Wow, glad you caught that, Kate. But one additional warning. I get emails supposedly from PayPal ALL the time, saying someone has made unauthorized purchases on my account, and they are phishing...(phishes?) They want you to click on the link included and update your account. Never, EVER do that. Forward the email back to "spoof at PayPal dot com" and they will advise you of whether or not it is genuine. Most genuine notices will not ask you to click on any links. They will advise you to go to their homepage and access your account that way. Clicking on links in bogus emails can cause you all sorts of problems, ranging from being blasted with a virus or worm to allowing unauthorized access to your hard drive. So glad you went straight to their website, Kate, and checked it all out there. I check my bank account online every day to make sure anything they pay out is legit. Marcia

Hi Bill, Yeah, shipping between Canada and the U.S. is a challenge. What's next, passports to travel back and forth? Oh, that's right....nevermind lol. The PayPal thing might be a way to go, but there might be a few problems with that. First, that puts an additional burden on you - having to go out and buy the envelopes and then address all of them. Also, with all the changes that have been/are happening regarding buyer satisfaction on eBay (and therefore PayPal), you could be "exposed". These days it's pretty easy to pay for something with PayPal, receive what you bought, then cry "foul" and get a refund from PayPal, no questions asked. It doesn't have to be an eBay buy either. That leaves you in a "financial deficit". I'm not saying that WILL happen, just that it could. I haven't used IRCs before and, even after doing a little research, don't really understand them. On the surface, it looks like an IRC costs $2.10, which enables you to redeem it for international postage to reply to sender (me). Then there's the additional $1.00 to mail the envelope to you in the first place? Now we're up to $3.10. Within the States, we can do this round-trip envelope for less than two dollars. What about an International Business Reply Envelope which, according to USPS, is "A preaddressed response envelope that allows foreign senders to return to U.S. entities that originated them without having to affix postage." Up to 2oz. Cost: $1.45. I don't know how they work either, but it could be another option. Perhaps someone will come along with some actual experience doing this. Also, you might want to post this question on THP - There's a lot of international participation going on over there, if you know what I mean. You're on a noble quest, don't give up! Rick

I got a PP account only a few months ago, after years of trading on a hobbyist website using only Money orders and sometimes personal checks. it is much more convenient. That's it. In all, I don't trust them with jack. I keep the least amount of money possible in my account and have not given them my credit card number. Funnily enough the same thing happened to me today. I bought something that cost perhaps 5% more than I had funds for. So it ALL went into an e-Check status, and the seller says he is going to wait to ship because that's what the PP letter advised him to do. Let's see when it clears. However, about 10 hours after the e-check, my bank account still has not been touched. Paypal is the most draconian system I've ever seen. Make one false step and you're out some cash. I have a personal account, so I don't pay the 3% on an incoming payment IF that payment was NOT made by credit card. I received one once, and my full account was converted to a 3% level. I had to reject the payment (and lose the sale) so that I could revert my status. As for where does the money go? It's called Float, and yes it's a multi-billion dollar "business".

We also use paypal to receive payments on our rental properties. However, we encourage visitors to send us a check versus the paypal. We don't charge extra for using paypal, we just eat the extra expense. But if it was used all the time, we probably would need to start tacking on the extra fees to the visitors. We use paypal by telling them how to access our account (it's my email address) and then paypal walks them through the payment process. We do not have a direct link off of the website. Not sure that there is one, but if so, that would be a great feature. I have to comment on visitors though. I swear that one day I am going to write a book about my experiences. I have one right now (a couple rented for 2 weeks in March) To make a long story short, I collected $150 of their deposit and returned the rest (which I have only kept part of deposits maybe twice previously in renting properties for 9 years) so I don't make a habit of it. I am still to this day receiving threatening phone calls and messages from them about returning their deposit or they are going "to make sure I never rent my place again" and they are going to post notes on the website so that no one ever rents again and that the place is a dump and a joke. So on and so forth. Just unbelievable. Of course up to the point that I contacted them about the damages, they were extolling the virtues of the place. But whatever, it's really kind of creepy. There really are some nutty people out there.