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UK Government To Use PayPal For Identity Assurance
judgecorp writes "A UK government contract has confirmed earlier reports that British citizens will have the option to use PayPal to accredit themselves for public services such as the new Universal Credit benefit system. Using PayPal might be a public relations goof, as PayPal's parent eBay is notoriously clever at avoiding UK taxes, recently paying only £1.2 million on profit of £789 million (around 0.15 percent)."
It's not their fault, it's the Parliament making crappy laws, albeit most of them are lawyers, they either suck or are bought.
Paypal is a bank and like all banks they avoid paying taxes like the pest.
"Barclays Bank told by Treasury to pay £500m avoided tax"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17181213
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/10/18/banks-to-avoid-19bn-tax-bill-despite-bailout/
http://goodbanking.org.uk/archives/684
Far more interesting than their effective tax rate would be how much of that money was stolen from their users?
These folks love to freeze accounts and sieze money for any reason they can find. Paypal should be regulated as a bank.
And when paypal puts your account on hold or someone deletes it then what?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Paypal have me blacklisted and refuse to take payments from me.
Tried buying something last week, seller's website said "VISA/Mastercard" so I used my credit card. Refused. Used my other credit card. Refused. Checked with both card companies: Neither had been asked to authorise payment.
Got a friend to buy on my behalf. He paid with credit card; got a bill from PayPal.
It all goes back to the first time I tried using my card to buy something online from a seller that used Paypal for their card payments. I entered my details, was told payment had been taken, then got an email asking me to provide details for my Paypal account.
I said no. Then I found out that Paypal had already debited my card, but were holding onto the cash instead of sending it through to the seller.
So I wrote to them telling them to send the money through. They refused. So I wrote to them telling them to give my money back. They refused. So I contacted VISA, the OFT and my card supplier stating fraudulent activity.
I got my money back. Paypal blacklisted me. Not a major problem really, except for idiots that use them as their sole card payment solution.
I need to hit them with a SAR, find out what their system says about me. But using them to ID myself to the Government? Not a fucking hope. Which is frankly a good thing.
Why would anyone trust a company that pretends to be a bank, but is not regulated like a bank, and so can disappear your money in an instant and leave you whistling in the wind for YOUR money? Did the government somehow find if difficult to find a company more trusted?
Take Nobody's Word For It.
Not just Europe -- the SWIFT system is used internationally, you can look up US banks on the same website. It only identifies the institution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9362
An IBAN identifies an account: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_13616
On my online banking (British account), if I were to transfer money to a US account I need the SWIFT code and the account number (and addresses). To transfer money to an Austrian account I need the IBAN and (for some reason) the SWIFT code, but not any other numbers.
(Only the local number is printed on my cheques -- of which I've used one in the last four years -- but the SWIFT code and IBAN are printed on all my statements, and also online.)