PayPal is an Internet business which allows the transfer of money between email users, avoiding traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders. PayPal also performs payment processing for e-commerce vendors, auction sites, and other corporate users, for which they charge a fee. As of this writing, they do not charge for small money transfers.
PayPal, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, was founded in 1998 by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. Due to the manner in which they operate, they do not qualify as a bank and they are not obligated to abide by the legislation that governs banks.
PayPal was bought by eBay in June 2002. PayPal had previously been the payment method of choice by many users on eBay, and the service competed with eBay's own BillPoint system. Thus, the acquisition was a natural one for eBay.
PayPal is the most widely used service of its kind. However, a number of users have had frustrating situations with PayPal authorities. A controversial aspect of PayPal is that they have a policy and history of closing accounts and withholding funds for reasons that they will not disclose.
Competitors include Yahoo's Paydirect service, and services offered by Citibank. Yahoo's competing service is currently free for all users after the web portal briefly experimented with, and soon abandoned, the idea of collecting additional fees from consumers.
External links
Objective - Paypal User Reviews at "Eopinions.com"
