Leaving ~$500 in Paypal as an EDC-gear slush fund: Good or bad idea?

Professor

Professor

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Apr 6, 1999
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All,

I'd appreciate your advice here. It's probably been discussed before but I wasn't sure exactly on the boards to search...

Having used Paypal for many years now for BFC and online auction transactions, I've always been pretty quick to withdraw my balances on sold items, transferring it to my bank account that's connected.

Is there any inherent danger or concern with maintaining a Paypal balance of around $500? Are the funds subject to any hidden fees or "storage dues" that deduct from your balance over time?

Just curious, and I thank you in advance for your assistance. Best to all.

Prof.
 
Only the fact that it would convert quickly to EDC gear as far as I know.

I have a probably irrational fear that the $$ is safer in a bank account, but it probably for the most part unfounded.

I am not aware of any long term fees and such.
 
Simple Man said:
I have a probably irrational fear that the $$ is safer in a bank account, but it probably for the most part unfounded.
Click to expand...

Not that unfounded. PayPal has had a reputation for freezing accounts for no reason. That being said, the majority of the time, people have no issues. Myself included. I've forgotten to withdraw funds from a sale before, no issues at all.
 
calc said:
Not that unfounded. PayPal has had a reputation for freezing accounts for no reason. That being said, the majority of the time, people have no issues. Myself included. I've forgotten to withdraw funds from a sale before, no issues at all.
Click to expand...

That has happened to once a long time ago they froze my funds until they confirmed my bank account.
 
I trust PayPal about as far as I can throw them. I maintain a zero balance in my PayPal account. I opened a separate online checking account and linked it to PayPal for verification purposes, but I never keep more than $100 in that account. Almost all of my PayPal purchases are made using a Credit Card. That gives me something to fall back on besides PayPal if a deal goes south. So far, so good.
 
In general paypal is pretty safe as long as you have good password practices. keeping in mind that a lot of paypal freezes are automated to lock things down until a person can look at them. I've had a couple problems with paypal, but they were my fault (always sell a thing, even if its a digital thing, ship something) If you are going to leave funds there, make sure you keep up to date on the terms and conditions as they change, and make sure the funds are accessible before you buy. (I had a refund put on hold while I placed a new order, because of my terrible bank I ended up with an overdraft. my fault and my banks, not paypal's)
bld522, are you using paypal to charge to the credit card? Thats a better system than just using a credit card, as right now in the case of a vender hack, you will be secure. But make sure that your credit protection terms of service still cover you for those paypal purchases. Things are changing right now with the new US consumer credit protection laws, so things might get weird for a bit. I no longer make an online purchase unless its via paypal. Even though I have other options here in Australia (Banks allow direct funds transfers for purchases) I just don't trust them as much.
 
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