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Yahoo Shuts Down Their PayPal Competitor
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.
But they were using BidPay, so Yahoo will never see the money now.
PayPal should do that if they'd like to pick up some more customers. Yahoo should so that since they're nigging out on people.
BLING BLING. Meet the architecture that's changing everything.
...the American public cry out that the Dollar is a monopoly, and that Pounds and Yen should be allowed as well.
--Muzz
If a company won't take my credit card, I don't purchase their merchandise, period.
We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
This was a decent service and was in some ways a superior "eshopping cart" service. Many small websites or discount hardware websites use Yahoo stores and used the PayDirect service...I wonder if Paypal will, indeed, take it's place.
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.
I still can't believe how clumsy the eBay to Paypal interface is a year after the merger. Can't they make it seemless so that my customers don't have to sign in twice to make a payment?? They certainly have made enough in fees to improve the system.
This is just more hyperbolic editorial blather on the part of timothy. If you can name a couple of significant competitors off of the top of your head, then it's not a monopoly. It would be a monopoly if it were impossible to use anything but PayPal, but it's not. We all have a choice. If we hate PayPal that much maybe we should launch a boycott of them and all tangentially related companies. Then we can use the superior alternatives instead of letting PP become the next Microsoft.
He corrected the submitter by naming several competitors. He could've gone further by removing the submitter's comment entirely, though.
Wasn't there one also called e-gold that purchases actual gold to back its electronic currency? Of course, if you had a lot of money in it and somebody discovered how to turn lead into gold, well then you'd be ruined. So its kind of a risky holding.
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
In the UK we still have NoChex, which is a very similar kind of thing...
I'm not surprised, the c1it service was much more fun.
Not that this wasn't entirely predictable.
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.
no, you don't need a MONOPOLY.
what you need is co-operation between the competing services.
around here we dont' have a monopoly in banking services.. but transferring money between banks is _easy_ because they co-operate.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
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?
I hope somebody will step up and prove me wrong, but after some extensive searching, I can't come up with any better alternatives than PayPal. For simply and cheaply accepting credit card payments.
Killer features: no sign up cost, no monthly (yearly, whatever) fee, low transaction costs, works around the world, accepts all major credit cards, as well as other payment methods.
Only two disadvantages I can identify: buyers need to create an account (unless paying to an US business), and PayPal's...reputation.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
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 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.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
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.
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.
There is another very significant problem with Pay Pal. Pay Pal censors what you can buy and sell and has stated a policy that they will "fine" buyers or purchasers of "adult" items $500. The definition of whether an item meets PayPal's standards is decided solely by PayPal and its official censors, who will even go so far as to read through romance novels/erotic fiction to see whether they pass muster.
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.
http://paypalsucks.com/ They once withheld funds from me for over a month, and when I finally spoke to a real person at my expense, they would not help.
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.
In Estonia, my native country, banks created a cross-payment system in 1993 (over ten years ago!). Since then it has been possible for anyone with bank account in any Estonian bank to pay anyone else with a bank account. Shortly after that most banks made the system available over the Internet.
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??
When men used to be men
[rant]They're owned by eBay, so when you sell something, and get via Paypal, eBay is now double dipping.
They get money for the listing, AND money from your money.
If they were a nice company like Google, one or the other would be free if you used both eBay and Paypal on a given sale, but like most greedy coroporations they don't care about making their customers happy, they care about making the maximum amount of money from their customers. [/rant]
Question everything
I personally believe that "black" is a pefectly acceptable, descriptive word, just as "white" is.
-----
I don't know about you, but unless you're a member of KISS, your skin is probably pink, just like mine.
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
why can't a public forum also do so without getting flamed for violating free speech? It seems like their is not much reward in allowing that and other words to be spoken or typed.
;)
What do you mean reward? That's _exactly_ the line between freedom and censorship - you don't like the word, fine. But please don't try to tell me what words I should and should not use.
The dynamics of yelling FIRE in a theater are similar to saying the F word in front of children
No they ain't!. The former might result in a panic and thus people actually being hurt. Who you say fuck in front of is a manner of your personal fucking taste.
I guess darwin will take care of it in time anyway.
If only evolution always followed what I think is right...
Yowcow is VERY shadey. They fund the paypalsucks.com website. That is a very low thing to do.
I did a story about the problems that paypalsucks and yowcow pose.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
It's has been and will continue to be my position that people sufficiently illiterate to confuse the words niggardly or reneged with a racial slur are the ones who need to be removed. Changing the language to avoid offending the ignorant is NOT a good thing.
PayPal isn't the only service on the block. Nor is it the first.
Just use Kagi.com
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
Or better yet, we could all learn the proper definitions of the words.
Oh wait, that assumes the liability of effort onto the part of the ignorant. You're right, let's outlaw uncommon words that sound vaguely similar to common offensive words. I hearby renege all uncommon words and niggardly parse to you all a cleansed vocabulary.
Oops!
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.
I bet if paypal had to pay credit-card interest (through legislation) on locked accounts, you would see many if all of the problems go away.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
I watched a special on money.. Most people that the guy went to thought it was real money, even though it was just liberty money..
I was interested in this 'money'. So I went to there site. Learned a little about.. Everything that I was learning about it just seemed so Anti-Government. Such as You don't have a to pay taxes.. Know what taxes keep this country going.. If you arn't going to pay taxes (honestly) Then get out. I don't want to pick up your burden because you found a "legal out" while legal isn't ethical.
Another thing I found was that it is a backed currency, Joy so I can trade in my liberty notes for silver.. Tell me how is that going to help me if I need food. As for the dollar being fiat so what so is silver. Silver has no value unless it can be used for something usefull. When you get down to it no many is really value backed unless it is accepted.. So if everyone needs food but all they have is silver.. Silver is useless.. ( Unless it's being used as a conductive)
I will not accept liberty money.. And again I hate how they try to pass it off as "regular money"
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.
When it works, it works great.
Its how they handle problems that is the problem.
Here in australia, I can log into my online banking and transfer money directly to any australian bank account with any other bank.
If banks worldwide got together and made that possible for the entire world (just think of all the Bank Fees they would be able to charge for the privilage) it would put an end to crap like Paycrud.
Oh ye of little faith and lotsa blindness :-)
a nd sign up for an account :-)
The reason many e-gold-accepting sites look pretty poor is because they are almost always owner-designer-operator jobs of someone doing it all himself. You are comparing a garage sale with a frigging strip mall and then wonder why there is no cafeteria in the garage.
I haven't come accross any pedophilia or similar pervert sites accepting e-gold in quite a while. There were a few early in the year but the more respectable 'exchangers' and their association made it difficult for them to get their ill-gotten gains out of the system.
There is an entire casino site, built specifically for e-gold and other online currency users, which doing rather well for itself. Of course, they are actually pros and not one of the cut and paste carder jobs the web is rampant with.
Lastly, there are 1.5 million e-gold accounts, about half of which are funded, which isn't huge, but sizeable.
Credit cards are pro consumer, charge backs are easy for buyers, fraud is rampant.
e-gold is pro-merchants, charge backs are impossible, fraud is reasonably moderate, and e-gold does react to complaints by suspending accounts, but you need a court order to get more details.
PayPal is pro PayPal. The charge back from both ends, play buyers against sellers and keep the loot from both sides. At least that is what used to happen quite frequently.
Imagine you sell some kit for a grand and six months later PayPal grabs a grand from your bank account and tells you the charge was reversed, because the buyer was a crook. Imagine then you personally know the buyer and know he's not a crook. Worse, imagine the buyer calls you and tells you that P(r)ayPal took the money off his account and off the account of someone who had bought something from him earlier, as well.
That used to be PayPal. I'm not sure if they still are, but it did happen to us, so I believe every single word at www.paypal-warning.com
Now go to
http://www.e-gold.com/e-gold.asp?cid=310408