Paypal may be paying fines due to insufficient disclosure

[cloud_weaver]

Not sure if this should go here or in Trader Support - but I found this today on my FB page and wanted to share with others.  If you use paypal, it's worth a quick read.  In essence, the government is cracking down on online businesses that don't make consumers sign disclosures before using credit.  In a brick and mortar store, you have to sign your life away, but at the click of a button you can "Bill Me Later" with paypal.  They are facing fines and the decision is pending in courts.  Don't know what it means for consumers though...

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/05/21/paypal-credit-deception-exposes-a-larger-problem

[Corona]

At onethe point at least for me If you didn't define a default option of payment, it would automatically have "Bill Me Later" ticked which was what their credit program was called. I had no idea I accidentally paid with BML instead of my bank until I got an email saying I would get slapped with a late fee if I didn't pay. Thankfully it was just one 20 buck purchase but it still got on my nerves.

Sneaking a credit program onto someone could ruin their score. That's the scariest part.

[ponylady]

I have a Bill Me Later account, which has actually been renamed Paypal Credit since and I had to sign up and be approved for. I was not able to just click and automatically have a credit line though. PayPal users who inadvertently hit the wrong confirmation button when making a purchase should see another website open that strictly deals with opening a BillMeLater (PayPal Credit Acct), so they have the option to immediately opt-out and pay with their personal bank account/etc. through PayPal. They still have to be approved, they do not automatically open a credit line for you just because you have a Paypal account or should I say they should not have been able to. It seems to me Paypal made a huge Boo-Boo there if they were.

 

[Stormy31685]

While I can see how confusing or possibly "deceptive," Bill Me Later (Paypal Credit) was, I personally never misunderstood anything during the checkout process.

I know Paypal has its evilness, and I can see how mishandling payments and fees can create an issue, but I also feel like it is disappointing that people don't read and simply click ahead and now Paypal is going to have to pay for it. 

The sad thing is, Paypal can lose that kind of money and it's not a big deal to them.  But to compensate, they are going to raise fees for us as users, ultimately making us pay for the carelessness and confusion of others, and that's wrong.  These users who get money back are not truly getting it from Paypal, they will be getting it from all of us that use Paypal.

Furthermore, I see this carelessness to be the same as buyers who buy and pay for something, then ask a seller to return their money and cancel the transaction with no regard for the fact that the seller loses money, time, etc. 

Thank you for the article.  I sincerely hope online users start to learn to pay attention and stop thinking that the online world is pretend.  It simply isn't.

[Corona]

I have a Bill Me Later account, which has actually been renamed Paypal Credit since and I had to sign up and be approved for. I was not able to just click and automatically have a credit line though. PayPal users who inadvertently hit the wrong confirmation button when making a purchase should see another website open that strictly deals with opening a BillMeLater (PayPal Credit Acct), so they have the option to immediately opt-out and pay with their personal bank account/etc. through PayPal. They still have to be approved, they do not automatically open a credit line for you just because you have a Paypal account or should I say they should not have been able to. It seems to me Paypal made a huge Boo-Boo there if they were.

I never signed up for BillMeLater or agreed to any credit program through Paypal. I have no idea how I got a BillMeLater line of credit considering that at that point I didn't even have a credit score or history. I was debit only for several years because I was super paranoid of credit cards.

While I can see how confusing or possibly "deceptive," Bill Me Later (Paypal Credit) was, I personally never misunderstood anything during the checkout process.

I know Paypal has its evilness, and I can see how mishandling payments and fees can create an issue, but I also feel like it is disappointing that people don't read and simply click ahead and now Paypal is going to have to pay for it. 

The sad thing is, Paypal can lose that kind of money and it's not a big deal to them.  But to compensate, they are going to raise fees for us as users, ultimately making us pay for the carelessness and confusion of others, and that's wrong.  These users who get money back are not truly getting it from Paypal, they will be getting it from all of us that use Paypal.

Furthermore, I see this carelessness to be the same as buyers who buy and pay for something, then ask a seller to return their money and cancel the transaction with no regard for the fact that the seller loses money, time, etc. 

Thank you for the article.  I sincerely hope online users start to learn to pay attention and stop thinking that the online world is pretend.  It simply isn't.

It's a little insulting to lay the blame solely at the buyers' feet and I find the last statement and comparison kind of offensive as well. I would be more understanding if someone went through a sign-up process and didn't look at what they were signing up for, but I didn't even sign up for anything but Paypal. Not BillMeLater, not Paypal Credit, just Paypal and linking that to my bank account.

[bluerose9978]

I think Paypal may have confused people with the payment option. I remember at one time for payment they had two options:

- Paypal BillMeLater

- Paypal Balance

Since the Bill Me Later option was first, I think people just automatically clicked it thinking it was just paypal and didn't realize they were signing up for anything! I knew it threw me off a couple times when I went to pay for something. I'm always slow when I click on anything, making sure I read and take my time so that I'm doing things correctly.

Also, whenever I went into my paypal account, there would be a LARGE button at the center of the page to go into the BillMeLater or a tiny button at the very top to go into my overview. Gee, I wonder which one PayPal wanted me to go into. It is just another way to trick people into pushing the wrong button.

To this day, I still do NOT have PayPal credit

But, like Corona said, I would not fault the consumer. PayPal designed it to trick the consumer. I'd lay most of the fault with PayPal. They need to play fair.

[Ponyfan]

I have a Bill Me Later account and had it for years before it changed to Paypal Credit. I still see a box every time I log in to Paypal to pay for something that says use Paypal Credit/Paypal Bill Me Later or continue to Paypal. I can see how it can be confusing for some people.

Ponyfan