Purogamer said:
I never understood people's problem with paypal. What do you guys think is unsafe about it?
They act like a bank. They serve as a bank. They handle money like a bank. They have no regulation, oversight, or accountability of a bank. There have been numerous cases where people have had their entire accounts, with all the money, permanently locked out never to see it again. Check out paypalsucks.com for some plesure reading.
There was a Hurricane Katrina relief fund set up by SomethingAwful.com that raised over $20,000 in a day from that site's visitors. Paypal locked the account and prohibited any money being withdrawn for a donation. When SA.com tried to just get Paypal to donate it directly to the ARC, they refused and said it could only go to United Way.
I'm not saying that Paypal is inheriently bad, I'm just saying that it's a lot more risky then say a credit card transaction with a merchant because you must give up a lot of your rights and protections that a credit card use can give you.
Tying a personal bank account to Paypal also is, imho, unwise. I have a bank account in one of my toddler's names that has essentially no balance. I tied my very rarely used paypal account to that one so that they have no access to my regular savings and checking accounts.