PayPal - Friend or Foe?

You've read it on a hundred occasions.. "PayPal froze my account for no reason at all. I didn't do anything wrong."

I've been a PayPal user for a number of years. Yes, I have had my account "frozen", and it was MY FAULT IT HAPPENED!

Now, I'll show you why your account could be frozen, and/or closed by PayPal.

The MOST important part of your PayPal account is the User Agreement. I'll refer to it as the "UA" to save space.

Failure to read and understand the UA does NOT absolve you from account freezing, or even closing of your account. As any judge will tell you, "Ignorance of the law is NOT a viable excuse."

99.9% of all account problems will stem from failure to follow PayPal's UA terms.

The UA terms are not hard to understand at all. A few minutes of quiet time reading over the terms of the UA will quickly show you what you can, and can not do.

You can NOT use PayPal to sell a wide range of illegal or "shadow" activities that do/may violate Federal, State or Local laws.

As an example.. You may NOT use PayPal to collect funds that you derive from ANY MLM program.

You may NOT use PayPal to sell lists and personal information.

You may NOT use PayPal to sell Games Software: Sony, Sega, and Nintendo.

PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy will show you the 39 categories above, and each will show quite clearly what you may or may not sell using the services of PayPal.

But, I was only selling _____ (Fill in your excuse here.)

I've already mentioned that PayPal can not be used by MLM marketers.

The same goes for Artifacts, Electronics Equipment, Event Tickets, OEM Software, etc. (See the full list at the PayPal UA site.)

The folks that yell "PayPal can't be trusted" loudest, have no doubt run afoul of the PayPal police by trying to "Get around" the rules.

Plain and simple.. You follow the PayPal TOS, or you lose. And, as mentioned before, ignorance of those Terms of Service are no excuse.

Let's see who DOES use PayPal.

Ebay of course. They own PayPal.
ClickBank uses PayPal.
Dell uses PayPal.
Barnes & Noble uses PayPal.
Starbucks uses PayPal.
Amazon.com uses PayPal.

Do you really think that these "major players" would turn over their purchase and sales needs to a company that "shuts you down for no reason"?

The answer is NO!

So there you have it. Those that claim they've had their accounts shut down or frozen "for no reason", have in fact violated the PayPal TOS as found in the User Agreement. Want to avoid PayPal problems? Very simple. Play by their rules, or don't play at all! If you do follow the rules, you'll find PayPal a very simple, quality service that can serve you well.

(c)Copyright 2006 by Peter A. Egeler