—TechRound does not recommend or endorse any financial, gambling, betting or other advice or practices. All articles are purely informational—
Everyone has heard about PayPal, but not everyone knows what the name truly stands for. If you’ve always wondered what PayPal is and what makes it so important and popular, then you’re in for a treat. Here’s everything you need to know about PayPal as a service as well as the company behind it.
The Basics of PayPal
PayPal is one of the most popular online payment systems in the world, and while that alone says a lot about its status, many people wonder what it does exactly.
PayPal enables users to pay online using their bank accounts instead of credit cards while keeping all the payment information hidden from merchants, which is both secure and simple. Back in the day, PayPal pioneered this way of handling transactions, and it is still one of the most well-established and trusted companies in the industry.
Founded over 25 years ago, PayPal has now become a global service that operates in almost 200 markets, meaning that it covers most of the planet. As explained by Edward Howarth, author at DashTickets, this makes it highly valued in many countries that traditionally have limited access to different payment options, like New Zealand. To put it simply, if you plan on traveling far from home, PayPal might be one of the most reliable options available to you.
Key Features of PayPal
First and foremost, PayPal offers great buyer and seller protection thanks to encryption and the core design of the system. Your personal data is protected at all times and regular security checks make the platform probably the most reliable option for most users worldwide.
Secondly, PayPal simplifies any payment you make, enabling you to complete it with just a few clicks. This level of speed and convenience is what made the company so successful in the first place, and this is true to this day, PayPal is definitely keeping track of modern technologies and always offers the most efficient options for both businesses and individuals.
Another important distinction is that PayPal offers incredible currency conversion and international payment functionality, far exceeding most of its competitors in that respect. No matter which type of conversion you need to make, PayPal most likely allows it.
Finally, the PayPal mobile app is simply super convenient and makes payments even more seamless, which is a huge benefit on its own. While this feature isn’t unique to PayPal, several popular online payment services still struggle with creating a truly intuitive and simple user interface, which might not feel like a huge issue at first, but when you have to interact with it daily, the frustration tends to build up rather quickly.
Limitations of PayPal
While PayPal might provide great security, convenience, and speed, all of these qualities come at a certain cost. The company demands quite high fees for certain transactions, which include business transfers, for instance. Not only that, the company is known to freeze accounts without prior notice quite frequently due to its very strict compliance and fraud-prevention policies. As you can imagine, it can result in all sorts of problems that would require a lot of time to solve.
Lots of PayPal users find its customer support service not very helpful; the sheer size of the company and the number of requests it gets every minute makes it difficult to properly process them and respond quickly. If you have any issue that cannot be solved by reading FAQs, then you might have to wait a long time before the company provides a solution.
Finally, it is also worth pointing out that PayPal might not be accepted for some adult or gambling services, so if you plan on using those, you should probably consider other options.
PayPal has multiple competitors who don’t have these issues, like Stripe, Venmo, or Skrill, although while each of them is also a secure and reliable service provider, they have their own downsides. After all, there is a reason why so many companies choose PayPal despite its flaws.
—TechRound does not recommend or endorse any financial, gambling, betting or other advice or practices. All articles are purely informational—
