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Online payment systems

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NutmegCT said:
I've used PayPal for a gazillion years with no problem. Over the last couple of years, I've had people ask me to pay them for things and services using Venmo, Zelle, ApplePay, Square, GooglePay, FacebookPay, and a few others.

Good grief - to use those systems, you have to "join" each system and give the system your bank info.

How are you guys handling this? So many systems, and vendors use whatever they want. Us buyers are stuck having to join multiple systems, opening us to more hacking possibilities.

yeesh
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I also used PayPal for many years and it was no problem.
But then things were getting stupid with fees and their purchase protection went South.
Money sat in limbo for days and I couldn't trust what was going on.
I started using Zelle and it was great.
Money went immediately into my credit union, so I could use it, and there are no fees.
Then a few months ago my bank settings changed and I couldn't move funds.
I have tried a number of times to contact Zelle but never was able to get any reply.
Also, I have attempted to use Venmo and it never worked.
Now I'm using PayPal again.
 
Sigh - remember the good ol' days, when you got an invoice and sent them a check?

And that was all you had to do?

yeesh
 
Good question. Lots of my nephew's and niece's school fundraisers prefer to use Venmo and Zelle services, but I prefer Paypal. So uncle's check is in the mail. Apparently, you're "computer challenged" by not using their preferred payment services. OKay fine, but who's asking for the $s here?
 
gonzo said:
but who's asking for the $s here?
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Good point! When I think back to all the emails telling me to "go paperless!", or vendors using many different online payment systems, I wonder who's actually benefiting. I don't think the it's the customer who's saving anything. And how do you take your year's income and expenses to a CPA, when the records are only on your smartphone.

Local school had a fundraiser. Kids come to the door selling chocolate candy. I chose a couple of the candy bars, and the kid gave me his mother's venmo account so I could pay. I offered to pay with cash or check. Kid said "we don't use that old fashioned stuff".

oy
 
Whatever the payment bank accounts could be savaged. What happened to the only currency used in the US by law is now ovrerrun by millennial and poor math fake AI money? Don't like green, too bad in my book. Had enough they cannot count money back or you have to show them the correct change.
 
NutmegCT said:
ah, progress. I guess "progress" is now defined by who receives the payment.
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...and who takes a chunk of it for the "convenience" of doing the transfer.
 
DrEntropy said:
...and who takes a chunk of it for the "convenience" of doing the transfer.
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Very true. Mrs JP & I are inbetween houses and trying to ensure that the money is in the bank for the closing at the end of the month. We put the money in a daily interest account (not inconsequential amount - look at Toronto prices) and now to get it back to the lawyer in time for the 30th we have to order the transfer back to the bank (takes 2 business days) then it is held at the bank (four business days) and then the certified cheque for the lawyer (2 business days) - it ain't us getting the interest for those 8+ days. More to the point this is our 6th house and I don't ever recall it being this complicated - even when we crossed a border. In part I think because this is the first time without a mortgage therefore the number needs ti be exact, unlike a mortgage where a thousand here or there just gets absorbed into the total amount. But also because of the risks & complications attached to the convenience of electronic banking. We have not physically signed a document yet for the sale or purchase (all virtual) and, I think the banks are just making double sure and in some respects I can't blame them.

What also makes it difficult is not having a person to deal with. (This with the accident with the Mini in the spring also) It serves the businesses very well to not have one contact person and man is it frustrating. By comparison, when we bought our first house in January 1990, our mortgage came from the local bank in the village of 450 where we then lived. The day we needed to pick up the cheque, the computer was down, so, they just cut it anyway and sent us off on our merry way. In so many respects I love ecommerce but, sometimes....

1692151781029.png
 
I had some siding installed on my house today. When they were done I wrote them a check. As I started to write the check, I realized just how long it's been since I actually wrote someone a check.... it's been a couple of years. All of my payments are done online. I schedule payments online with my bank and they send the check or via credit card.

IMG_2494.jpeg
 
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with the old house came an apartment - I remember a tenant's mother teaching her college age daughter how to write a cheque in our living room for her first and last. They had literally stopped at the bank to get some blank cheques.

The only cheques we wrote was for church and even that went to e-transfer during covid.
 
I am glad to hear someone teaches their child how to write a check. Carrying mail I ran into kids of high school age that could not sign a special mail delivery in cursive.
 
Larry - a few years ago at Sturbridge, I had two high school students as interns. I wrote them a note listing what varieties of corn to plant. Their response:

"We don't learn that old fashioned writing any more."

Maybe if I'd texted it ...
 
I don't understand how they sign legal documents. Old fashion witnessed X?
 
Most don't sign anything with a pen. Many use online "signature blocks", which say something like "By typing your name in this window, you are giving us permission to use that as your legal signature."

I had to do that a few times when applying for my current mortgage.
 
Commerce with large institutions has become about the convenience of the MBAs who manage them, having nothing to do with the customer. My cynicism on this is seconded by no lesser authority than The Economist. Several years ago, I read there the opinion that education in Business Administration is premised on the idea that management of an enterprise can be separated from the operations of the enterprise. In other words, one does not need a lot of knowledge of what an entity does in order to design systems to manage it.
Bob
 
I still do mailed birthday cards and write cursive to my nieces, so far none complain although I think the younger 2 have to work at reading them and they're in college. When they moved to Ithaca from Columbus OH several years ago my sister in law said when starting school the then 3rd grade older niece was told by a teacher to stop using cursive since they didn't teach it and had a rule that no student would use anything in school that the other kids hadn't learned.
 
Just as an update to my online payment situation.
I have been using Zelle for years without a single hiccup.
A few months ago, around April, everything connected with Zelle and my credit union stopped.
I tried about twenty different ways to find out how to fix it and was ready to quit.
Day before yesterday I contacted my credit union and they said someone would contact me.
Last april they did some 'maintenance' and all their Zelle accounts were lost.
After the second contact they were able to reestablish my account.
So it is now safe for all of you to send me money!!!
 
I have been using PayPal since the dawn of Ebay, have never had a problem, bought a china phone once and turned out to be a real
bad idea, nice looking phone but did not have all the bells and whistles it was supposed to have, returned it not as described, contacted Paypal as i was not refunded despite proof of return postage. paypal made an imeadiate refund to my account.
Three months later the phone was returned to me unopened with a big yellow sticker on it with chinese writing on it,
contacted PayPal again, they just said keep it, obviously the vendor no longer existed.
 
OK Steve - I'll have it transferred from my secret Swiss bank account.

Oh c'mon ... Zelle accounts were lost since last April? Who'd want to use systems like that - and so many others?
 
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