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Grex > Agora35 > #32: Cyberspace Communications finances for August 2000 |  |
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| Author |
Message |
| 24 new of 48 responses total. |
jep
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response 25 of 48:
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Oct 4 13:14 UTC 2000 |
Thanks, yargo. I think that was an important comment.
I never got around to paying for a membership. When I do get around to
it, it's about 10 times more likely to be by credit card than by sending
a check. I cannot send a check from my desk at work; I don't have
stamps and envelopes. I don't Grex from home; just from work, so unless
I happen to think "Hey! I could be writing a check for Grex, instead of
watching a football game or playing with the kids", I am not likely to
send money while I'm home.
Grex needs to accept credit cards somehow.
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flem
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response 26 of 48:
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Oct 4 14:28 UTC 2000 |
I agree.
I've been experimenting a little with PayPal to see if I can get that up and
running as a temporary solution, at least. Their rates seem to be quite
reasonable, and I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be subject to the kind of problems
we were experiencing with Charge Solutions. They claim they'll accept
international users soon, but the best I've been able to get out of them as
far as *when* are things along the lines of "It's one of our top priorities
for this year." Which seems promising.
Has anyone used PayPal before? How does it work? I.e. what is the process
by which you give someone money?
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rcurl
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response 27 of 48:
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Oct 4 17:12 UTC 2000 |
WOW, jep...do you do any work at work? [8^}
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jep
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response 28 of 48:
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Oct 4 17:31 UTC 2000 |
Oh, hey... good point. I should do some work. Thanks!
(I spend about a half hour per day on Grex.)
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bdh3
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response 29 of 48:
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Oct 5 01:40 UTC 2000 |
I use paypal, bidpay, and a couple other services including USPS
online. I like the convencience and paypal is free.
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don
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response 30 of 48:
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Oct 5 02:22 UTC 2000 |
I am probably one of the only people who has had problems with paypal (see
the recent paypal item in mnet's policy for a detailed account), and my
problem would never crop up with grex's setup. Because my siblings and I shift
money around (paying back for movies, etc), paypal thought we were trying to
make cash advances (not bothering to check to see that we were all using check
cards which cand make cash advances). Right after I tried to transfer a large
amount of money from paypal to my bank account, the account was blocked and
the funds frozen. Two weeks went by without any explanation from paypal.
Emails didn't help, and I had to call at least three times to customer service
to get an explanation. My siblings' accounts had been frozen, too. A day or
two later the account was unfrozen. This won't happen to grex because there
won't be a credit card registered, but it was still a major problem that I
had with them.
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scg
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response 31 of 48:
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Oct 5 07:22 UTC 2000 |
Grex may not trip on that particular rule, but there's no guarantee that
that's the only thing that could cause them to freeze accounts. Financial
institutions that freeze their customers' accounts without attempting to
contact the customer, and then aren't responsive when the customer tries to
find out what's going on, are not a good place to put money you care about.
I had the same problem with Wells Fargo, and I haven't deposited money into
my account there since.
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flem
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response 32 of 48:
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Oct 25 20:22 UTC 2000 |
I got mail from PayPal today telling me that they plan to make services
available to 24 countries, including Canada, available by Oct. 31. I don't
know which countries, unfortunately.
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davel
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response 33 of 48:
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Oct 25 21:29 UTC 2000 |
Well, 24 is a good start.
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dpc
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response 34 of 48:
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Oct 26 15:05 UTC 2000 |
How about from India?
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don
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response 35 of 48:
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Nov 15 02:20 UTC 2000 |
(This may be posted somewhere else in coop already, so bear with me)
Here are the supported countries:
Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Canada
Denmark France Germany Hong Kong Ireland
Israel Italy Japan Mexico Netherlands
New Zealand Norway Portugal Singapore South Africa
South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom
International transfers will be free for grex, but a $.30 + 2.6% fee is
applied to the person abroad. The fee schedule is pretty heavily hidden within
paypal's help files, which worries me a bit.
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srw
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response 36 of 48:
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Feb 5 02:29 UTC 2001 |
Months have passed, but no one bothered to post here that paypal is up
and running as a way to join grex.
Well, it is - and the membership page has easy-to-use links to paypal
for this purpose. http://www.cyberspace.org/member.html
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rcurl
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response 37 of 48:
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Feb 5 06:08 UTC 2001 |
You're, uh, one season behind.....(I paid dues with paypal last year but
haven't seen the charge on my statement yet).
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aruba
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response 38 of 48:
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Feb 6 01:42 UTC 2001 |
I sent mail to Rane about his PayPal payment.
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rcurl
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response 39 of 48:
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Feb 6 03:08 UTC 2001 |
(I answered Mark's mail about my PayPal payment. I learned PayPal socks
the recipient of the money 2.7%. Since I pay annually, that cost Grex
$1.62, while a check from me + postage would cost me much less. I
suggested that Grex tell people they can use PayPal, but it would save
Grex money if a check were sent. I don't mind socking a money making
business this fee, but Grex is a charitable non-profit, so henceforth
I will send a check.)
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gull
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response 40 of 48:
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Feb 6 19:41 UTC 2001 |
This must be a difference between a business account and a personal
account. I've never been charged anything for receiving money via
PayPal.
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flem
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response 41 of 48:
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Feb 6 22:02 UTC 2001 |
re resp:40 -- Right. I don't recall exactly why I made Grex's paypal
account a business account rather than a "personal" account. It seemed like a
good idea at the time, and I may even have had a reason, but I don't recall.
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aruba
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response 42 of 48:
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Feb 7 03:57 UTC 2001 |
How does PayPal make money on personal accounts?
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rcurl
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response 43 of 48:
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Feb 7 05:08 UTC 2001 |
By encouraging personal accounts, for paying or receiving funds, they
increase the number of people that will use PayPal to pay businesses
that make money by selling via the web. The service charge for businesses
is just a business expense and goes into the cost of the merchandise,
like any advertising costs do.
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aruba
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response 44 of 48:
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Feb 7 16:45 UTC 2001 |
Looking at the paypal pages, it appears that there is a limit of $100/month
which personal account holders may receive without incurring fees. That's
probably why Greg decided to get us a business account instead of a personal
one. Seems like a good choice to me.
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rcurl
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response 45 of 48:
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Feb 7 18:41 UTC 2001 |
Is Grex receiving more than $100/mo in dues via PayPal? If this occurs
rarely, then a fee now and then would not be as big an expense as a
regular 2.7%.
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flem
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response 46 of 48:
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Feb 7 19:05 UTC 2001 |
We did in January.
I think also that Paypal functions in some ways like a normal bank, in that
you can leave your money in your paypal account rather than transferring it
to your other bank. Presumably Paypal does with it whatever normal banks do
with your money.
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gull
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response 47 of 48:
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Feb 7 19:44 UTC 2001 |
Right. They make interest on your account balance, if you leave money
in there -- which people do, because it's convenient.
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aruba
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response 48 of 48:
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Feb 8 03:24 UTC 2001 |
Actually, the PayPal conditions of use (or one of the other documents on
their site) state explicitly that they are not a bank, even though they act
a lot like one. They imply that they play the market with your money, and
that you should keep in mind that your money is not insured the way it is at
a bank. That doesn't worry me too much, though.
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