Wondering what is the safest way to pay when buying over the internet. WITHOUT using a credit card?

*I have been reluctant to buy anything that I can't pay for with the credit card.

 

Paypal.com

 

I have heard complaints about paypal not getting your $$ back, not sure if its true or not?

 

I've got a paypal 'buyer account' now, being it was free. Still looking for a safer way to pay.

 

Cash on delivery.

 

Are you concerned about getting stiffed by the seller, or credit card fraud? With PayPal, I make sure to have a running e-mail dialog with the seller and try to get bead on the guy to make sure he's on the up and up. If he's interested in selling the item to me, he's going to answer my questions and numerous e-mails. As far as credit cards go, I do thousands per year on the web, and I've never encountered a problem. But unless you can hand the money to the seller after you first see and touch the item, you're taking a chance. It's a chance I accept though as a convenient way of shopping today.

 

PayPal is quite secure, and they are pretty good about getting you your money back if someone burns you. Why not pay with PayPal VIA credit card? Then you have two outs if you get stiffed....

PayPal is owned by eBay and it is DEFINATELY in their best interest to protect their customers. I have done many thousands of dollars of payments through PayPal with zero problems

 

I didn't think about using the credit card via paypal. What I understand though, the seller must have a paypal account in order for this to work?

 

I'm pretty sure they don't need an existing Paypal account, but they might be required to set one up in order to get paid. I've been using Paypal since before* it was Paypal, so I don't remember for sure how it works with new accounts. I think they can simply be notified via e-mail, set up a basic account, and have a check cut for them.

*(Used to be X.com, before it was Paypal)

 

X.com - old school

Same here I was on PayPal in like 1998? when they actually picked up the phone. I am very leary of paypal and never ever leave a dime in the account.

 

I don't buy high dollar items online so I just got a credit card with a really LOW limit that I use only for online and telephone purchases. If anything ever happened the crook would not be able to rack up any charges and I could just cancel the card.

 

Paypal handles to many accounts and transactions on a daily basis to be unsecure. They are the standard for online payments for person-to-person.

 

I leave a few dollars in it from time to time, but not that much. I'm not running a business through it or anything, but I do sell the occasional item on eBay. I usually just turn the money around on something I've bought within a few days or maybe weeks.

 

I personally won't trust PayPal to protect me from a bad seller. My own experience is that they will only refund your money IF they can get it back from the other person first. If the other person doesn't have a bank account on file with them or money in their PayPal account, PayPal will acknowledge that the other person is in the wrong but will tell you that they can't get any of your money back for you. (Note to sellers - don't let PayPal have access to your money or they may take it from you.)

My policy is that if I don't trust the seller to be honest, I won't use PayPal. There's a vendor on the Internet that I wanted to do business with but won't because I have no way to verify that they are legit and they accept only PayPal - no credit cards. Sorry but I won't risk my money like that.

My preference is to use a virtual credit-card number. The credit card company is my protection and the virtual card number helps prevent fraud.

 

Never heard of a virtual credit card.