posted 04-08-2005 17:01               

quote:

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Originally posted by axel@charter.net:
And what the police could do, there is a cell phone number in Florida, from the Flrida Cellular Network, that should be easy to track down. And calling Western Union and aks for previous transfers and pickup location would be also an easy task for the police.

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What would they ask Western Union? The person probably uses different names and ID's and picks the money up at different WU locations. The phones are most likely prepaid throwaways bought under false names. No tracking there. Right now there is no victim since you didn't send any money. There isn't even a crime committed.

Gee, I just realized Dave M said the same thing up above. Just goes to show you that great minds think alike!

posted 04-08-2005 17:46               

quote:

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Originally posted by joenudge:
Thanks for your warning. Sales people at TimeSharesByOwner of Orlando have been trying to get me to pay their up front fees. They say they have corporate customers that would certanly want my units. What should I tell them?

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Any response at all is a mistake. It lets them know you are paying attention, and opens the door.

Saying No is too much.

posted 04-12-2005 22:25               

quote:

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Originally posted by PerryM:
Skylerlee,

I guess that if I were going to pay someone $3,500 for a ski week from an auction on eBay I’d want some protection too. Escrow is ok but it takes so long and is so complicated – charge cards are simpler.

Perry

[This message has been edited by PerryM (edited 04-08-2005).]

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posted 04-13-2005 17:26            

quote:

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It was truly appalling the lack of interest by the authorities in shuting down a major criminal organization. Buyer beware! Ben[/B]

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Yes, it is. I was a vicitm of Identity theft about 4 plus years ago -they got away with 10,000 dollars. Probably through my Cell phone AT&T account - since a number of others had problem at the same time through this company (probably a rogue employee?). I will never really know. Anyhow, I reported it to the police and asked for a copy of the report - which came later with no action required checked on it. They stated that I was not the victim, the Visa company was. I called the Visa company and asked them what they were going to do about it. They stated that they would just reverse the charges to the individual Vendors. Of course, the individual businesses won't do anything for 1000.00 or so charges they each received, so no one does anything. Thus the reason this is such a hot crime now - growing exponetially - since no one chooses to follow through. It took me 6 months to clean up the mess. Grrrr!

Ken

posted 04-13-2005 20:51            

I have a Paypal personal account. I just sent some money for the first time (as rental deposit)to an email account last week and it worked fine. But I have not seen the bill/cost yet. It is charged to my credit card.

I think this is a good way to send money. I would like to ask the experieced users:

1. Can I also receive money (such as refund of a security deposit) to my Paypal account with just a Personal account? Is it credited to my credit card?

2. If affirmative, how do I get the money from Paypal?

3. Do I HAVE to upgrade my account to Paypal Premier account to receive money? What are the charges?

Sorry for the questions as it is not clear from the Paypal website.

Many thanks for your help and advice.

tonghua

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PerryM:
[B]If you have just a “Personal Account” there are NO fees to either send or receive funds to ANY eMail address! Here is the link: www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside

If you have a “Premier or Business Account” you can receive credit card charges – the fees amount to about 5%. You can have both a Personal and Premier account – you must use different eMail address and credit cards to open them.

Both buyer and seller have lots of safeguards at their disposal. [QUOTE]

posted 04-13-2005 21:27               

If you have a personal account there are NO fees to both send and receive money via PayPal!! What a deal!

However, if a credit card is involved either sending or receiving you MUST have a commercial account (Premier or Business) and that’s when the 5% is taken out of the person who receives the money. The sender is NEVER charged a penny.

posted 04-14-2005 02:27            

I remember I register for a personal account. So if someone refunds me deposit money, it would go into my Paypal account. I can then "withdraw" the money from Paypal account to my bank account. Is this correct?

Many thanks for helping a newbie.

posted 04-14-2005 02:58               

Then, to move money, I do an "Add Funds" at paypal, specifying typically my main account as the acct to withdraw from. Once the funds are received at paypal, then I can do a "Withdraw Funds", specifying the other acct I wish to move the money to.

It's not quick, it takes about 10 days for all of this to happen, but it's certainly a lot easier than writing a check, finding a deposit slip, and mailing it to the other bank. You might loose a few days interest with the float time, but that's a small price (I think) for the convenience. Paypal does pay interest (currently 2.41%), so there's little/no loss if the money sits in paypal for a while before you get around to transferring it.

sfwilshire's point is a good one, if you upgrade your account to be able to receive credit card payments, then you get hit with a 5% fee (effectively receiving 95% of the money) on EVERY payment. I know personally I'd sign up for Premier (c/c accepting) account if they were smart enough to let bank-transfer payments go thru at 100%, and credit card ones at 95%. For the handful of times that strangers have needed to send me money, most wanted to use a credit card, but I told them I couldn't accept it. I'm not going to take a 5% penalty on effective cash transfers just to handle those few cases.

Jeff

posted 04-15-2005 01:21            

So with my personal account, I can send (already sent) money with my credit card. This I will not incur the 5%. (correct!). My personal account is linked to my bank's checking account.

I'll be expecting a deposit refund some time later. But I do not wish to incur the 5%, so I'll ask the "refunder" to send money to my Palpal account then I'll do the "withdrawal" into my checking account. What if the refunder uses his/her business account with a credit card??? There is no need at all for me to upgrade to a business account. Is this correct?

I read earlier that once upgraded to premier/business account, one canNOT re-downgrade to personal account. I should be mindful of that.

Many thanks

posted 04-15-2005 03:27               

I'm no expert in any of this, but I've used Paypal while buying and selling on eBay. I use credit cards to pay unless the seller doesn't allow that and it has never cost me any fees.

I state in my eBay auctions that I do not accept credit cards through Paypal, but a couple of times somebody tried to pay with one anyway. Paypal sends me a notice that I can upgrade my account and that this will be required to accept the payment. I decline and reject the payment. Then the buyer has to come up with some other method to pay.

I've always heard this hurts your eBay auctions, but since I'm just selling a few items around the house (instead of doing a yard sale), I'll take my chances. And I believe you're correct that once you upgrade, you can't ever go back. Some people maintain two separate Paypal accounts to get around this, accepting credit cards on only one.

posted 04-15-2005 13:10               

Like sfwilshire, I've hand a handful of 'public' purchases where people have wanted to use a credit card to pay me (including my brother for money he owed me!), and I don't want to upgrade my account just for them. I'd even accept a higher credit card fee (say 7%) if they charged no fee for bank to bank transfers.