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you have to give your credit card number, name, expiration date, as with any online payment using a credit card. But with a credit card, you can always dispute the charge later if something isn't right about it. That kind of shields you from them actually getting direct access to your money. I don't know how prevalent credit card problems are with Paypal. Maybe those are trouble-free. I only know my own experience with Paypal getting its claws into my checking account, and the stories I have read at paypalsucks.com. I think it's possible to safely have a PayPal account, as long as you don't give them your bank account numbers. If you have money sitting in your Paypal account, you can have them mail you a check, which takes a few days and costs you $1.50 but to me it's worth it, to avoid the danger of Paypal having direct access to my money. They never know my account number or even what bank. I think the root of the problem with Paypal is that they are performing many of the functions of a bank, yet since technically they are not a bank, they are not subject to many banking regulations. They can freeze the money in your Paypal account unexpectedly and for no apparent reason, and hold on to that money as long as they want to, for one thing. Also I believe there are some shady people working at Paypal, making unauthorized transactions and hoping the corporate veil will shield them from prosecution. I only know for sure in my case that someone got $72 from my checking account, and my bank stated the payee was Paypal, and I could have filed a claim against it with my bank, but I discovered it just 2 days past the 30-day limit. So my bank would do nothing about it, and Paypal denied several times that the transaction ever happened. Needless to say I stopped accepting Paypal at my site and I discourage people from using Paypal whenever the subject comes up.
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