I wanted to take today to talk about Paypal. Over the last several years Paypal has grown to be pretty big and now almost everyone accepts paypal and used it because they feel safe.

But what if I told you using paypal was not as safe as you may think?

That’s right folks…The same company who you think has your money protected, just may not have you protected as much as you think when making purchases.

Have you ever paid for a software using paypal?

Have you ever bought an ebook using paypal?

Have you ever paid for a website using paypal?

Have you ever paid for a service online using paypal?

Have you ever bought a domain name using paypal?

If you have, you could have been scammed and paypal would NOT have backed your money at all! That’s right, Paypal does not offer their on any item that is considered virtual or any item that is not physically shipped. Even if it was for $100 or $1000, Paypal would have told you sorry.

From the Paypal website under the fine print….

Claims must be for payments for tangible, physical goods that can be shipped, and not all other payments, such as payments for intangibles, for services or for licenses and other access to digital content.

But what happened to the PayPal Buyer Protection Policy?

If you ever read the fine print on the 20 page user agreement you will find….

PayPal Buyer Protection Policy only applies to items purchased on eBay or to payments funded through your debit card and processed through the ATM debit network.

So that means, if you bought it from a website, not ebay your not covered, unless you did not pay for it with your paypal balance and you used your Paypal debit card. But wait, they do not cover non-shipped items anyway (another fine print clause in their user agreement). So, anyway you look at it, youget screwed (for lack of better words).

You would qualify for the “PayPal Buyer Complaint Policy” if you paid using monies in your Paypal account right? The answer is no, because Paypal considers these items to be virtual and offers NO protection on them at all.

Why am I telling you this? Because I see more and more websites offering what Paypal calls virtual goods that only offer Paypal as a payment method. If you use Paypal to pay for any of those items and do not get them, you will be at loss for your money because you will NOT be covered.

I had to learn this the hard way when I paid for a $4500 website that I NEVER got possession of. Yes, I agreeded to the terms of Paypal, but I never read all that mumbo jumbo fine print. If I had, I would be $4500 richer today!

Moral of this is…. DO NOT use paypal to purchase anything that is not delivered to your door. If you have any doubt about this, look for yourself at the Paypal user agreement.