PayPal: Friend or PayFoe?

I just might have coined a new phrase: PayFoe. I haven't Googled it so don't know if it already exists. I was updating twitter to note I'd gotten my Adsense payout today straight in my bank account. No fees, no waiting. Wonderbar!

PayPal isn't really my foe as it is how I get most of my online writing money. It also allows me to pay team members and get subscriptions, pay for web hosting plus buy the odd thing online. Here's a bit of what I love and hate about them.

I love PayPal payment notifications but hate the fees I pay. I also don't much like it when it sends an e-check to someone instead of just pulling the money from another currency.

I also don't like the hefty payment fees I pay to get my own money. They don't pay me interest when I leave my money there and many say that the longer you leave it there, the better the chances of having it frozen so I always grab it asap.

I don't like the fact that in Canada we don't get to have debit cards.

I don't love the fact that when I want to pay a slew of money requests at once it takes FOREVER! I have to manually look up each one instead of being able to do a bunch of payments without subscribing and paying for a premium service. They get enough of my money thank you very much! So I go back to the main page and do a find all money requests and scroll for each one!

What do I love about PayPal? I do love that despite what it says about 5 to a zillion business days for the transfer that it takes 48 hours during the week. I love that I know the precise minute the funds will arrive in my bank account although I don't love the fact that every once in a while the money will mysteriously take a day longer; usually when I really really need it!

So, do you love PayPal or hate them?

I have read horror stories about account holds for 90 days and other problems and touch wood I've never had that type of a problem. I have used services like MoneyBookers as well as have clients send me the odd cheque or internet money transfer but PayPal still looks to be the industry standard. I do love getting the odd cheque in the mail as it feels like free money sort of and I love that Google direct deposits.

I read a nightmare story recently on the Warrior Forum about a $50k PayPal hold for 3 months and have also heard people who've used them for years swear they've never had a problem.

One thing I do hate is that I sort of came up with the idea of PayPal before they existed. Yep, that's right. I have been in the IT world since 1991 when I was 19 and started working for an IT VAR and back in the very early days of the internet and online shopping, I talked about a plan based on the need for a service for people without credit cards who wanted to buy online. Dang, eh? Too bad I didn't act on it.