We’re not a big fan of PayPal. The finance tech firm that provides a platform for processing payments online has often taken advantage of their early start in the online payment processing game.
Founded back in the late 1990s, when it was known as Confinity, but it has since become the biggest company of its type in the world.
It effectively acts as an intermediary service between the buyer and his or her bank, enabling them to withdraw or add money online when buying or selling. However, people can also keep money in their PayPal accounts to use for transactions, rather than their bank accounts.
Over the past 20 years, PayPal has become one of the top sites for financial transactions across much of the world. Here we will look at some of the fantastic things it can help you to do.
Buy and Bid on eBay
Conducting financial transactions on any site using PayPal is safe as it heavily encrypts all user data and employs multi-stage authentication. It is particularly secure to use eBay though, as this e-commerce giant owns PayPal.
That means that people using PayPal to bid for items listed on eBay, or just purchase them directly, can benefit from far greater buyer protection than the average user. Plus, in the unlikely event that there is a problem, they can access eBay’s clear complaint resolution procedures.
Anyone buying on eBay will come across the PayPal payment option along the way and it is not even necessary to have a PayPal account to exploit it.
Play at Online Casinos
Online casino is a very exciting form of gaming that lets you play fast spinning slots or tense, tactical games of poker for real money. However the fact that cash is part of the game means that you need to be able to deposit money in your casino account and be able to withdraw any you happen to win.
PayPal lets you do both of these things very easily and quickly. It is such a recognized name that almost all casinos have it as one of their deposit and withdrawal choices.
That ranges from new ones with enticing welcome bonuses to no deposit bonus ones and mobile casinos. The sheer number can make it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, but a site like Time2play ranks the best PayPal online casinos to help you steer clear of the bad ones.
Carry Out Transactions Internationally
As the largest online payment processor in the world, PayPal is available in almost every country around the globe. The full directory of nations that accept it is too long to possibly list here, as it comes to over 200.
Those that do not tend to be located in heavily restricted places like the Middle East or North Korea. These are unlikely to be used for many online transactions, so PayPal lets you buy and sell internationally or send money to family or friends in other parts of the world.
Take Advantage of Discounts
Many major retail brands partner with PayPal to provide discounts for people who buy from them using it. They include Nike, Walmart and Barnes & Noble and the shopping.paypal.com page lists the current discounts that are available.
Being able to buy things you want for less money is definitely one of the top reasons for choosing PayPal.
Complete Transactions on the go
PayPal is available as a mobile phone app, via the iTunes Store. That means that it can be added to your mobile if you have an iPhone.
Therefore, if you are out of the house browsing online on your phone and you see something you want to buy, you can carry out the transaction right away. Equally, bills can be paid during breaks at work using the PayPal iPhone app.
The Benefits of Using PayPal
So there are lots of things that you can do using PayPal, but what are the specific benefits of this payment processor?
Security
We all know that putting our bank details online when buying can be a risky business; but PayPal eliminates most of that risk. It is heavily centralized and deploys cutting edge data encryption making it almost impossible for cyber criminals to get at your information.
Low cost
Paypal has been known to charge and raise their already ridiculous fees on international payments. but one argument that fans argue in favor of PayPal is that their fees for transactions can be lower than many rival payment processors. Account creation is entirely free and US customers pay very little in transaction costs. E-commerce business users pay 2.7% for each sale, which again is pretty reasonable.
Payment flexibility
If you are using a credit card to pay for something, there is always the chance that you will not have enough credit left and the card gets declined. PayPal will allow a customer to link more than one credit or debit card to their account, as well as multiple bank accounts.
That means you will have several payment options easy to hand when you need to complete a purchase out in the real world. This will potentially save you a whole lot of embarrassment and annoyance.
This combination of benefits is why PayPal has remained the top e-wallet payment processor for such a long time.
Setting up a PayPal account is simple and free, after which sending and receiving payments will be quick and easy. If you have several debit or credit cards, these can all be added to your account so you will never be caught without cash.