PayPal or not PayPal

A bit of market research, not really interested in actual percentage ratios just peoples thoughts (but Dave said I had to start a Poll).

Would you prefer to pay for things, either one off purchases or recurring services, via

PayPal
Credit card through a secure website
EFT bank to bank
or other

Costs isn't a real issue but wouldn't mind hearing people thoughts on big ticket items whether they are one offs or recurring.

Also do people trust a site that has PayPal only any less than they trust a site that offers Paypal and Secure CC or is PayPal fairly well accepted as a good and safe alternative?

Krafty,

I know you don't care, but it makes a difference. Not that I want you to care but rather whether it is a one off purchase or a regular thing.

One off say from ebay, my preferred method is paypal.

Regular, hmm, just depends

Ebay Ill use paypal.

Most other the things, EFT or Credit card.

It's not that I don't care it's more that this is not traditional market research, I'm not collecting the data and going to use it to for anything I'm just trying to gauge an idea on what people do or prefer.

Edit: The next poll will be asking for CC numbers of those who don't mind using their CC

Have used PayPal heaps even to transfer money between my accounts and my sisters in Canada.
To date never an issue and have bought gear from the US many times both on Ebay and direct on sites

Made a slight edit to the OP regarding trust for PayPal only sites, feel free to answer again if you want.

I use paypal for Ebay most of the time but I use a credit card for most store websites, I seldom use EFT.

I use paypal when buying on ebay,the buyer protection thing sounds good to me,i used credit card to buy a item from uk amazon and it went very smooth.
My question is,if you use paypal to donate to a fund,which you find out later to maybe a fraud,can you claim your cash back?

My fund...I mean venture wont be a fraud so I can't answer that

Paypall with eBay works good neverhad a drama. It's the option I have used

I swear by PayPal! Every payment i make online i try and use PayPal. Some time ago, my Ebay account was hacked and purchases were made against me for 8 Nokia n90 phones back when they were "the shit!". Paypal noticed i DON'T live in England, Held the payments and rang me to ask if this was in fact me, which of course it wasn't. PayPal is well worth the time and effort getting verified.

Brett

I do have a pay pal account but i haven,t used it yet, Done a few eft for fleabay only stuff in oz

Paypal is good for buyers... Sucks when you're selling unless it really is bringing in more business through trust. The risk of chargebacks and the steepish selling fees are not appealing, but for the buyer it's smooth-as. When I'm considering buying one of two one-off items, basically identical in every way, from two different sellers, I will go with the one that offers Paypal, if that tells you anything.

we have been using paypal for years
its great for the buyer
but it sucks if your the seller
you pay ebay and paypal fees
wwe have also recieved a few refunds through paypal with no hassles

From a sellers perspective I had considered the whole charge back thing as a possible downside, although a minimum $30 per month (and fees per transaction) plus SSL fees for a merchant account with a bank just to accept CC's seems to be a bigger downside.

I've used a number of merchants over the last 10 years for different sites and it just seems the bastards always want to find new excuses to charge the business money, where as PayPal don't charge a monthly fee.

I still like the idea of EFT or sending a cheque given that (in this case) the client will be posting other information and have had several calls or visits (depending on location) before final payments are due. But I was really just gauging ideas as to what people consider trustworthy enough these days, once upon a time it was just a secure seal at the bottom of the browser but these days some people are a bit more security conscious

The only time I used ebay/paypal was when I sold a game character and had the funds deposited to paypal, then purchased junk/stuff to use it up. No way I am linking anything to my accounts.

We use CC for purchases from real businesses only(ABN, street address, etc).

I use bit of all. paypal is good for eBay stuff which I Do a lot of. In saying that paypal uses my secured debit card to transaction the money from it so its not like a stack of money in paypal only its coming from my card. if I purchase stuff from over the phone or random site I will use car or even direct deposits to make purchases.

rusty

Would you accept paypal payment for a car sale for $30k ?
He says he is a sailor at sea. Buying for his sons 21st who is in thr NT. Doesnt have access to his bank account but has merchant status for pay pal. It seems there may be pp fees involved. He will use pp to any account i nominate. Should i use my pp or bank acc?

If you use either for a deal like that I have next weeks lotto numbers I'll sell you for $5000.

jjohn I've accepted paypal for a sale of a 2nd hand bus from work for $20,000. It was being retired and going to be used as a camper.

I did wait until the funds were transferred out of the paypal account and into our paypal bank account as cleared funds and then withdrawn before I delivered the bus though.

I also paid $12500 by paypal for a motorbike I bought a couple of years back so yeah people do use it for larger transactions not just small stuff.

It pays to be careful but I'm not convinced that you're any more likely to be scammed with paypal than with a cheque (which can be forged) or credit card (which might be stolen).

The only totally safe way is cash which often isn't practical and one time a guy I was buying a motorbike off was really upset because I turned up on a friday evening to pick up a motor bike I was buying for the better half and I turned up with $4000 in cash. He didn't want to have to keep 'all that cash' (his words) all weekend at home... sometimes you just can't win no matter what you do