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PayPal's 'Policy Update' Includes Price Hikes (paypal.com)
"Buying and selling items on the internet is about to get a bit more expensive if you use PayPal to transfer money," reports MLive, noting that some of PayPal's fees will be increasing on March 29. Slashdot reader
turbotalon also complains PayPal is disguising news of the price hikes as a "policy update".
Roughly one quarter of the "policy changes" are rate hikes, yet their emailed summary glosses over the rate hike, focussing instead on a few of the "policy changes" with one sentence at the end about "changing some of the fees we charge". Additionally, they have added a "non-discouragement clause" for sellers that provides:
"In representations to your customers or in public communications, you agree not to mischaracterize PayPal as a payment method. At all of your points of sale (in whatever form), you agree not to try to dissuade or inhibit your customers from using PayPal; and, if you enable your customers to pay you with PayPal, you agree to treat PayPal's payment mark at least at par with other payment methods offered."
"In representations to your customers or in public communications, you agree not to mischaracterize PayPal as a payment method. At all of your points of sale (in whatever form), you agree not to try to dissuade or inhibit your customers from using PayPal; and, if you enable your customers to pay you with PayPal, you agree to treat PayPal's payment mark at least at par with other payment methods offered."
So it is a mischaracterization for us to call it a payment method, but PayPal calls it a payment method. More to the point, if it isn't a payment method—a means of transferring money to someone in exchange for goods or services—then what the heck is it and why would anybody want to use it?
Somehow, this contract seems invalid to me, or at least guaranteed to reduce PayPal use significantly by preventing it from being characterized in any meaningful way.
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Sweden, like most of Europe has a payer initiated system. USA doesn't. Here, all transfers are started by the receiving side (payee), and then the payer (or bank or credit institution on behalf of the sender) have to approve it.
So a giro system isn't possible, and bank account numbers becomes private information to be guarded.
Yes, it's pretty damn backwards. Hell, a large portion of Americans still pay by cheque. And credit and debit cards still have a magnetic strip. Even those that have a chip still have the magnetic strip. And raised letters. As late as last year, I paid in a store where they rolled carbon paper over the card to get an imprint. No, I'm not kidding.
The bank I use (one of America's largest) doesn't even have two-factor authentication for its online banking, something my European bank had back in '98.
It's by far the most antiquated banking system I have encountered anywhere in the world, yet Americans believe they're the most advanced nation on the planet...
To Americans, PayPal seems like a miracle of convenience...