Buying and Selling on Astromart

[lost_in_space]

Originally Posted by janoskiss

There will be horror stories about whichever way you choose to pay, from identity theft to credit card frauds to being mugged in the street...

Very true.

[Ambermile]

A word of caution here as there have been a few url's posted for Paypal sites. PLEASE don't just hit www.paypal.com.au or you will leave yourselves open to possible ID theft. Make sure you use https://www.paypal.com.au to guarantee hitting their secure servers.

Arthur

[johnno]

Thanks Arthur,
That is a VERY WISE,bit of advice.
Regards.
John

[iceman (Mike)]

I've used paypal for ages, no problems.. as Rob said, use a dedicated account for online transactions (ebay included), or just link it to your C/C and not your bank account.

I think the doom and gloom horror stories are a bit over the top. Like janos, there'll be bad experiences to read with whatever form of payment you choose, but you just don't get to read the 99.99% of good news stories.

Rod, I've set my paypal account up as a premier account, so I can accept incoming C/C payments for either donations to the site, or whenever I should choose to sell anything. Yes you might forfeit 3%, but most sellers add that ontop of whatever item they're selling if the buyer pays using paypal.

I've used paypal to pay for many items bought over ebay or other 2nd hand astro goods. It's been perfect for me every time, not a single hassle.

[ving (David)]

been using PP for quite a while too... I havent used it for selling tho just buying. No problems here

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Even if you have a dedicated account, can't they just overdraw it anyway? That's what happens if you have direct debit set up for paying bills and you don't have enough in the bank to pay them.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Means they would "prefer" to keep it local and UPS type shipment. "Continental US" (I assume includes Alaska!)

[Eardrum73]

I'm not sure that PAY PAL is actually free to use. (making payments..)

When I signed on to it a few months ago, I couldn't make a payment unless I paid a $2 fee. However the $2 fee will be given as a discount on my first purchase so essentially its free if you look at it that way.

But it was still annoying that I couldn't make a payment immediately and had to pay them $2.

But I've had no problems with it since.

[iceman (Mike)]

That's just to confirm that your credit card works.

Originally Posted by janoskiss

Even if you have a dedicated account, can't they just overdraw it anyway? That's what happens if you have direct debit set up for paying bills and you don't have enough in the bank to pay them.

I think the bank actually looks at it a bit differently when you do a direct
debit. As oppose to the irregular use of Paypal if they dont then change
banks. I mean when you go buy something with your credit card and your
at it's limit, does the sale go through? nope! same with a bank account.
You agree to pay $400.00 for something so you put $400.00 into the
nominated account... if they try taking say $450.00 out (something you
haven't agreed to) the transaction should fail. And you dont have to go
through the hassle of trying to reclaim $50.00 because the time spent
doing that will probably be worth more than the monies that went amiss.
So protect yourself and have a hassle free life


regards,CS

[Eardrum73]

Really? gee thats so annoying.....

Pay Pal called it a unlimited account or something... i wished they'd just keep it simple and say that it was for testing the credit card.....

[lorenz117]

New guy on the forum so hi everyone.

I've bought lots (too much) off both AM and ebay, and yes Paypal is a ripoff but they are an extremly safe way to send money.

First off NEVER do a direct deposit unless it's friend or family or someone you really do trust. I've lost $1k on ebay stupidly thinking that someone with a Westpac bank account in Sydney had to be traceable, the bank accountable and in the worst case the police could chase them up if they vanished off the face of the earth because the bank has all their info - right? wrong! Well I've since discovered it's easy to open a fake ebay account, easy to open a fake bank account, the first thing the banks do is tell you 'it's not our problem' and the first thing the police does is tell you 'it's not our problem'. So I lost that money and learnt a great deal in the process. I can elaborate on the story if anyone is interested but back to the point ...

Anything bought with a credit card is safe. The banks told me that. Simply because by making a direct deposit I am authorizing the payment. By paying with credit THEY are authorizing the payment. That way if you are defrauded in any way the banks can reverse the charges as they have the power to do so. Otherwise not.

So if you use paypal, take the 3% hit because it's like insurance. They now allow Aus bank accounts to be linked and debited directly but I would never pay that way for the above reason.

What are the options? - WU money transfer, $35 each transfer but no accountability and bidpay - well they don't exist anymore. So much for competition. In 10 years Microsoft,Ebay and Google will own the planet

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

I've been using paypal for the last year or so with no issues. BUT, their rate of exchange to the Us$ is always much less than quoted in the daily newspapers, almost another 3%, this "hidden" cost also adds to the overall price being paid.

[lorenz117]

yep - always about 1.5c less than the going rate with PP. I sent a WU payment today and they are even worse - papers say 0.75c, WU gives me 0.72c - it is unethical but i'm sure the shareholders don't mind