Is it safe to receive payments via Paypal?

If you listen to some people, you would think Paypal is a nightmare.

To be frank, it’s a long long way short of hassle-free. But it’s also probably the easiest way to take payments online.

There are two things to remember about Paypal.

Firstly, in the US, Paypal is not a bank, but in Europe, it is governed by banking regulations. This means that a lot of the bad experiences you read about simply can’t happen over here.

Secondly, Paypal is designed to favour the purchaser. So if there are any discrepancies, they almost always look after the buyer. As a vendor that means you have to be careful.

But online payment is a dangerous world - full of fraud and cheats. Paypal takes a lot of risk for you which is why it costs a bit more and can be a pain sometimes.

Take Action: How easy is it for your customers to pay you? What can you do to reduce friction?