The real issue with credit cards and electronic transactions becomes time. Transactions occur within hours or at most a few days when you make a purchase electronically. In many instances you don't realize you have a problem until several days or weeks later. By that time, the money has been withdrawn from your account and transferred to the merchant. Too late to stop payment.
To get the ball rolling to get your money back can take several days and maybe weeks. According to PayPal, when you submit a claim to them, they take something like 45 days to investigate. During that time, they tell you that you should not get your bank involved or you risk having your account with PayPal closed. While PayPal is investigating, precious time is wasting away and with it, your consumer rights to get your money back can be decreasing. What incentive does PayPal have to aggressively pursue refund of your money from a merchant? None that I can see.
If your using a third party to insulate yourself from merchants, don't assume you have the same ability to get your money back as in the case of using a credit card purchase made directly to the merchant. Be aware and do your homework regarding what rights you have with the various methods of payment.
I had a bad experience with PayPal and would never use them, or recommend their service to anyone. They advertise that they increase the protection of your financial information because the merchant never has access to your bank information. Sounds good in theory.
To make a long story short using PayPal as a third party to process transactions may, in my opinion and experience SEVERLY limit your consumer rights to process a refund through your bank by the "chargeback" process. When I submitted a request to my bank to process the refund the only information my bank could "see" was PayPal, so they processed an electronic refund from PayPal, not the merchant who had my money. You try and explain to a bank that you paid through PayPal. Most of them have never heard of PayPal. Needless to say I went through a couple rounds of trading money in my bank account and PayPal account.
My advice is that you research what your rights are when you make a purchase using your bank debit card versus your credit card. They are not the same with all banks. Don't assume that your rights to obtain a refund after using a credit card in conjunction with the PayPal service are the same as using your credit card alone. You do have rights when making a credit card purchase, but there are time limits and also distance requirements that dictate how long you have to initiate a claim. It is my opinion that PayPal interferes with those rights. I am surprised they have not been sued over those issues.
From now on I will only use my credit card to make purchases online. I was finally successful in getting my money back. After PayPal had given up, I maintained a weekly email and letter writing campaign to the company and they finally sent me a check.
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The real issue with credit cards and electronic transactions becomes time. Transactions occur within hours or at most a few days when you make a purchase electronically. In many instances you don't realize you have a problem until several days or weeks later. By that time, the money has been withdrawn from your account and transferred to the merchant. Too late to stop payment.
To get the ball rolling to get your money back can take several days and maybe weeks. According to PayPal, when you submit a claim to them, they take something like 45 days to investigate. During that time, they tell you that you should not get your bank involved or you risk having your account with PayPal closed. While PayPal is investigating, precious time is wasting away and with it, your consumer rights to get your money back can be decreasing. What incentive does PayPal have to aggressively pursue refund of your money from a merchant? None that I can see.
If your using a third party to insulate yourself from merchants, don't assume you have the same ability to get your money back as in the case of using a credit card purchase made directly to the merchant. Be aware and do your homework regarding what rights you have with the various methods of payment.
I had a bad experience with PayPal and would never use them, or recommend their service to anyone. They advertise that they increase the protection of your financial information because the merchant never has access to your bank information. Sounds good in theory.
To make a long story short using PayPal as a third party to process transactions may, in my opinion and experience SEVERLY limit your consumer rights to process a refund through your bank by the "chargeback" process. When I submitted a request to my bank to process the refund the only information my bank could "see" was PayPal, so they processed an electronic refund from PayPal, not the merchant who had my money. You try and explain to a bank that you paid through PayPal. Most of them have never heard of PayPal. Needless to say I went through a couple rounds of trading money in my bank account and PayPal account.
My advice is that you research what your rights are when you make a purchase using your bank debit card versus your credit card. They are not the same with all banks. Don't assume that your rights to obtain a refund after using a credit card in conjunction with the PayPal service are the same as using your credit card alone. You do have rights when making a credit card purchase, but there are time limits and also distance requirements that dictate how long you have to initiate a claim. It is my opinion that PayPal interferes with those rights. I am surprised they have not been sued over those issues.
From now on I will only use my credit card to make purchases online. I was finally successful in getting my money back. After PayPal had given up, I maintained a weekly email and letter writing campaign to the company and they finally sent me a check.