Slashdot Mirror
PayPal Predicts the End of the Wallet By 2015
BogenDorpher writes "As new technology emerges, one can safely assume that the days of carrying a wallet will soon end. In fact, PayPal believes that by the year 2015, no one will be carrying a wallet anymore. Instead, mobile payment methods will be taking over."
The broker for those payments isn't PayPal, what a horrible company.
Wallets aren't only used to carry money or credit cards.
Is full of shit! (Can I say that here?)
it starts off:
As new technology emerges, one can safely assume that the days of carrying a wallet will soon end.
control-w.
who greenlighted this crap??
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Nice. It's a good thing I only use my wallet for cash, and not frivolous other stuff like a driver's license.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
While I never carry money any more, I'm confident I'll still be using a wallet to carry various cards, credit cards, library cards, ID's...
If it rhymes it must be true.
... they are certified as a bank, and are required to offer the same protections and liabilities as one. I've never had problems with PayPal, but I've heard horror stories of lost money and account freezes with no real hope on recovering what you lost.
Every conversation I've had recently about Paypal was a.) Brought up by the person I was talking with, not me b.) revolved around how much they hated PayPal, and would rather write transfer/check/trade sheep anything but use them again.
mov ah, 4ch
int 21h
Not if PayPal is the middle-man.
Gone!
Cash will ALWAYS exist. Whether out of the desire for anonymity, the convenience or the underground economy.
Isn't a traditional wallet a 'mobile payment method'?
instead of wallets, he thinks everyone will be carrying man-purses like him by 2015
no one respects paypal, no one trusts them. they won't come clean and be a proper bank (and I use the term 'proper' very loosely).
who the hell cares what some microblog says about what paypal thinks? news flash: greedy ceo's dream of taking over the world. film at 11.
crap article to create panic (and page refreshes). this really should have been filtered, slashies.... please do a better job picking the greenlit articles next time.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Yep, an my employer will still require receipts for expense reports. Now it 2015 wallets will be gone and I will have to carry a damn man purse.
Better buy a stock of wallets to have a supply after 2015.
You're on line at the supermarket, and the little old lady in front of you with her eggs and cheese is asked for her loyalty/discount card. Do you think she'll be faster pulling out a piece of plastic, or navigating through her mobile phone from menu to menu to app to option? And the same again if she's paying by credit card.
Credit/debit payments are gaining a foothold, but it's going to be a loooooong time until we even consider a cashless society.
And there's few things more enjoyable than giving real cash to a little niece or nephew.
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
Yes, and a jetpack in every domehome.
Great for card processors who get money from every transaction, bad for businesses especially smaller ones with a high volume but low $ transactions (like coffee places)
in a wallet, and I dont have a wallet.
I must be from the future, where ppl carry dont have wallets.
I am sry, but what kind of forecast is this!!
The lunatic is in my head
It's a good thing I use a money clip then. I will never have anything to do with Paypal, in fact I no longer buy anything on ebay becouse everything seems to be Paypal only.
Star Trek, there maybe hope.
That PayPal will become the indispensable service without which, you will die, your children will be eaten by wild animals, and hellfire will rain down from the heavens.
Are they planning an IPO or something?
Maker of a technology predicts said technology will become ubiquitous.
Wallets predict the end of PayPal by Square (and any other credit card processors who make it easier to accept credit cards than deal with PayPal's nightmareishness).
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Wallet believes that by the year 2015, no one will be using Paypal anymore.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
"Also, who trusts the telecompanies with their money?"
Yep, banks are a lot more trustworthy.
Never Gonna Happen
The illegal market depends on cash too much. If they took away cash people would start carrying around platinum, gold, silver and copper coins again as well as having funds deposited in foreign currency and the US government won't let that happen. China will go paperless long before the US does.
A wallet is used for more that just money and credit cards. There are driver licenses, club cards, insurance cards, even pictures.
In the sprit of the article, lets keep to the money theme:
1. Most people do NOT have a smart phone.
2. In 2015 there will still be billions of people worldwide without computers, bank accounts, credit cards, or smart phones. Or wallets or pockets for the wallets. Cash is king.
3. Cash will not disappear by 2015.
4. As a world traveler I cannot consolidate to a single credit card that is accepted in all places and by all ATMs. There are other problems that have to be fixed first.
5. Local governments and policy makers are too slow. Not every country can adapt by 2015.
6. Local infrastructure takes too long to change.
7. The first security breach will set it back years.
8. Competing standards. See #4 for an example.
9. Mobile roaming charges too expensive or unavailable.
10. I cannot live without cash. I am close, but cash as a backup, esp. when traveling worldwide is a very good backup have. Years after the credit/bank/debit card, cash is still used in every country. Until you can eliminate cash, you'll never lose the wallet.
Sorry officer, my drivers license is in the cloud which is currently undergoing an unscheduled upgrade. As soon as I get an email that it's available again, I will be sure to let you know.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
You can't buy sex or drugs and keep it a secret without cash. Good luck.
Beware! On behalf of everyone I know, I say: Yeah, right.... There's nothing to see here, move along
Democracy: Crowdsourcing a country near you
Yea, because everyone has a mobile phone that has mobile payment application abilities, and nobody carries their drivers licence, library card, business cards, insurance cards, personal photos, etc. Dumbasses.
Where is the mod rating for "scary"? Also,
Please, oh PLEASE someone, ANYONE, give me an alternative to PayPal.
Bitcoins? :-)
Condoms.
Have gnu, will travel.
I still need my DL.
That said, I would love to only need it for that. In fact, I would love to not need a wallet at all and have it all in my smart phones.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Given the existing weak links in the electronic retail financial chain, and the added weak link of a cell phone, I suspect wallets will make a big come back after a goodly fraction of the mobile payment system users get their checking account cleaned out and/or their debit account treated as someone else's personal piggybank.
Luke, help me take this mask off
Yes, but their marketing piece would not have gotten so much attention if they stated "by 2015 we are hoping that a few more people will actually use Paypal".
This post comes with a double-your-money-back guarantee!
Any offense taken to this post is at your sole discretion.
What makes me smirk every time I hear the phrase "mobile wallet" and how it's new and revolutionary, is the fact that my wallet currently is mobile. My wallet is smaller than my smart phone and goes with my everywhere. My wallet and has never been not mobile. (Appologies for the double negative)
handing over a handful of notes is really quite efficient. You don't need any other technology or network connection or anything, don't need to type anything in, and the "hacks" or nearest equivalent (picking pockets, and so on) are well understood and so can be guarded against easily.
A lot of people drive, and if you do then you have to carry your Drivers License and vehicle Registration.
It's also a darn good idea to carry your health insurance card in case you're injured and unable to respond.
If you're an Amateur Radio operator, you're supposed to carry your Ham license with you.
And then there's credit cards, business cards, etc.
Sadly, I still think we need a wallet and/or a purse.
Considering the technology, paying by phone is a bit crazy because there's no way to verify the owner. A credit card has a signature on it, and some come with a photo on them. What do you get on the phone? If there's no way to even vaguely catch fraud and identity theft, then how is paying by Phone supposed to become ubiquitous? Is FRAUD also supposed to become ubiquitous?
Nothing in the story covers this. Until someone comes up with a solution for this, I'm not even vaguely interested in Payment By Phone.
Paypal is right. I hardly ever carry a wallet. I just put it in a device called a back pocket (conveniently built into my pants), and the wallet is with me wherever I go. The times I need to pay someone while not wearing pants is nigh on infinitesimal.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
http://www.clickandbuy.com/
So I have 4 years to buy a cellphone, huh? D: It's a good thing I don't use my wallet for identification or anything!
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
I haven't carried a wallet in 10 years. Money clip is all you need, really. What do you need besides your license and a couple credit cards? Why carry all that crap around?
Criminals will not want to use e-money, but I think a lot of people will get creeped out when they buy something, and 10 seconds later they are texted a coupon for a store next door, for something they were Googling about last week. Don't get me wrong - some people will absolutely love that. But not everyone will. I wouldn't, which is why I intend to keep carrying cash.
Subject headlines are
Wishful thinking is the driving force of e-commerce.
If you use a little bank instead of a mega bank? Then yes they are.
I use my debit online often simply because I have a great bank and don't have to worry, because if anyone overcharges or double dips I just walk in and go "Hey Karen guess what? Somebody double dipped when I bought a part online" and she'll go "Ooooh don't you just hate that? My husband bought some tools online last month and that tried that, that's so irritating! Here just let me bring this up...is it this one where there is two back to back? Okay just let me type this...voila! your money is back where it belongs!" and I thank Karen and go on about my way.
So yeah you can find trustworthy banks out there, it just takes a little more work. I can't use ATMs in most places without paying the fee since my bank is a little local shop, but having hassle free banking with friendly folks is worth it to me. It is also nice to go into a bank and have them know you by name and ask about your family, and treat you like a person instead of a walking cash register.
As for TFA after getting burnt by Paypal if I had to trade in goats heads and cheese instead of money to keep from doing business with that bunch of scammers I would. every person I've talked to has been burnt at least once by them and got basically told "We got paid so fuck right off" and promptly ignored. Not if they were the last source of money on earth and were giving away hookers and blow with each new account.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Cash doesn't require batteries! You can have all the money in the world sitting on a website, but when the phone goes dead, guess what, so do you chances of paying with Paypal mobile app. At least your debit card can't go dead. I don't want to be standing on the side of the road somewhere, trying to beg people for a charge so I can pay the tow truck company. No thanks. You are pretty much SOL at that point.
by 2015 mobile phones will be small enough to carry in wallets..
Moneybookers?
Paypal says wikileaks should be gone even earlier than that!
Development is programmable; Discovery is not programmable. (Fuller)
My credit card and cash don't require internet access nor batteries to work.
for driving without a charged battery?
And the state is going to issue you your "smart device" and coincidentally reserve the right to regularly download everything on it to their servers?
And the state is going to supply homeless people with electricity and chargers for their devices because they also enforce "no existing in public without a state-issued ID" laws.
And the state is going to mandate DRM in all those smart devices so that nobody can display a "fake ID".
And its _all_ going to be universally in place in three years....
right....
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Has Netcraft confirmed this?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I may look like a bum, but I'm really a wealthy man. It's just that my battery ran down, and I have no way to get my money. Please, please help me.
More seriously, I bicycle to places with no cell phone service all the time. I am not going to rely on online services for everything.
Don't mess with The Phone Company. Piss them off and you'll be using two tin cans and a piece of string.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that PayPal hopes nobody will carry a wallet by 2015.
Unless pot is legal in 2015, I'll still need cash.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
Until they make some means of verifying ID via your iPhone, a wallet still has a place in anyone's pocket. My 7 year old Mythware wallet, which proclaims, "Anime: Crack is Cheaper" is a trooper and I won't be getting rid of it until it disintegrates.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
I expect to live longer than that.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
"Cash is king."
I don't want to carry a wallet. There is no room for it in my flying car. Now, let be go out to the warehouse out back and see if I can replace some tubes in my massive computer.
--- Liberty in our Lifetime
> Cash doesn't require batteries!
Yet. The Treasury has plans...
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
At the store checkout, stick out your back of your palm to the cashier. The cashier stamps your hand, and you take the goods. Next time you go to a bank, pay the bank and the bank teller rubs off the stamp on your hand. Transaction complete. No wallets required.
Reading between the lines, I'd say PayPal has plans to develop a digital condom.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Greece, Iceland, Slovakia, Spain, and a number of other countries, millions no longer need to carry a wallet, since they no longer have any cash.
To keep my e-banking card in.
No, it should be P****l. Shit is perfectly fine though.
... is anonymity.
And won't be going away any time soon.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
I've heard of Americans thinking that American laws apply all over the world, but now Europeans laws?
In Australia they aren't covered by the same rules and regulations as banks, and there are several banks which flat out refuse to offer them direct debit facilities to customer accounts for this reason.
Paypal is not a bank everywhere.
and the eBay they rode in on. I wouldn't do business with either of those cock suckers.
There will be wallets. Or at least money clips.
Paypal is not a bank everywhere.
In my opinion Paypal is not a bank anywhere. At best they have managed to play one in the EU.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal all have suspended payments to Wikileaks, and all would love to be the middle-man between your transactions.
Just wait until you no longer have a choice in the matter.
Nope, cash is king, and will always be king for me. I've had too many cards "flagged" for "suspicious activity" and locked when I try to use it. And by suspicious, I mean buying groceries at the same place I've always bought groceries for the past 5 years (this has happened to more more than once on multiple cards).
After dealing with that bullshit twice a month for a year, I cancelled my cards and just bring cash. Nobody ever turns down cash.
... that slashdot has jumped the editorial shark
Seriously, what's the bigram troll score on the word pair "safely assume", not even counting the contribution of "Paypal" in tilting the phrase context.
And then, if you progress to lexical data mining, where does "Paypal" wind up in the lexical activation map? Somewhere near "Taxjoy" if you ask me.
Taxjoy safely predicts the end of US government debt by 2015. We could make the taxation process even more convenient than Paypal by remitting 100% of earned income. After all, convenience is the only criteria in matters of wealth.
Do I really want to be stranded w/o cash just because I forgot to charge my battery or the phone stops working for some other reason? Credit cards work almost 100% of the time because even if they doesn't swipe, most places still have the ability to manually enter the numbers.
Arguments about using your wallet for things besides cash and credit cards aside, the bottom line is we will always need cash because you can't bribe a senator or judge from a medium that can be traced.
I live in the San Francisco Peninsula, within two blocks of a Vietnamese restaurant and a Japanese take-out place that take cash only. There's also plenty of restaurants that refuse to take credit cards for bills under either $15 or $20.
Are you adequate?
personal cheques, credit cards, debit cards and similar non-cash methods of payment are not usually legal tender. Coins and notes are usually defined as legal tender. Some jurisdictions may forbid or restrict payment made other than by legal tender.
what paypal is trying to do, is exactly the same what shops and businesses in the netherlands and finland are doing by not accepting the 1 eurocent coin.
that is illegal. coins and notes are defined as legal tender. businesses and shops are legally bound to accept these.
the only exception are large bank notes. business and shops have to accept everything else - starting with the 1 eurocent coin.
It appears that you're trying to spend your money to buy a Snickers from this PayPal vending machine. Unfortunately, we've recently detected someone trying to hack into your account. Please prove that you're you by tying PayPal to your bank account, and then transfer $50 to us which we will refund in your PayPal account.
It appears that you're trying to purchase a new t-shirt at the PayPal store. While you've tied your bank account to us, we've recently detected someone trying to hack into your account. Please prove that you're you by giving us your social security number which we won't use for anything other than your identification. We swear.
It appears that you're not spending any money with your PayPal app on your phone today. We have detected that you may be deceased. Please prove that you're still alive by calling our toll-free 1-800 number from 9 to 5 PM Central. But only after transferring $50 from your bank account to us, which we'll refund in your PayPal account.
The end of wallets?...in the future?...Is this like some sort of fanboy thing to explains why there's no pockets in Star Trek?
With that, couldn't a scammer walk anonymously though a crowd with a portable payment scanner, automatically charging people for small amounts that would be below a "pay without confirmation" threshold? Those little payments could add up pretty quickly.
Where do people ordinarily carry a tablet computing appliance or netbook if not in a purse or man-purse?
Their prediction of the wallet going away is completely unbiased. Just kidding! On top of all the useful comments here about the uses of wallets and all things related I certainly can't help but think the well is poisoned. Let me demonstrate... let's say I know someone named Kevin, who downloads music, movies, and games. If he could download a car he would do it. If he told me: "As new technology emerges, one can safely assume that the days of getting caught for downloading will soon end. In fact, I believe that by the year 2015, no one will be paying for music, movies, or games. Instead, pirates will be taking over." I would be hard pressed to believe him.
Life. Is. Good.
Are [PayPal] planning an IPO or something?
Do you mean is PayPal part of a well-known publicly traded entity? Yes. PayPal is part of eBay, which went public on September 21, 1998. Or do you mean eBay is planning to spin out PayPal into an independent company? Not likely.
PayPal will be a distant memory.
They'll sell you on this but read the fine print. Anything like this is set up for convenience and is guaranteed to have less protection than swiping a plain old credit card. That's why I hardly use debit. You don't have the same rights to dispute a debited charge because you used your pin. Consider all the stories we've seen in the first half of this year about groups hacking into credit card systems and stealing millions of cc numbers and pins. In fact I'm surprised the whole industry hasn't imploded by now. The credit card companies are not responsible with their own infrastructure so why would you trust them to safeguard your info. Storing pin's and account numbers in clear text?! Really?
"We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
Reports have begun to surface that I am projecting the end of PayPal as soon as 2012. Wishful thinking, most likely.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Paypal customer service was still at an utter loss for what to do if the online password reset doesn't work.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
They are grossly overestimating their own relevance. When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I use PayPal to receive money from others (because they insist on it). I also use credit cards. But it will be a cold, cold day in hell before I stop carrying a wallet, or cash.
this goes beyond normal marketing hype right in to the heart of blowtardary. ... maybe ... it's possible... I guess...
if by "no one" in its literal sense then they will fall short by probably 99.9999% of the worlds population.... you honestly expect me to be able to get off a plane in Columbo, Sri Lanka, and pay for a meal from a street vender with something that isn't Rupees or US Dollars? not going to happen by 2015 probably not going to happen by 2115.
if by "no one" they mean "no one in the western world" yeh um sure maybe by 2115
if by "no one" they mean "no one in the United States of America" meh.. maybe by 2020 at the earliest would be when the majority of people start using e-cash for more than, say, 95% of transactions by numerical volume rather than by value of purchases.
if by "no one" they mean "no one working for Pay Pal" then sure... all they have to do is on the 30th of december 2014 fire the 75% of their employees who didn't get the memo that wallets are passe... that would work.
fact is the only place this could possibly happen by 2015 is Singapore if they made it a law... now that would work...
and remember
if you outlaw wallets only outlaws will have wallets.
I haven't been all over europe, but the country I am accustomed to (germany for example) you can nowaday buy with the so called bank card everywhere (obviously not internationally going from germany to France, but everywhere in germany. Some place in france accept german bank card though, and I am pretty sure the contrary is true too). It is true it is harder with credit card for low amount, but that is missing that the bank card allow buying in 99% of the place , even for sum as low as 5 or 10 euro. Why use a fragging credit card then ? Heck there are even shop in germany (Rewe) which allows you to wishdraw CASH when you check out your grocery , and without fee, with your bank card.
As for your "have 600 euro in the wallet" , I have to wonder what your friend is doing with that. All my friends, all my colleagues, all my family at most take 100 to 150 euro in cash once every few week, for the small stuff where a bank card is not accepted or is way under a minimum. Many supermarket even abolished the "minimum".
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
There is no way the wallet will disappear until there is a universal service obligation on Paypal and other means of payment. Such an obligation will heavily penalise electronic payment providers if they withdraw service from specific users or their networks fail to deliver a reliable service.
Cash is reliable - that is why people use it. Nobody can stop me using cash to get things I need. Look what has happened to Wikileaks when certain US Governement people had a chat with Visa and Mastercard.
E-Cash might be a way around the control issue. BitCoin is interesting but has a few issues with scaling and anonymity - its pretty good though. The next iterations of E-Cash will draw heavily on the techniques of BitCoin and I'm sure will avoid a lot of the issues.
Andy
There are more...
Cash, and cards, are more tolerable to abuse compared to a phone.
You can throw it on the ground, or put it in water, and it's still usable.
Try that with a phone.
I think my subject line says it all. In fact if someone want to place a bet I'll take the it ain't happening line at 5 to 1 that at least 50% of people keep their wallet.
Seriously, how delusional can someone get with crack or what every they are smoking? The wallet as a cash carrying device will not go out of business anytime soon. But, I can understand that Paypal wants to have it that way in the future as this would imply that they can make a fortune out of it. What me puzzles is. When all transactions are done via a company and they get money from every transaction than that is some sort of a tax. I cannot do business without paying some strange company for nothing. So maybe central banks of the world should issue such system as a replacement for paper money. Cost free for the users of the money just like it is with the current money.
I don't like paying taxes to companies. It doesn't feel right.
From the source, not the blog writeup:
"We believe that by 2015 digital currency will be accepted everywhere in the U.S. – from your local corner store to Walmart. We will no longer need to carry a wallet."
There is a difference between "end of the wallet" and "no longer need to carry a wallet".
The former will not happen for several hundred years, physical currency has been in use too long in humankind existence for it to disappear that quickly. The latter I can agree with, if you can find a way to make my driver's license electronic so I can legally DRIVE to said store and then PURCHASE items which normally require ID. Otherwise, not gonna happen.
This story is not real news. It is like looking into a Crystal Ball and pretending to be a psychic. This is nothing more than pure speculation. This is how the propaganda machine works, plant a seed, let it grow, create hysteria of this is what is going to happen and yet you believe it.
This is what the New World Order is all about. My friend who works for paypal and whom shall remain nameless says this is total and utter bullshit.
Conversely, by 2015 US dollar is worthless, The Euro is Worthless, lets invent a new international currency driven by the IMF. I say fuck you, I am staying with my Pounds Sterling thank you.
All cows eat grass!
This is good. I take it to really mean that we'll see the end of PayPal by 2015.
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats
Possibly the end of carrying physical money though.
is that you
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
To be more accurate, that blurb says that your account balance is not covered by the AGDL deposit insurance, which insures your deposits against an insolvency of the holding institution. If my real bank went bust today, I'd get the money on my account back from a central insurer. Doesn't work the same way for PayPal.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
Yeah, when I call PayPal I get through pretty quick too...to someone reading a script named "Tawm" who's enjoying the lovely *checks weather in India* 27 degrees and light rain.
Sorry, but if your resolution is not in their script, you can assume panic mode because you know this won't end well.
Around the same time, you see. And secure electronic voting, too. And also, pigs flying out of my ass.
My IQ dropped just reading the summary. If I click on TFA, I think I won't make it to 2015 because I will be declared legally braindead. This may be my new IQ speaking, though.
Seriously. We still haven't done away with mag-stripe cards in the US. What the hell makes PayPal think their products are so good that we'll do away with the only convenient way to carry our paleolithic cards? We are proud dinosaurs, and our (real) banks are amongst the most conservative set of last adopters in the world. You can poke this prediction with a stick and it's still not going anywhere.
As I noted on the original article (and expanded here) , if I give a hot dog vendor $3 for a hot dog and a soda, the vendor gets the whole $3. First, a vendor is not going to accept being charged 35c to process a $3 transaction. (Based on the typical transaction cost of 34c+3% of the transaction, which is what Google Payments or Paypal charges me, which would be a minimum of 35c) Get that down to 10-12c and it will probably be acceptable. Second, we need to have nationwide ubiquitous wireless internet to allow our prototypical hot-dog vendor to be able to handle transactions where they would need to handle it through some sort of system that doesn't charge a fee for message processing, unlike cellular networks who would ding the vendor for a text message fee to and from the charge processor. Third, the price to have the processing equipment has to come down, a hot dog vendor is not going to accept a minimum $30 per month service charge to be able to swipe credit cards when they can handle cash for free.
The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
As long as online payment institutions remain unregulated, then their idea of 'banking' is a joke. I find the possibility of online payment systems taking over in their current form highly unlikely, and frankly, downright laughable. Literally every single person I know has been burned by paypal in one form or another. Whether being forced to wait as paypal decided to hold funds for an indeterminate amount of time, to having their accounts frozen and loosing funds forever. As long as that remains the status quo, paypal (and other systems like it) will remain a novelty. It is far easier to scam someone out of funds using paypal than it is to rob people at gunpoint, and it's more anonymous too. Personally, I think paypal is a haven for crime, with the institution itself being the largest culprit, but that is just me.
Sorry Mr. Bar Bouncer Guy. I don't have an ID because carrying a wallet is so 2011. But I do have this digital ID picture on my smartphone, and I promise it's not fake even thought you would have absolutely no way to tell if it was.
I wonder if they're taking into account all the little indian-owned gas stations that will illegally refuse to accept a credit/debit card and require you to pay cash if you're just buying a 99 cent soda?
And I totally agree re: eBay/Paypal. I wish them a fiery death. I sold my old iPhone on eBay earlier this year, it got damaged in shipping, and Paypal gave the guy his money back. Even though the package was insured. They didn't even make him send the phone back so I could at least file an insurance claim with UPS and get my money back. So...shafted out of $200. So, after they stole my $200, I sent them an inquiry through their website, a couple days later I got an email basically saying sorry we haven't gotten back to you yet, then another few days later, another email saying gosh, we're real sorry but we just don't have time to answer your e-mail, so we consider the matter closed. If you still have a problem contact our level 1 phone support lackeys who have absolutely no authority to do anything that will help you and cannot escalate your request to anyone else that can. I tried submitting the form again as well as e-mailing my complaint to every conceivable e-mail alias @paypal.com and got the exact same response, so I'm guessing that's just their SOP. Give customers the shaft, ignore their complaints, lock every eBay transaction into using Paypal, PROFIT!