Is Paypal reliable for large transactions?

[John Yu]

Does anyone have experience using Paypal for large transactions? I want to buy an airline ticket using it.

[skippybosco]

How large of a payment, just a $1000USD or so? Assuming you don't have any other suspicious flags on your account or the person you are sending it to this should be fine. Be sure to do a a couple of things to minimize the fees:

1. have the money already in your paypal account (ie. transferred and cleared from your bank before you send)
2. Send the payment as Personal with reason set as "other"

[John Yu]

OK thanks

[Pingdong]

Just be aware that paypal freezes accounts they dont like. They dont need any legal reason as they are not a bank, and they do it to people doing absolutely nothing "shady". You get your money in the end as far as I know, but with things like travel i wouldnt personally trust them.

[Abacus]

Is there any reason that you need to use paypal and not a credit card? Are you dealing directly with the airline?

I've used paypal a lot and wouldn't think twice about it. But unless you have a credit card linked to your account or the funds already in your account then the transaction won't process until the funds clear between the banks. This is a headache for some merchants.

Why not go to a local travel agency? You might pay a little more but there will likely be hidden foreign currency transaction fees anyway. And sometimes the local travel agencies can find better deals.

[John Yu]

Actually I ended up using Paypal and it worked out fine. I don't use a credit card because I've been in TW for the last 3 years and during that time the credit card I originally had in the US expired (I hadn't been using it). I'll eventually get around to getting a new one but it's kind of a pain trying to do it from abroad.

[upandover]

This is something I have been wondering about as well, I have 2 pay pal accounts, one Taiwanese, and the other Canadian. Is it cheaper to send money home by simply transferring it from one paypal account to the other or using a bank wireless transfer?

[thirdstring]

I use Paypal to collect rent in the US, with no fees whatsoever. Both parties have to have a bank account (not credit card) linked to their Paypal account. The renter sends via paypal, which pulls it from his bank account, to my paypal account. I have to go into paypal and transfer it to my bank account manually each month, but there are no fees involved at all (only b/c bank accounts are linked; if with credit card linked, there is a fee).

Side note, I just found out that 2 of my banks started doing person-to-person payments. I think a regulation must have been eased up or something. USBank and ING checking both allow you to send $$ to anyone with a cell phone # or e-mail account. It goes thru a third party (zashpay), but if the receiver has an account with USBank, I think they can quickly transfer it in. USBank doesn't charge a fee for account holders, up to US$6000.

Not sure about Paypal, but most credit cards have protection if something happened to the airline (or other business you're dealing with). I doubt Paypal does.

[kevinsang01212]

I have an NZ and TW account for Paypal and my accounts get frozen a lot. Especially my TW account but once you call them and clear things up, they will free it.

Basically just security checks but it get annoying sometimes. They always say that some one have accessed your account or I have accessed the account using a public computer but it never happened. Anyways, it worked out in the end.

Kevin

[Taiwan Luthiers]

I always skip paypal for any transaction over $1000 US. The fees are just too high at that point.

For small transactions paypal is great.

Either use your credit card (which most airline accepts) or do a wire transfer.