Shirley, some sellers will not ship to someone whose address is not verified. I believe that Paypal protection for the Seller is not valid if they ship to an unverified Buyer.

Stoney is correct. When I was an active seller, I refused to sell to unverified buyers. There was no recourse if a sale went south.

How do you find out IF you're verified or not? I'm pretty new to PayPal.

CB ... when you log into Paypal, just underneath your name it will say

Account Type: whatever your account type is
Status: Verified.

I don't buy much from strangers, but do buy from well known businesses. I did on one occasion buy a $450 doll, needless to say I was very nervous until I got it. Greed made me do that, it was worth twice the price I paid.

Paypal is not just for eBay. Paypal allows you to instantly transfer funds to anyone who has a Paypal account. It's better than Western Union. Better than sending a check through the mail. More online businesses accept Paypal also.

Here is a link that might be useful: Why Verify?

Gadgets,

I would strongly advise to remove your checking acct. from your Paypal account too. When I joined Paypal, I used a credit card with a small credit limit for online purchases only and this credit card is linked to it. I buy textbooks for my daughter who is in college and Paypal is almost always requested. Nothing on the Internet is 100% secure. If I do get hacked, they won't get much because of my small limit on my credit card.

OH! This is a timely post for me. I'm trying to figure out how to rent our Maui condo using Pay Pal. I thought I had it figured out until VRBO refused to permit a Pay Pal 'button' on their site -- which is where our ad runs.

When I go to the Pay Pal introduction, it looks like everything is set up to sell *items*. I'm selling a vacation rental. (We've accepted checks and money orders for years, but I think we are missing some bookings by not accepting credit cards. I don't want to pay CC fees, and frankly, I don't want to know other peoples' CC numbers! LOL)

Any help?

I set up a separate checking account with just a few dollars in it to link to Paypal - I didn't want to give them any access to my main account. If you can find a free checking account with no low-balance fees, that would get you verified without exposing your regular account.

I've never tried to sell with Paypal, so I'm not much help there! Although I've had sellers email me an invoice, so even if you can't include a link in the ad, you might still be able to send someone a request for money once they give you their email address. I don't know how Paypal would handle a dispute about a rental though - when you ship an item, you can provide proof of shipping to protect yourself, but I'm not sure what would happen when nothing is shipped.

Someone in the computer help forum suggested you buy a gift card and use it for online purchases. If anyone tries to use it they don't have access to your bank account.

I don't understand the fear of giving bank account info to Paypal. It is one of the most secure online financial institution around. Their security is as good and even better than some banks.

When you pay through them your bank account or credit card info isn't shared with anyone. They are the middleman that can protect you from identity theft.

Online banking and bill paying is so much safer than using snail mail. When you do a financial transaction online you are immediately notified by email. Not so with snail mail.If your check or money order or credit card payment in the mail gets lost or stolen it could be a month before you find out about it. With online purchases an payments you know immediately. Paypal adds one more layer of security to the process.

I wonder how many of you that mistrust Paypal happily write checks, hand over debit cards and give credit cards to strangers every day. The clerks the gas station guy,the food servers and even the post office.

Lose a gift card? Anyone can use it. Same with many debit cards and credit cards. Some places don't even require a pin to use them for purchases under a certain amount. Swipe and go. No one checks ID or even the back of the card.

Online is so much safer on so many levels. I shop online whenever possible. I have bought large ticket items like a 5000.00 range and most recently cabinetry. Never had a problem. Well one guy didn't send and 10.00 widget and Paypal refunded me.

DS is a security guy and he has probably made over hundreds of thousands in dollars of online transactions and has never had a problem.

I use paypal to buy stuff all the time... and I have never given my bank account info to them...only my credit card. I have never seen the need to also provide the bank info. -- why? No one has ever rejected my money yet -LOL.

I'm not all that paranoid about giving my bank info. I just see no need for it. I have yet to see any disadvantage to not giving it and have never run into a problem with someone who won't accept my paypal payment without it.

I could be wrong... but I don't think ebay, for example, is even set up to discriminate against those who aren't verified. I am curious to those who don't sell to unverified buyers....How do you/sellers even know if someone is verified or not before the sale goes through? Do you just reject the money if someone sends money who is not verified, or how does it work???