mrs. fitz

I used Paypal once years ago on an eBay purchase and there was a problem (don't recall what it was). I've never used it again and have missed out on some good eBay items because most of the sellers seem to require it. Reading this thread has really made me glad I haven't used it. Good luck to all of you that have had these difficulties.

leighway

In keeping with the tone of this thread, I have noticed and commented to my husband that I only seem to get Virus Alerts from quilting sites or quilting blogs. It's possible that scammers/hackers/thieves have figured out that quilters are often older and not too savvy regarding the workings of online purchases and technology.
I spend a GREAT deal of time online and we do almost all our shopping online. The only time we seem to have a problem is when we use our cards at local restaurants...but do be aware regarding the viruses found on quilting sites and blogs. Keep those anti-virus programs updated!

MargeD

Good information to know - hope you recover your money, that's a big drain on your account to be sure.

fmhall2

Some months back we were notified that we had a $1500 charge to our Discover card (used by Pay Pal) and the charge was in England. We wee not in England and they took care of the charge, but I have been cautious using Pay Pal ever since, even though I do use it for the QB.

SoBuzy

Great advice. Thank you!!

cactusmomma

Just checked and mine is closed. Thanks for the information. I had a bad experience with Old Pueblo Traders. I placed an order, gave them my debit card information to pay for the transaction. They opened a OPT credit card and I did not realize it. Ran my bill up to four times what the original purchase was before I figured out what happened. I'm contacting them to get this taken care of. I like OPT but I'll never order from them again if they don't fix this. My purchase was minimal and there was no reason I would want it on a credit card. Why does everything have to be so deceptive and complicated.

jeanharville

Thanks to all of you for posting your experiences. I won't buy from an online business that doesn't use paypal because I have thought it was safer to have my credit card in one place rather than scattered in several places. However, I do think I'll get a low balance card like some of you suggested. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Prism99

Just wanted to stress the importance of *logging out* of PayPal instead of just closing the browser window (which is what I have been doing). I just went into my PayPal account to do a shipping label. Finished the label and closed the browser window. Then I thought I'd better go back and see if I was still logged in. I was! Now I'm always going to check.

QKO

Just a note on using low or no-balance or cash-loaded cards:

Some credit card companies, like Capitol One for instance, require a re-authorization if the total amount of the charge changes in any way. The original authorization, made when you placed the order, isn't dropped for several days or weeks until it expires.

In practice, what that means is that if you only have a balance that covers your order, the re-authorization will fail and the merchant will not be able to close the transaction.

Here's an example of how that works: You have a pre-loaded card with $125 on it and your order totals $120, including shipping charges. The merchant is authorized to charge you $120 when she closes the transaction (usually when the order is shipped).

Then, when the merchant does the final shipping cost calculation, your total charge turns out to be $115. When the merchant goes to close the transaction (capture the funds) the transaction fails because the total amount to be charged has changed, and the card company considers this a "new" transaction, requiring a new authorization. Since you only have $5 remaining on your card balance (even though the original $120 is still there) the transaction fails.

So, if you're using pre-loaded or cash deposit cards (or even regular credit cards where your balance is close to max), you should check to see if this is the case with your card, and if so, always keep double the amount of the transaction available, if there is any chance that your order total will be adjusted.

maggiek

I had my credit card stolen and the person used it to get a Paypal cash advance of $200. Paypal would not refund the money and the credit card company refused to deal with it since it was Paypal. Net result, I lost $200. I will never deal with Paypal in the future as a result of this refusal to deal with an obvious fraud. Also moved my credit card from American Express to another provider.