Cant subscribe with confidence

Hi

I am a frustrated wannabe subscriber for the on line version of MEW but the only payment facility offered is an archaic form to enter all you precious personal and card details. Naturally I am reluctant to use this method. If you offered me Paypal which offers me a lot of protection and confidence then you would have a new faithful subscriber

Any advice pls

Robin

Robin,

Subscribe over the phone .... and give your cc details etc to a human!

From my experience I think that Paypal actually offers you less protection.

Dave

If you're not going to use your credit card on the Internet, what are you going to use it for ?

Each time you use it in a store , restaurant etc. they have all your details. I've used mine on the 'Net for 15 years, & have had no problems whatsoever. My purchases run into many hundreds of items.

Mike.

Hi Dave can you tell us why you think Paypal offers less protection?

Robin,

All you personal details, Name, address, email address, credit card and bank details are held by PayPal ONLINE.

When you pay by paypal all your name and address details etc (Not CC details) are sent to the vendor. (So no different to filling in a online form. (The vendor has to destroy the CC details once the transaction is complete, unless you give permission otherwise , I don't think it has to destroy your PayPal account details) The vendor may or may not keep your address details.

I don't think Paypal security check any transactions, so every payment request goes through, I know the CC companies do as they do look at patterns etc (and put suspect transactions on hold). Also with CC's you will often have to ender a password when the order is being processsed (Verified by Visa etc)

If your Paypal account get hacked, your accounts will be emptied ... and you have to prove that it is not you .... (Not a easy task) If you loose you card, most card companies will refund you.

So in my view Credit/Debit Card is more secure.

Now the main issue --- If you have a problem ... try getting a refund from PayPal ... The CC company (or Bank) are usually not interested as they are dealing with (in effect) another bank.

I have had the situation where paying for something with Paypal which was then refunded as the supplier could not supply ... The refund payment was rejected by paypal ... no reasons given ... in the end the supplier had to send me a cheque ... Paypal were just not interested, they had got their fee.... (Which they did not refund to the supplier)

Don;t get me wrong .... I still use Paypal as it is quick and easy ... but I am quite happy in paying online with my Credit/Debit Card ... after all the likes of Amazon don't accept Paypal.

Dave

Hi Dave

You are right, a lot of personal information probably is sore against your wishes. Data mining is a serious problem and you don't know where your details are being passed to, sold on etc.

Many e-tailers try to get you to sign up for an account by given them all your valuable personal info. I resist this as far as possible. A bad example is Screwfix, who wont tell you on line if an item is in stock at a branch till you sign up. I just ring them up instead.

I think Paypal got a bad name a few years back for foul play and being uncontactable. That was when they were based solely in the US - figures. But consider, Ebay couldn't function without Paypal as the merchant banker, Remarkably it does have a very sobering effect on buyer and seller. Paypal have got me a refund for non delivery, fairly quick, even though the seller didnt respond. So I gave him a neutral mark. I have a few hundred trades now with 99% success which is very credible really. I also have a registered account with Amazon and they run their own similar system

I am comfortable with both of them but Paypal does have its control freak quirks which I try to keep at arms length. Lets face it, if Paypal starts playing up now with more than a million trades per day, the whole world would soon know about it and their credibility would collapse overnight.

If you really want to get paranoid, I could relate my experience of identity theft and a fraudulent maxed out credit card, but I guess that kind of incident is too common for interest here

Cheers

Robin

Robin, for what it's worth, I attempt to use fax now, or telephone, for such transactions. My wife and I don't do Internet banking.

This is from someone who was "heavily involved" with the Arpanet, the transition to the Internet, and, setting up the domain name system for a certain ex-colony across the atlantic. (My NIC handle was JS597, if you want to go back and check!) I'm still very involved with the technical stuff on a research basis.

Yes, sometimes I use PayPal. Yes, sometimes I call in credit info, sometimes I set up accounts with suppliers on-line. Nothing is secure, but I'm more willing to use the fax machine now than I was 20 years ago.

I also actually *like* talking to people more than I did 20 years ago; everything seems to be going away from personal contact, so I now refuse "automated" checkouts at supermarkets and hardware stores, for instance. (I think quite a few people think the same)

For what it's worth - Another JohnS

Hi JS

I used to use a fax and have still got it on a shelf. Its the best way to get a CEO's attention. Emails are simply trashed. However I can't leave it plugged in cos when the computer dialers find a P tone, you get swamped with junk mail that eats up your fax roll overnight and overloads your memory and rejecting calls, so its not reliable as a receiver, I found. Pity it used to be a good system.

I too have dumped on line billing and banking. They all have different log in protocal and its a pain. I get snail mail bills and statements which I can check and file in a heartbeat, no pain

Its not that easy to talk to people without hanging on telephone menus wasting your time

But if you want to buy something they are with you in 2 shakes of a lamb's tale

The natives are revolting however

Cheers

Robin

(just cos Im paranoid, doesn't make me wrong)

Hi John

I think your life must be simpler than mine! I can't imagine how life would work without the ubiquitous credit card! In the last 20 (?) years I've had only one problem with card fraud, which was reimbursed by the card company, and only one ebay transaction ( from over 600) where goods failed to arrive - Paypal speedily credited my account. Yes it's important to be aware but how would the world work today if all transactions were by cash or cheque?

Fax machines? - a distant bad memory- I've not seen one for years. It was the beginning of the end - before its introduction my boss would write to me with a query which I could then kick around for a few days ( it hasn't arrived yet etc.) before replying. The Fax machine was the start of the rot and soon to be overtaken by the ******* internet computer which demands instant response!

I do share your dislike of the automated checkout - where is the "Customer Care" in this process and where are all the folk who used to have a job manning the tills?

Cheers

Norman

Edited By NJH on 02/11/2012 16:48:24

I loathe these self service check outs. They always go wrong and a lady has to be standing by to fix it. How smart is that?

Imagine we have a BnQ diy superstore on a trading estate nearby and I hate the place. They make you enter at one end and exit wya down the other end so you will walk past their precious aisles .Its the size of an aircraft hangar for two jumbo jets. Yet the store only has 2 lady check outs and 4 auto checkouts. They try hard to coerce you into using their autos, saying they will help you use the mc.

No way, I walked on to the Lady check out (with no lady as they were all busy fixing the autos that froze trying to read bar codes in amateur hands. After an unacceptable waits, I left a baskets of goods there and went away empty handed (havent been back since). But think what does that tell you about the economy? So few customers - warning sign there I think as builders merchants are regarded as a barometer of the economy..

Maddeningly, there are some who seem to have taken to the system in my local ASDA, but can they control their kids and stop them pressing all the buttons and running throught the shoplifting gates setting off the alrms, what a great game

Thats when I have a Meldrew Moment

**LINK**

Robin

Robin ,

I have been a digital subscriber for a couple of years and had no problem with the system in place .

I purchase equipement from all over the globe using a similar system as MEW uses and the paypal system .

So far i have had no problems with either and i have had refunds deposited into my account by paypal with no problems .

You could of course use a debit card with minimal funds on it or transfer the required amount to it when you wish to purchase something over the internet after all they cant steal what isn't there !

My friends next door neighbour had her card scanned whith a handheld devce at a petrol station when she was paying for fuel and the account was raided .

Pitty the person who did it was not aware she is a cop !

The return visit to the petrol station would have been interesting !

Ian