Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

PayPal Goes Mobile

Posted by samzenpus on Wed Mar 22, 2006 09:14 PM
from the pay-on-the-go dept.
Portables The Almighty Buck Hardware
Stitch_Surfs writes "PayPal has gone mobile. MobileCrunch breaks the news (with images) of PayPal's (un) surprising move onto mobile phones. According to the site, money can be sent,received and goods purchased all via PayPal from your mobile phone."
+ -
story

Related Stories

[+] PayPal Brings Mobile Payments To U.S. 130 comments
An anonymous reader writes "PayPal is bringing the eastern use of the cellphone as a payment method to the United States. The company's mobile service aims to use secure text messages as a payment method for direct-marketing initiatives and other 'on-the-spot' mercantile opportunities." From the article: "To the extent that digital money doesn't feel like real money, it may increase spontaneous purchasing ... " This story offers more details on a discussion we had last month.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

PayPal Goes Mobile 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.

  • Not surprising (Score:5, Interesting)

    by turg (19864) * <<gro.notsniw> <ta> <grut>> on Wednesday March 22 2006, @09:16PM (#14977820) Journal
    I signed up for PayPal when they first started. They started out as a service for beaming payments between Palm Pilots. You put money into your PayPal account from your credit card or bank account. Then you'd sync your Palm with your PayPal account and you could beam money (via IR) to/from other peoples' Palms. And, as a secondary feature, you could transfer money to other people's accounts on the web site too.

    Well, it turned out that the the secondary feature was the one that took off and the one that was originally the whole point eventually got dropped. So this is really just a return to their original concept from 8 years ago rather than some suprising new idea.
    • as much as it was a novelty, it was great. it was incredibly dorky to be at a restaurant and have one person charge the meal on a credit card and everyone else to pull out their palm pilots and beam the card owner for their portion of the bill.

      i thought i heard there was some issue with security, or people not hot syncing enough or something that helped end the Palm based payment fun?
    • That was one of the things that I thought was cool about PayPal too. Unfortunately, by the time I got a PDA, they cancelled the service.
    • Before it was "paypal" wasn't it X.com?
      • Before it was "paypal" wasn't it X.com?

        No. X.com was a banking service that was later merged with Paypal. Paypal existed for processing payments before X.com was absorbed. I know this because I had accounts with both, and after X.com was taken over, they killed off the checking services.

        I was rather pissed that Paypal dropped the beamable cash idea (I chose not to pursue the same line of business for my startup at the time because they already had one up and running), so I'm glad they're finally putting
    • And given their latest business practices, it will take them 3-4 days to recover that money to a real bank account....

  • Strip clubs... (Score:4, Funny)

    by poopie (35416) on Wednesday March 22 2006, @09:18PM (#14977828) Journal
    Great - no need to use my ATM card at strip clubs anymore.

    Oh, wait... at least with my ATM card, I'm limited to *TWO* days maximum withdrawls for monetary damage (max out before midnight, max out after midnight).
  • Info from the PayPal site, since there's only a screen capture at mobilecrunch:

    How do I activate my phone to send and receive mobile payments?
    You can activate your phone for use with PayPal by following these steps:

    Here's How:

    Go to https://www.paypal.com/mobile [paypal.com]
    Click the Activate button.
    Log in to your PayPal account or sign up for a PayPal account.
    Select or add a phone and create a mobile PIN.
    Click Continue.
    PayPal will call and prompt you to enter your mobile PIN to confirm that you have posse
  • Hmm, I couldn't find any mentions of passwords.

  • Mobile sounds well and good, but.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MasJ (594702) on Wednesday March 22 2006, @09:20PM (#14977839) Homepage
    Well, Paypal on the go sounds pretty good, it's an alternative to putting your credit card number in over a mobile network, and sounds much safer. However, how many people here feel that this would open up an entire audience of really susceptible users to phishing scams ?

    Wouldn't it be harder to spot a phishing scam over a mobile device considering that the display on a mobile is pretty limited in screen real estate ? On good ol' 'puters you can just move your mouse over the hyperlink and make out that it's a scam.

    • Re:Mobile sounds well and good, but.. (Score:4, Informative)

      by AuMatar (183847) on Wednesday March 22 2006, @10:05PM (#14978008)
      Credit cards are issued by banks and have strict federal regulation. Paypal is NOT a bank, as decided by a federal court, and is under no regulation. I'd rather use a credit card.

    • Re:Mobile sounds well and good, but.. (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      "Wouldn't it be harder to spot a phishing scam over a mobile device considering that the display on a mobile is pretty limited in screen real estate ? On good ol' 'puters you can just move your mouse over the hyperlink and make out that it's a scam."

      Technically, no..
      Mobile to Mobile - shows the phone number "MIN" of the original sender
      SNPP and Email to SMS - shows the same MIN as destination. IE. it appears to be from myself

      Which basically leaves only a few options left, but this Paypal thing I presume is
  • Well, if I use this, I'll be sure to put my phone on lock mode. I never really felt the need before, since it's a small hassle to punch in the pass every time I want to use it, but I'm sure I'll lose it somewhere at some point.

    Looks like it could be handy, and there's a lot more info at the PayPal site, do a search for 'phone'.

  • Until Paypal address the issues presented by PaypalSucks [paypalsucks.com] and similar sites, I'm going to continue to feel disillusioned about what was once the cat's pajamas.

    But anyway, looks like O'Reilly will need to update Paypal Hacks [amazon.com] with information on this new mobile device support. The 2004 edition is getting noticeably out-of-date.

    • After reading that site and a few stories of users that have had their accounts locked by PayPal, I'm convinced that that is no rare phenomenon and I try to avoid using PayPal as much as I can.

      I am eagerly looking forward to an alternative like GBuy (is it really?) so I can feel a bit safer making transactions on the web. Knowing that I might create something that finally allows me to make a decent bit of money only to have PayPal lock my account and take all of it isn't very reassuring.
      • My friend two weeks ago had an issue where he did not receive $120.00 which was sent by someone who confirms that he sent it. A typical story of "Wtf PayPal didn't work..". Unlike what many fo those stories say, there is a phone number on the PayPal site to contact somebody to speak to (and not a machine). Idin't hear the whole conversation but basically the PayPal guy explained the steps to do in order to fix the problem and receive the money he should of had and he got it.

        The point is that many of these s
        • Wow. a whole _one_ datapoint!

          Look at the number on the website. Area code (402)? Doesn't look toll-free to me. Of course they make you wait on the phone. It's not costing _them_ anything to leave you on the phone for 20 minutes.

          Until they provide a 1-800 number that works from Canada; then they're still scumbags.

    • If you haven't heard about the shady dealings of paypal, then you need to visit the website posted in the parent. A much more reliable and safe alternative can be found here [995merchantaccounts.com].

      But who knows. Maybe this'll get them in shape... at least enough to not fuck with people's money.

  • Um... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AWhiteFlame (928642) on Wednesday March 22 2006, @09:27PM (#14977878) Homepage
    I don't recall ever having the need to pay something with credit card on my phone. If I'm there, and I have my phone, why not just..er...pay with a credit card? Its not like I'll be ebaying on an 1 1/2" screen... Am I missing something?

  • PayPal already has a mobile (WAP) interface... (Score:5, Informative)

    by nxtw (866177) on Wednesday March 22 2006, @09:32PM (#14977898)
    PayPal has had a mobile interface for years, via WAP.
    http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/mob ile-outside [paypal.com]

  • Are you freakin' kidding me? (Score:5, Informative)

    by mrshowtime (562809) on Wednesday March 22 2006, @09:33PM (#14977901)
    Paypal has a hard on for "limiting" account access for just about any reason today. Does anyone see the nightmare of trying to use paypal on a mobile phone? You had might as well call paypal and ask them to suspend your account, because 10 seconds after you sign up for "paypal mobile" your paypal account will suddenly have "suspicious" activity (you actually using it)and will be limited for "your" protection. Paypal limited my account access when I was using my paypal debit card out of state (one state over) to buy GAS. It was just ONE transaction and -that- triggered their fraud flags?! Maybe if google was doing this, but paypal, forget it.
    • That's odd. I don't believe that was the sole reason your account as limited.

      They should have called and confirmed that you made the purchase if they suspected fraud, like any responsible financial institution. Perhaps they locked the account temporarily because you weren't reachable?

      I have yet to be marked for "suspicious" activity for something so silly. PayPal did limit my account until they had a verified banking account & verified identity (by that point, I had made a lot of transactions already

  • TextPayMe? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MostlyHarmless (75501) <artdent&freeshell,org> on Wednesday March 22 2006, @09:40PM (#14977920)
    It sounds like they're placing themselves squarely as the 800-pound-gorilla against TextPayMe [textpayme.com] -- one of the Y Combinator [ycombinator.com]-funded startups. This may be interesting for both parties.
  • This is going to be a boon for tech-savvy thugs. Now you don't even have to lead a guy to his ATM at gunpoint anymore.

  • Number spoofing risk? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tokengeekgrrl (105602) on Wednesday March 22 2006, @10:07PM (#14978020)
    Cell phone traffic isn't encrypted, is it? Couldn't someone spoof someone else's phone number and have them send money to them and then they disable the account as soon as they've collected?

    When you consider the lengths that identity thieves and phishing scams will go to, it's not completely unfeasible.

    But I could be completely on crack so if what I'm saying is completely ludicrous, please disregard.

    - tokengeekgrrl
    • Well, yes they are. But does it really matter? If the encryption is too difficult to break, then much easier ways exist [viruses, con artists, phishing, etc].. After all, nobody today downloads ringtones or plays games on their cell phone...

      Besides, I remember hearing that the encryption was blatantly crippled with digital cell phones when they first came out. Not sure if anything was improved or not.
    • Spoofing the originating phone number could only be done from inside the carrier's network (difficult in itself, especially if you're intended to not be traceable), and someone else mentioned they do a callback to the originating number to ask for your PIN, so you'd have to be able to intercept the call and know the PIN also to do it.

      So should be okay.

  • Why not? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Saeed al-Sahaf (665390) on Wednesday March 22 2006, @10:21PM (#14978090) Homepage
    PayPal has gone mobile.

    Why not. Everything else about my cell phone is designed to suck money out of my wallet.

  • TextPayMe [textpayme.com] has been doing the same thing for a while now and it works pretty well for me. Paypal has too many horror stories for me to want to use them. I'd prefer that they have some successful competitor that forces them to improve. They need successful competition in this mobile market place, otherwise it will become just like the online marketplace where their customer service suffers and they can lock accounts at will because, well, you don't really have many other options.

    No PayPal for me, I'll be usin
  • If I remember correctly, you could pay with a mobile phone since 1998 in developed countries. I am pretty sure that teens in Czech Republic would laugh at the things you consider "new features" as something that surely existed before they had been born. The state of mobile market in US is indeed pathetic.

  • Direct Linkage (Score:4, Informative)

    by RickPartin (892479) * on Wednesday March 22 2006, @10:46PM (#14978190) Homepage
    Please Slashdot link to the article and not the front page KTHX. Here is the direct link for people reading this in the future. http://mobilecrunch.com/2006/03/22/paypal-goes-mob ile/ [mobilecrunch.com]
  • The original PayPal was a Palm app, that let you beam money back and forth between your friends. Say bob picked up the bill, mary could beam 3 bucks to him to pick up her Latte. I think I have $5 of money beamed to me someplace i can't pick up.

    The problem it was too clunky. You could get real money, but you'd have to have a computer, connected to the palm, and the internet. You'd upload your transactions, backing it with your credit card account.

    Eventually PayPal learned that the clunkiest part was gett
    • I don't see where you'd endter a pin or password, sounds sketchy.

      It calls you back a few seconds after you press SEND for you to enter your pin. It addresses you by name, I just tested it by sending some money to my wife's phone - confused the hell out of her (she *was* sitting beside me) cuz I didn't tell her what I was doing ... now I need to sign her up for a PayPal account.

    • Just think, in a year or so local businesses might start supporting this, allowing you to pull out your phone and pay for goods, just like that!

      I just tested it. It takes longer than swiping a debit card and typing in a PIN. It'll be useful in some situations though.

    • You can buy things today with your phone (like ring tones, wallpaper, etc). The problem is the phone carriers charge 20%-40%. Paypal charges a tenth of that, so the companies can either make more profit or lower their prices.
      Also, PayPal will allow you to buy all sorts of products, and it will handle the ordering, payment, and shipping, all you have to do is read the confirmation emails.
        • Credit cards already have an excellent system in place to do that, and the big chains (Walmart, Kroger, Safeway, etc.) can negotiate a really low rate with Visa/MC.
          For that to be done through a cell phone, the phone would have to somehow carry a pre-pay balance, or they'd have to extend credit, which requires a banking charter in the US. So really what you'd essentially be doing is tying a Visa account to your cell phone, rather than a plastic card. One less item to carry around.
          PayPal will probably enter
          • PayPal will probably enter into the brick and mortar payments industry in the next several years,

            If that's the case, then won't they be bound by banking laws that they're basically immune from right now?

        • Since the SIM can hold encrypted validation, it should be reasonably easy to come up with a safe scheme to put charges on the phone and have them show up on the monthly phone bill, like a credit card.

          1. Not all phones use SIMs. (Only GSM phones do, IIRC...CDMA, TDMA, iDEN, and analog phones (does anybody still use analog?) don't.)
          2. On the last GSM phone I used, the SIM was buried under the battery. I don't think having to dig it out of the phone to make a payment would be all that convenient.
            • 1. All 3G phones use SIM cards; it is so mandated in the 3GPP spec.

              I don't know what your point in saying that was, but the OP stated a fact. Not all phones have SIM cards; what does 3G have to do with anything? Not all phones are 3G.

              Ask anyone with service through Sprint - our fancy CDMA phones don't have a SIM card.

              • Also, 3GPP doesn't cover all 3G phones. 3G GSM yes, 3G CDMA2000 no. CDMA2000 1xEV-DO is 3G and has no requirement for SIM cards, and in fact does not even support SIM cards.
    • "Dear paypal. There are people living outside UK and US"

      yeah, there are also people living INSIDE uk/us/canada, what's your point?

      Aside from the "under no obligation to offer a service" issue, do you have any idea how much work's involved in rolling out a service, worldwide, that's reliant on each different network operator in each country, all at once? Especially with the required security in place for this kind of service?

      The fact that they'd want to try it in some places, monitor it's success, tune the s
        • That definitely adds to their case... they need to sort out the basic service before offering new ones - if anything, for pure marketting reasons. If they released this service in india under those conditions, it would become known for it. If they sorted out the 28day thing first, /then/ released the service, it would become known as the new service without the bad name that it would have otherwise.

          It doesn't seem that complicated to me.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.