PayPal Brings Mobile Payments To U.S.

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.

Oh good!

[by Anonymous Coward]

Now I can fall victim to a phishing scam anywhere

PayPal sucks

[by Anonymous Coward]

So, what's wrong with PayPal?
What do I need to know about PayPal and what about the lawsuit?

http://www.paypalsucks.com/ [paypalsucks.com]

1. According to PayPal accepting their ToS (Terms of Service) in effect means you waive your rights to credit card consumer protection laws if you want to use their service, and that you may not issue a chargeback for unauthorized use of your credit card and PayPal account, or if you do, then they have the right to limit your account. Is this legal? We don't know. But it's how Paypal operat

Great

[bl00d6789 (714958)]

So, on top of the already outrageous eBay and Paypal fees, there will be text messaging fees. I'll be sure to use this on a regular basis. Paypal is already worse than my bank when it comes to ridiculous fees.

Re:Great

[iamdrscience (541136)]

That's not really true, Paypal only charges fees on credit card transactions and the fees they charge are reasonably well in line with what other credit card gateways charge merchants when you purchase something from them with a credit card.

Whether the fees charged by credit card gateways are too much is another matter, and seems like it might be the case. I seem to recall class-action suits being brought against Mastercard by merchants because they felt the fees they charged were unjustified.

The fact of the matter though, is that although as a consumer you generally don't realize it, merchants always take a hit on credit sales and it's not always small. There are plenty of legitimate complaints about paypal and I don't see this as being one.

Logical

[gerbalblaste (882682)]

This is a logicalextension of paypal's increasingly omnipresent marketing and services.
Paypal has diversified into many diferent branches and while this new mobile payment may be subject to some criticism and a degree of scepticism it is likely that this will come to be as pervasive as credit cards.

What I want...

[Snuggly_Soft (647073)]

...is to be able to take a picture with my camera phone of a barcode on an item that I want to purchase. This would bring up comparison shopping info about the item, etc. If I want to buy the item, I'd just push pound or whatever.

Re:What I want...

[jrockway (229604)]

If you send a text message to GOOGL with the barcode number, it will return comparison shopping information. Unfortunately, in America everything is cheaper online, so there's no real point in going shopping anyway.

An ounce of prevention...

[Fantasio (800086)]

No parent will buy a cellphone to their kid unless the feature is disabled.

The perfect model

[nighty5 (615965)]

What a sensational business model.

1) Act and charge like a real bank, but don't say you're one.

2) Offer no real customer service, treat customers like thieves, offer no financial protection, unlike a real bank don't be forced to implement security and continity controls

3) Profit!

The Original Concept

[by Anonymous Coward]

This interests me primarily because PayPal was originally designed as a mobile payment service for PDA users. Mobile phones now incorporate a substantial amount of functionality that was once restricted to the PDA.

Maybe their original idea was simply ahead of its time.

TextPayMe already does this

[pHatidic (163975)]

TextPayMe already provides this exact same service. I wonder if they have a patent on it.

I'm confused

[TubeSteak (669689)]

Secure & text message don't really belong together.

SIM cards & phones can be cloned. IIRC, the text messaging network is susceptible to a DOS. Your cellphone isn't a credit card... you can't exactly charge back someone else's impulse buy.

Re:I'm confused

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

Oh, I'm sure PayPal will do everything in their power to make sure there are plenty of protections in place for consumers.

</cynicism>

Nothing logical about this

[tehwebguy (860335)]

so far the only thing they seem to be pushing is cd/dvd sales -- how the hell could it possibly be convenient to buy a cd via paypal via phone? why would i want to send a text message, and then receive a call in order to find out the price and shipping?

if i want music, i want it now, so if i'm shopping i will buy it at the campus music store, or if i am home i will buy it on itunes. the only time i buy cd's online at all are when they are not on itunes or at the cd store.

there's still hope though!

what if i could buy my movie tickets on my phone instead of waiting in line at the theater? that would actually be cool.

All the more reason...

[TheRealMindChild (743925)]

All the more reason to steal someone's cell phone...

Nice...

[Ecko7889 (882690)]

So now after the hookers done, all I got to do is text her?

We'll call it Pay4Pal.

Good Idea Gone Horribly Wrong

[mpapet (761907)]

This problem has been solved years ago and the average mobile phone is more than capable of working as an electronic purse. A mobile phone needs no centralized network to process transactions and most certainly is more efficient and trackable than paper currency and Visa/MC association payments.

A tangentially related way to see how abusive things are in the association world is Walmart wants to open a "bank" so they can keep a piece of the Visa/MC Association rent.

The way this will be implemented will be the same old very inefficient way of processing payments with each company in the "chain" demanding their pound of flesh along the way.

This idea is DOA.

You definitely need centralization...

[xiphoris (839465)]

A mobile phone needs no centralized network to process transactions and most certainly is more efficient and trackable than paper currency and Visa/MC association payments.

Of course it needs a centralized network. Otherwise, what's to prevent me from hacking my phone and changing the amount of money that I have?

I understand what you're saying, in a sense: the transaction processing does not have to be centralized but it definitely must be authoritative. Without an authority, you must trust the phone

PayPal International Support

[suv4x4 (956391)]

I'd like to take the word tonight to whine about PayPal not supporting my country, Bulgaria.

Every time I see a PayPal donate / purchase button I'm automatically filtered out since they just don't support my country and declineto accept my credit cards if I try to sign up.

For what is considered the most popular micropayments system in the world, they'd do better to hurry up and actually support the world..

Re:PayPal International Support

[suv4x4 (956391)]

"The reason why PayPal (and most other financial institutions) don't support the eastern european countries is that those countries are notorious for the sheer number of fraudsters. So much so that it is not worth it to provide service there."

Thanks for standing behind an old stereotype that offers quick answers. However you may notice that "fraudsters" script kiddies can obtain US credit card numbers and then sign up without problems for PayPal.

It's guys like me who want to sign up with their own credit card that have the problem. The credit card operators in Bulgaria are the same as those well known internationally (MasterCard, Visa, Diners Club etc.).

And to bust another stereotype, it's not "most other financial institutions" that don't support Eastern Europe, from the big payment processing companies, the problem is specifically with PayPal.

Re:PayPal International Support

[drazvan (93345)]

I second this, I'm getting tired of all this "we don't support Eastern European clients" crap. I'm in Romania and have both debit and credit cards issued by Romanian banks. A Romanian client signing up with a Romanian credit card from a Romanian IP is definitely less likely to be a fraudster then someone signing up with a US credit card from an IP in Eastern Europe and asking for his goods to be shipped there.

Fantastic

[xenocide2 (231786)]

Now I can lose my cell phone and my credit card at the same time!

Re:Great

[cbreaker (561297)]

You seem cynical. Perhaps you don't have enough money.

Re:And when the phone is stolen?

[Dex Ro (222863)]

An automatic system makes a voice call to your phone after you have texted "send 14.99 to 2125551212" to 729725 ((PAYPAL)) and you touch-tone back a PIN which you set up when you activated the PayPal Mobile service. So the phone thief would need your PIN, not just your phone.

Re:So I'm on the street in new york..

[big tex (15917)]

Guy: "Hi, sir, [remainder of unlikely made up theoretical story] This'll be fantastic!
--
Get a free Macbook Pro for yourself, and help me do the same. [free4me.net]

Right. Like we're supposed to take 'how to not get scammed' advice from a guy advertising a pyramid scheme [wikipedia.org] in his sig.

If you believe that stuff, getting fleeced by paypal's service or loosing your phone are probably not at the top of your problems.