Bonus Bonanza!?

So, I get the email with this subject and when I bite, it just contains a list of shops with fees that are not bonused. Hmm, foiled again. So I log in to the MSC to see if the bonuses are hidden within the shop details, only to find that I cannot see anything until I sign up for YET ANOTHER THIRD PARTY PAYMENT SYSTEM!
I do remember getting an earlier notice about that but I haven't used this MSC in years. I don't think I'll miss anything, they just haven't had jobs that interest me.

I'm really not crazy about all these third parties. At all. Bill.com, Tilapia (I know I know), Stripe and I think there were another one or two besides Paypal. How about I just post my banking details on Google so every internet company can have it? Seems like that's what's happening.

Vent over.

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

More About Bonuses

Last year, Informa decided to change payment to the third company since we began our relationship, I sent them a notice that I would not be a part of remitter #4. Enough is enough.

I think of Tipalti as Tilapia, too.

I think it's perfectly fine for an MSC to use a non-Paypal payment system. What is NOT ok is when it keeps switching payment vendors. We shoppers are not guinea pigs; our time and data security are valuable. When an MSC repeatedly changes its payment system in a short period, it makes me wonder whether the MSC did its due diligence.

I'm not sure it's always a due diligence issue. Just like some consumers do bank account churn, the MSCs could be doing their version of payment system churn. Either they're offered a bonus to switch from system A to system B, or system B says, "Hey, switch to us, and we'll give you exactly what you're getting with system A, but for $XXX less."

If they don't put much thought into treating ICs fairly to begin with, showing concern for our data privacy won't even be a blip on their radar.

If your path dictates you walk through hell, do it as though you own the place. -unknown

I think, if I were to be forced to give my information to yet another payment system I would use a separate account at a completely separate bank from the one that I use for everything else. The only payment system I actually trust is Paypal. I've used Tilapia (lol) successfully, but I do not trust them, and I'm afraid I'm going to forget how to collect money from them again if I ever work for that company again. So I think, I may put this new bank account I just opened to work for me collecting money from folks that don't need access to my regular bank accounts.

Checkbook.io is another one. If they can't bother to get a dot com address, I'm suspicious of them.

One that hasn't been mentioned: Checkbook.

It's like they come crawling out of the woodwork.

Edited: Susan beat me to it.

If your path dictates you walk through hell, do it as though you own the place. -unknown

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2024 10:32PM by drdoggie00.

Actually I don't trust PayPal. Too many stories of them just taking people's money without explanation with some vague reference to TOS. But I agree having to keep up with so many in unmanageable. Knowing me I probably have $20 from some one-off shop sitting somewhere I have completely forgotten about.

I haven't shopped with ACL long, but I liked that they did attempt to switch from paper check to direct deposit. While it didn't work out for that long, I liked that they did communicate the issue early and remedied it by distributing electronic checks.

I sort of have the same concern with the MSC having SSN. Some sites appear more secure than others. That was one reason I was hesitant to sign up with as many MSCs early on.

Funny thing with PayPal. When I pay my PayPal credit card from any source, PayPal or my bank, they take a day or two to actually credit the payment.

Now a day doesn't kill me, but how many millions of users are they using that one day float of money from?

@shopperbob

did you terminate Informa? Or just waiting until they change again to something you like?

BTW< i still call them Informa too. I won't call them by their goofy new name either.

Informa is probably the only company I am willing to jump thru hoops for.

Tipalti is lame because each MSC has their unique login. Paypal is easy because it doesn't matter who pays you, it's 1 login and you can see your activity.

Only time I was pissed with Paypal was in 2017 when the Dodgers make their first world series in 29 years (from 1988). I had been selling my season tickets for 10+ years with them and constantly getting payments of $50-$200 per game. World Series time and now tickets are like $1000 to $1500 each. So I'm getting huge payments and they want to put a hold on my money. I fought it and proved I had the season tickets. I told the clowns, you think i've been running some small time scam for over 10 years to finally do something stupid like this. I showed them the invoice for my season seats and they released the money immediately. Best year of selling my seats was that year. $36K in profit for the 4 home games at dodger stadium!!!

@shopperbob wrote:

Last year, Informa decided to change payment to the third company since we began our relationship, I sent them a notice that I would not be a part of remitter #4. Enough is enough.

Daddy, I am still with the company. Below, is a recap of my pay experience.

Originally, it is my recollection, they paid through PayPal after the discontinuation of checks. Then there came the switch to Zelle, As my bank was a member of that remitter, I did not anticipate a problem; I was wrong. There existed a cell phone requirement the bank was unwilling to waive. I decided the fees were worth opening an account with a member bank that did not require a cell. Next, after a few years, Tipalti entered the scene. Had my work for Informa not been lucrative, I would have bailed. IF another switch occurs, I am finished.

Aside from the above, in the 15 or so yrs. of our relationship, all has been well. I understand their decisions were business.

@mystery2me wrote:

Actually I don't trust PayPal. Too many stories of them just taking people's money without explanation with some vague reference to TOS.

Best I can tell, those issues are only for those who sell stuff and use PayPal to receive payment. They've made it to easy for the buyer to file a claims negating sales. I used to sell music gear on eBay, but with the PayPal changes, I've moved to Reverb, a music-dedicated site with a much better system to protect both buyers and sellers.

I've been with PayPal for decades, fully using all their services/products. Never had a problem...

Have synthesizers, will travel...

PayPal has saved my bacon more than once. They've gotten my money back from scammers, they've blocked folks trying to steal my money. No other payment provider does that.

@CoolMusic wrote:

@mystery2me wrote:

Actually I don't trust PayPal. Too many stories of them just taking people's money without explanation with some vague reference to TOS.

Best I can tell, those issues are only for those who sell stuff and use PayPal to receive payment. They've made it to easy for the buyer to file a claims negating sales. I used to sell music gear on eBay, but with the PayPal changes, I've moved to Reverb, a music-dedicated site with a much better system to protect both buyers and sellers.

I've been with PayPal for decades, fully using all their services/products. Never had a problem...

No, there's quite a few examples that have nothing to do with sellers. It's all over the web. Often its just a simple mistake, and once it happens the money is frozen for months and there's no way to get an explanation from PayPal. After 6 months, if you are unable to successfully dispute it, they just keep the money.

Anytime I have a problem with PayPal, I call and talk to a representative and it's fixed before I get off the phone. Which has helped them save my bacon at least twice. I'll give you the phone number if you like, it's not a private number.

My association with PayPal began in 1997. During that period, I never experienced any problems nor do I recall hearing from known others or reading of such on the Internet. I would guesstimate their transaction count in the billions. If I am correct, it is reasonable to conclude that PP has, upon occasion, erred, but were the errors successfully resolved? Until I learn of a reason to be concerned, I feel comfortable with PP.

Similar to others. For PayPal, I had a experience where it got locked out some years ago, but it was due to selling multiple items in a short span of time on eBay for large amounts, after being inactive. Sometimes it's due to the recent transactions, where you have to call and provide information.

From my experience, I haven't had many issues with PayPal, but I make it a habit to zero out my PayPal balance by transferring to my bank account. Sometimes if I'm getting cash back on a linked CC by using PayPal, I also make sure to zero out the balance. Even though I have the CC as the default method, it sometimes tries to draw from the PayPal balance first.

For those of you who were not e-Bay sellers several yrs. ago, Okie forgot to mention a very important point. Until a few yrs; back, PP and EB had not just a buyer, but also a seller relationship, whereby they immediately fronted money from sales. As he stated, he sold multiple high priced items in a short period and after being inactive. Those actions definitely raised a red flag and today may even be cause, until he produced acceptable records, for a temporary suspension from EB.

The wild west days of e-Bay are over, but it was profitable while it lasted.

Also, while on the topic of PayPal, there was a short period of time where they were offering promos to buy crypto. For a good number of users who attempted this, this automatically locked their account from any incoming/outgoing transactions, where they had to contact support to get it resolved.

For just paying back friends and family for small amounts, I personally use Cash App. From my experience, you can withdraw funds from your bank account instantly.

@Okie wrote:

...but I make it a habit to zero out my PayPal balance...

That's the law around these parts. I transfer as soon as I receive notice of the payment.

And I NEVER do the instant transfer option. The free method shows up much quicker than the quoted 3-5 business days. If I transfer early enough in the AM it sometimes hits my checking account by close of business, and certainly by the next day 99% of the time.

Their credit products are administered by Synchrony, with whom I do lots of business. As referred to in my route discussions, being able to get 6 months interest free on my hotel stays through PayPal Credit is one of the key ingredients to making my route strategies work from a cashflow standpoint.

I also have a PayPal MasterCard that is solely used for fixed monthly expenditures such as insurance, utilities and storage space rent so I can get 2% back. And that gets transferred to my bank immediately when I redeem from my card to my PP balance.

Have synthesizers, will travel...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2024 02:19PM by CoolMusic.

Coolmusic, how is Paypal credit different from the Paypal Mastercard I have. I never could quite grasp how I would use it to pay for things.

I used their 4 payment no interest option when I bought my phone but I feel I'm missing something.

CoolMusic, that's a good setup. Just to clarify, I don't use the instant transfer option in PayPal, as well. However, in Cash App, I will fund my account using a linked debit card, which is instantly available, for me. This may differ for someone else, based on their financial institution.

For cash back, I will sometimes use PayPal, when it's part of a rotating cash back quarter using a linked Chase or Discover credit card. Occasionally, American Express if there is a single offer that pops up every once in a while, such as a digital wallet.

That's good to know about the PayPal CC, that it'll redeem cash back to your PayPal balance quickly. I don't have any personal experience with the PayPal CC.

Regarding the instant transfer, the little button below says, "Not now" but I mentally change it to, "Not ever" which is the thriftiest option.

This isn't PayPal related, as they are no longer linked the eBay, but I recently had almost a thousand dollars frozen by eBay without explanation. I hadn't sold for a while, and sold a high dollar item because I needed some quick cash. That quick cash ended up taking almost two months to get. (I could have gotten more but I didn't want to wait.) I got zero explanation from eBay. Every time I called, it was your account is suspended, we won't tell you way, you can't appeal, and the decision is final. We'll mail you a check in six weeks, if we feel like it. When the six weeks was almost up my account was unsuspended without explanation. I got the money but didn't need it as badly any more. Never again with them.

This wasn't nearly as bad, but before COVID, an international buyer bought an item, who had no purchase history. I thought this wasn't legit because of all of the shipping fees and other costs he had to pay. But he was willing to pony up. It had to go through customs where he was located, but the proceeds were held for some weeks after successful delivery. It ended up being legit though.

Paypal makes their money off of the float of funds. Whether its the day or two we're transferring our money out or the 6 months they froze your account. Compound interest.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2024 02:23AM by wrosie.

A couple million dollars at 1or 2% adds up

@wrosie wrote:

Coolmusic, how is Paypal credit different from the Paypal Mastercard I have...

It's a totally separate account, but still a Synchrony product. Some merchants allow for the delayed payment options, others don't.

I use the Pay In 4 spread out over a bunch of credit cards to even out cashflow and crank some rewards when I buy my vitamins/supplements and make music and software purchases.

The 6 Month Interest Free deal is for travel stuff, and represents my single best cashflow opportunity. When I travel for family visits/events I put my Southwest ticket on the 6-month plan and about a week later I get a check from my mom to cover it.

Yup. Things are that tight around here...

Have synthesizers, will travel...

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login

Bonus Bonanza!?

Create an Account or Log In

Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies

Mystery Shopper Magazine