so... what is the conclusion than for the wacky traveller ?

PayPal is no good for changing location if you want to pay for stuff... will be frozen until you get back home and go through all sort of paper crap... :nono:

CreditCard are not accepted (depending on the bank) in Turkey and Russia... may even elsewhere... until you cross the border to a neighbouring country ? :confused2:

What is the point of using the electronic payments in the 1st place than ? doh

at least we can turn the time wheel back and using the old cash in piles again... :innocent:

I think you've got it, Spooky: cash is king.

Once, newly arrived in Beyneu, Russia, from Uzbekistan, we had a hotel take and hold a $20 USD bill as collateral overnight until we could get to a bank and buy some rubles. No problem for them, no problem for us. It just took us a little while using hand signals to get it figured out.

I still carry my credit card, I have a Paypal account, and I still carry a cell phone. And when they work, it makes life easy; when they don't, you figure out a different way to get things done.


Isn't that why we go out and ride in 'foreign' places, anyway?

........shu

ohh yea in definitely... :funmeteryes:

The creative bit comes when trying to find new parts of the bike to hide the cash in!! Credit card companies, they can want an itinerary of where one is travelling or they also will freeze one's card account. Oh, the fun....

much as I dislike some of paypal's policies. in most instances paypal remains the safest with the lease amount of hassles to send/receive funds at a distance.

this is especially true for sending $$$ to folks at a distance you have never done business with. always fund paypal with your credit card if there is any question of folks you are dealing with.

if anything goes wrong, you credit company's clout is equal to paypal. ALL your funds will be yanked back if credit card co sides with you. which it almost always does. since credit card co is looking out for you, unlike paypal, who is primarily looking out for paypal's interest first.

paypal is not your friend ... their policies are to protect paypal .. plain and simple. but once you figure how to stay within their policies, odds are you will not have issues.

out of 400+ paypal transactions... I've NEVER had my funds blocked for any reason. I've never lost ANY $$$ when sending to a verified paypal account paid with a credit card.

what verified means is paypal sent a few cents to your bank account. then you've got to access your bank to find out what that amount is. 5cents or 22cents or what ever. then amount has to be input into verification form on paypal.

what this does is verify who you say you are... it's NOT possible to open a bank account anywhere without showing legal forms of ID.

Well, figuring out their policies is much of the battle, isn't it? I've them them freeze an account for months and never even found out why. Just for curiousity, how many of your 400 transactions took place outside of your home jurisdiction, particularly Eastern Europe, etc.?

most of my transaction were done on Candlepower forums. when I was active into Arc Flashlight mods. Aprox 1/3 of those transactions were overseas from all points in Asia, UK, France, Malaysia, HK, Canada, South Africa, etc. etc.

most of those transactions were incoming funds from other flashlight nuts. amounts typically were $55 to $350+ for high end flashlights. Amazing how active marketplace is on Candlepower forums.

and yes... a major part of dealing with paypal is knowing exactly what their policies are. LOTS of folks on CPF warning others of pitfalls and how to avoid.

please keep in mind a HUGE advantage of dealing with folks on specialized forums is .... folks that's got large number of posts, unlike myself being a noob on HUBB. a huge amount of trust is established by the report generated by being part of the family.

that's a HUGE part of the reason for my being active on HUBB. plans are to do a RTW ... support from HUBB community cannot help but be good for all.

A little balance?
 

Just wanted to chime in to say that I've used, and use, PayPal extensively with no problems.

I'm registered in the UK, have used paypal all over Europe, in Russia, Australia, the States, Morocco and on and on... no issues.

However, I'm also a pragmatist on the road and I always make sure I have several options. But PayPal is no good for paying for things 'on the road' in any case - I've not seen many petrol stations with 'accept paypal' stickers in their windows ;-)

What it IS good for is transferring money easily and quickly to anyone with a email address - great for sorting stuff overseas if you're on the road and need to get money somewhere quickly. It's the modern day equivalent of Western Union.

On the road I have.

Option 1 - Pre-paid Master Card in Euros and one in US$
Option 2 - Pre-paid Visa Card in Sterling £
Option 3 - Cash (which on the whole I try to avoid

As an ultimate back up I have my UK registered Debit Cards - but I bury them away.

I try to avoid using online banking in internet cafe's and that's where I find paypal to be of most use - I can move money 'one step removed' from my bank account and keep a firewall between possibly unsafe computers and me.... the other thing I like about paypal is I can do everything via text thus removing the need to do any finance on a potentially dodgy internet connection. I can top up all my pre-paid cards and move money into bank accounts that I can access without ever touching a computer - genius - and secure.

Balance is always the key.

m

this smacks of not knowing how to cover your ass with paypal. again... paypal's primary concern is to protect itself first. then sides whoever follows the rules.

who was in the right has NOTHING to do with who PayPal sides with in any dispute. for instance in above scenario, unless you've got written proof that person received paid for item. then far as Paypal is concern, buyer never received item.

paypal will then freeze your funds and send funds back to buyer. it's imperative to KNOW what paypal considers proof of delivery. for lower amount, it's an electronic tracking number. get a signed receipt that item was picked up in person, in good condition.

for items over $XXX dollars, it may require a signature as proof of delivery or what ever. then you've got crooked buyers that will claim items was not as advertised. they received a rock instead of that nice Iphone 4s or what ever.

then you have crooked sellers that will ship with tracking number with signature a ROCK, instead of that new iphone 4s.

this is why one takes LOTS of detailed pic's with mailing receipts. and then seller will probably still lose.

...its good option
 

been on the road for almost 9 years.
use paypal frequently
had a few times when its been frozen but always managed to get it sorted within hours..not days.

at least they do have some kind of security - which is good isnt it?
I find it invaluable - but of course not my only or main way of dealing with money!

also use credit card and visa delta.
always use online banking and so can pay/move/transfer $ about ...when there is some there to do that with!!!!

sometimes things will be frozen but I never really mind this as it shows security being implemented.
id rather have a few hours/days inconvienience than $$$ taken from my account to fraud! which has happend only twice in 9 years and has always been resolved to my benefit within hours of me being aware.

make sure you set up all your online passwords and access and use something like password safe or the equivalent for macs....before you leave home! make sure you can pay for any of your credit card usage online via your bank account...and make sure you set up the ability to transfer money from Paypal into your bank account also before you leave home as they will need to verify your first transaction and this is definitely easier to do whilst you are still at home........and so on.

all very do-able. and I would say that Paypal is only an added benefit.

cheers

opps....forgot to add....
 

opps.....but forgot to add this...

ALWAYS have cash on you! local currency and $ USD. for the majority of countries the US $ is still good.
we found however that russia does like the Euro - not sure if it still does now though with the issues the euro is having!

make sure you have a few 'safe' places to put your cash too :-)

cheers

some more balance.

I've just spent the last three days unfreezing my joint bank account with Santander because I had the gaul to set up a new payment to a new person and transfer some money to them!

Not just paypal. But as Lisa points out - better to have security and deal with that than deal with all your money going walkies when you're on the road.

I just got mine from the post office it has no monthly fee and I can easily top it up. However it does not have a credit build facility. Orange also have a pre-paid credit card but you have to pay each month for the card.

Non-US passport holder here:
I use PayPal frequently both to send and receive money - I find it very useful, despite the many complaints I've read from others.

Because of these complaints, I created a new savings account just for connecting to PayPal that I only keep a little money in. That way if there are any problems, PayPal can only screw with that and nothing else.

As some folks have said, PayPal costs you nothing if you don't use it. I say keep it open for emergency transfers, but don't depend on it and have other methods as backup.