turnipostrophe's recent activity

  1. Comment on Online payment methods, are there significant upsides or downsides of one vs another? in ~tech

    turnipostrophe
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    At some point American Express generated a "virtual card" for me that I can use for online payments. The goal appears to be to isolate my real card in order to prevent fraud, but not require use...

    At some point American Express generated a "virtual card" for me that I can use for online payments. The goal appears to be to isolate my real card in order to prevent fraud, but not require use of a third party like PayPal. I don't understand how it works, but it seems to be an analog for my real card without using my card number. Entering it into a form, it's the same as any other card, with a number, expiration date, and CVV.

    3 votes

  2. Comment on Online payment methods, are there significant upsides or downsides of one vs another? in ~tech

    turnipostrophe
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    I have all three. I don't know if there are technical reasons that one is best. I think it depends on your use-case. If your use is "transfer money between friends," there is little difference....

    I have all three. I don't know if there are technical reasons that one is best. I think it depends on your use-case.

    If your use is "transfer money between friends," there is little difference. They all do that fine.

    Some (many?) small to medium-sized organizations/businesses accept PayPal as an alternative to cash, debit/credit, check, or ACH. I find that some small retail merchants specifically take Venmo or Cashapp. It varies. For business-to-business transactions, they rarely accept digital wallets of any kind (they want ACH or a check), though if it's any of them, it'll be PayPal. For refunds from a business, PayPal seems more common than Venmo or Cashapp, though I think many/most institutions still prefer a debit/credit card or check.

    PayPal is probably the most established in the financial ecosystem, at least where I live. Anecdotally it seems to have more brand recognition and trust than the others. If you need a payment gateway for your website, BrainTree (owned by PayPal) is fairly popular though there are many alternatives. I don't know if Venmo or Cashapp have that kind of infrastructure, or own companies that do. You can even buy crypto on PayPal (though I wouldn't recommend it).

    I am interested in hearing other perspectives on this as I live in a bubble.

    2 votes