Should I keep my PayPal account?

Non-investing personal finance issues including insurance, credit, real estate, taxes, employment and legal issues such as trusts and wills.
Post Reply
Topic Author
miamivice
Posts: 2973
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:46 am

Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by miamivice »

eBay now offers regular credit card forms of payment not run through PayPal when purchasing items.

They also no longer send money to PayPal when completing a sale (goes straight to bank account instead).

I don't see a purpose to keeping a PayPal account. We can use Venmo or other services to transfer money between people rather than Paypal.

Before closing, just want to make sure I am not missing something.
Ramjet
Posts: 1464
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2020 10:45 am

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by Ramjet »

miamivice wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:45 am eBay now offers regular credit card forms of payment not run through PayPal when purchasing items.

They also no longer send money to PayPal when completing a sale (goes straight to bank account instead).

I don't see a purpose to keeping a PayPal account. We can use Venmo or other services to transfer money between people rather than Paypal.

Before closing, just want to make sure I am not missing something.
Paypal owns Venmo. Venmo is more convenient to send money to friends or family. Paypal is great for online retailer purchases, e.g., I recently bought something off of Home Depot online using Paypal. If there is a data breach at a retailer I prefer they don't have my credit card info
User avatar
eye.surgeon
Posts: 1143
Joined: Wed Apr 05, 2017 1:19 pm
Location: California

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by eye.surgeon »

It's useful at times outside of ebay.
"I would rather be certain of a good return than hopeful of a great one" | Warren Buffett
runner3081
Posts: 5978
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2016 3:22 pm

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by runner3081 »

I am in the same boat with 2 PayPal accounts. However, just yesterday, I received a free "Must Love" ice cream bar free after rebate, the only options were Amazon and PayPal reimbursement. I would rather have cash than a GC.

Long story short, I will be keeping the PayPal accounts. Never know when they will be needed and there is zero charge to keep them. I suspect they may close them without activity at some point.

I also don't use Venmo, but do use Zelle.
User avatar
RickBoglehead
Posts: 7852
Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:10 am
Location: In a house

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by RickBoglehead »

Ramjet wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:56 amPaypal is great for online retailer purchases, e.g., I recently bought something off of Home Depot online using Paypal. If there is a data breach at a retailer I prefer they don't have my credit card info
This ^^^

Just used it yesterday for this reason. Sometimes making a virtual card via Citi is way too much work.
Avid user of forums on variety of interests-financial, home brewing, F-150, EV, home repair, etc. Enjoy learning & passing on knowledge. It's PRINCIPAL, not PRINCIPLE. I ADVISE you to seek ADVICE.
MrJedi
Posts: 3538
Joined: Wed May 06, 2020 11:42 am

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by MrJedi »

I use paypal for the return shipping reimbursement program. If a merchant accepts paypal and you pay with that method, you can get return shipping reimbursed, like if you are responsible for return shipping costs or if the merchant provides a label and deducts it from the refund. I use it a few times every year and it works great. I think it is a relatively unknown benefit. Whenever I mention it to friends they have no idea.
Nyc10036
Posts: 1663
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2016 6:29 pm

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by Nyc10036 »

eye.surgeon wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:58 am It's useful at times outside of ebay.
This. ^^^^
Especially for merchants you don't use very often.
Much as I despise Paypal, I will keep my account so I don't have to give my credit card number to every seller on eBay.
I do buy a lot of eBay.

.
protagonist
Posts: 9242
Joined: Sun Dec 26, 2010 11:47 am

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by protagonist »

You don't need to keep money in your account to retain the account. Why bother closing it?
You can pay with a regular credit card via Paypal, which is what I did last Q4 when Chase Freedom was offering 5x points on Paypal purchases.
runner3081
Posts: 5978
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2016 3:22 pm

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by runner3081 »

protagonist wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:32 am You can pay with a regular credit card via Paypal, which is what I did last Q4 when Chase Freedom was offering 5x points on Paypal purchases.
Ohh yeah, that is a great reason I forgot about!
getthatmarshmallow
Posts: 1171
Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2017 8:43 am

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by getthatmarshmallow »

It's useful for non-eBay retailers. Mine is linked to my credit cards only, so it's functionally just a way to pay by credit card without giving lots of merchants my credit card information.
UpperNwGuy
Posts: 9446
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2017 7:16 pm

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by UpperNwGuy »

There have been times in the past couple of years when a merchant or a service person would only take payment through PayPal. I keep it around for those occasions even though I hardly ever use it otherwise.
mindboggling
Posts: 618
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2014 6:35 pm
Location: Upstate NY

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by mindboggling »

About six months ago I closed both my Ebay and Paypal accounts. I just wasn't using them. I sometimes use privacy.com or just a regular credit card.
In broken mathematics, We estimate our prize, --Emily Dickinson
User avatar
beyou
Posts: 6865
Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2010 2:57 pm
Location: If you can make it there

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by beyou »

For any website where i make a payment, my first choice to pay is apple pay, then paypal, sometimes even amazon pay. Paypal is often the only choice besides giving out credit card info to yet another website. Just want to limit number of sites that have my info. Amazon, apple and paypal have it already, but if I can avoid more copied of my cc data, why not ?
User avatar
CardinalRule
Posts: 1196
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2017 10:01 am
Location: United States

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by CardinalRule »

protagonist wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:32 am You don't need to keep money in your account to retain the account. Why bother closing it?
Why indeed? That’s how I see it too. I seldom use PayPal, but it is useful to have, just in case.
Invest4lt
Posts: 328
Joined: Sat Jul 15, 2017 12:25 pm

Re: Should I keep my PayPal account?

Post by Invest4lt »

I find paypal helpful. I use it for small monthly autopayments for an online newspaper. Additionally, it comes in handy for online purchases. Often, I can buy directly from online merchants (instead of Amazon, etc) using paypal without formally opening an account or handing over my cc number.
"People sometimes fail to live because they are always preparing to live." - Alan Watts
Post Reply