to paypal is Moneybookers.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  12. Kagi? by Macrat · · Score: 2, Informative

    PayPal isn't the only service on the block. Nor is it the first.

    Just use Kagi.com

  13. StormPay by Jace+of+Fuse! · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't know how big or reliable they are, but there is always Storm Pay.

    --

    "Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"

    Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
  14. Re:e-gold && The Fusion Codicil by wherley · · Score: 2, Informative

    actually it seems the e-gold creators have already thought of this possiblity and provided for it in their User Agreement:
    ...
    4.8. The Fusion Codicil

    Issuer reserves the right to stop issuing additional e-gold by ceasing to accept bailment of additional bullion. This extraordinary provision will be triggered only in the event that lower cost or more efficient physical methods of extraction or transmuting the metals that comprise the reserves of the e-gold system result in subsequent non-scarcity of those elements.
    ...

  15. Re:eGold (sic) - "e-gold" is the correct name by wherley · · Score: 3, Informative

    I think you meant e-gold. The name without the hyphen goes to some other site that (currently) redirects to the real e-gold site with a referral code attached to the URL.

  16. PayPal is bad for you by TV-SET · · Score: 2, Informative

    This recent post at Politech seems to be on the subject. It has a few alternatives and explains the pros and cons of some of them.

    --
    Leonid Mamtchenkov ...i don't need your civil war...
  17. Re:Futures by polecat_redux · · Score: 2, Informative

    Gah, idiot mods. I was supporting the argument of the grandparent poster. When a single company succeeds quickly and with very little competition, it is more difficult for someone else to break in and compete. This was true with Netscape. They had the market cornered, and the only way MS could hope to stand a chance was to give away for free what Netscape was charging for. Now 75% of Internet users choose IE.

    --I swear, anything thing that even comes close to sounding unpopular on Slashdot is rapidly squelched. Keep an open mind and learn to fucking read.

  18. Use credit cards--not cash--with Paypal purchases by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Paypal no longer requires customers to have a Paypal account in order to make a purchase.
    This means you can pay with your visa/mastercard to a seller that only offers Paypal.

    I buy from some sellers who sell goods exclusively via Paypal all the time.

    But when I do this, I simply use my visa/mastercard ***INSTEAD OF CASH*** from my Paypal account--so Paypal acts as a merchant account to the seller.

    This way, if Paypal doesn't resolve any problems to my satisfaction, I can do a visa/mastercard chargepack with my credit card company.

    As a buyer, this provides me with 2 layers of defense against fraud. Paypal chargeback and visa/mastercard chargeback.

    Again, use your credit card when making purchases via Paypal instead of cash from your account.