Which do you prefer? Paypal, 2checkout or Merchant account?

[think144]

I am looking for some opinions here. Which do you prefer more, Paypal, 2CO or a Merchant Account? Thanks

[PremiumHosted]

I always thought paypal was a handy tool :)

[striker]

I hate PayPal, and hosts which only use PayPal should not be taken seriously. Just visit www.paypalsucks.com . PayPal is good for 2 things: Donating and eBay. 2CO and Merchant Account are much better IMO.

[PremiumHosted]

I strongly disagree with you.

Paypal does have its ups and downs but its my only way of getting my money over the internet.

It allows people to transfer money, take out money and a very handy tool. I've had no troubles with it.

Can you suggest anything better?

[striker]

Yea: 2checkout and merchant account... Why do you need PayPal to pay for hosting? It's a needless "middle man". PayPal isn't bad, but it's not what you should use for hosting.

[CareBear]

I wouldn't consider PayPal a valid form of payment for anything online. I'm interested in paying for whatever it is I'm buying, not getting stuck with an account that I'm never going to use and that I will get spammed for to maintain every two months.
As long as PayPal couples it's service to a required signup for an account, I'm just going to look elsewhere for the same product.

As far as hosting goes, I'd consider a host with a third party processor over one that handles payment themselves. If there's a dispute about charges, or if the host goes out of business, there's noone else left to negotiate with.

When I cancelled with my first host ever, they kept saying they refunded but never actually did; forwarding all of the conversation to the third party processor eventually made them withdraw the funds from the host's account and refund my credit card.
On the flip side, one host I'm currently with now switched from third party to handling it by themselves. Instead of blanking out everything except 4 or 8 digits of the card number, my card number is there in its full glory along with expiration date and full address. Hardly something that makes me feel secure.

[think144]

fyi, paypal no longer requires signup to purchase.

[Jan]

I hate PayPal, and hosts which only use PayPal should not be taken seriously. Just visit www.paypalsucks.com . PayPal is good for 2 things: Donating and eBay. 2CO and Merchant Account are much better IMO.
That is a very broad statement indeed. Many reputable hosts use paypal along with other alternatives because that is what the population want. Some domain registrars use it because there is a need. Many reputable ad companies offer it as an alternative to the high cost of cashing cheques in some countries. But they do have TOS like any company and if you abuse it, your account will be locked.

[eBoundary]

We use paypal in certain situations (like if an existing client (~3+ months) asks to change to paypal), we never offer paypal as an option for new account signups and never for colocation or dedicated servers.

this is a policy decision mainly due to the fact I dislike PayPals handling of fraud complaints. A malicious user can inconvenience legitimate loyal clients by having your paypal account locked which in turn kills all your current subscriptions. Not only is that a pain for us but it is a pain for the clients effected and makes you look unprofessional. Not worth the hassle in my opinion.

[striker]

But Jan, I said hosts which only use PayPal should not be taken seriously. I know that hosts which have the option of using it are in fact making the right choice as it opens up a new line of customers. I was just saying that if it was the only option I would stay away...

[wms sales]

Paypal works good.

[Curtis H.]

From a clients perspective, I would not and have not ever used a hosting provider that only offers PayPal as a payment option.

From a business point of view, I use a 3rd party processor.

[TopQHost]

we use PayPal and 2CheckOut.