Pay pal

[Prafull]

Just found out that paypal is now available here in India too.
I was thinking about opening an account with paypal. I guess many people here already have paypal accounts.

Can someone tell me few details like whether there are any hidden costs involve and I will have to make payments and also what are the benefits ? Also what are the ways to submit money ?

Actually I was willing to purchase some goods online and someone told me that pay pal makes it easier So treat me as a total newbie in this department and provide as much detail as you can.

Thanks a lot in advance.

[Kamina]

Said this before, but it all depends on how you intend to use paypal.

You can either set it up so that you send money from your bank account or credit card directly to whatever store or service you are buying with the money only going through paypal, although there is a 2 business day wait for e-checks. Unfortunately you have to 'verify' (account number, credit card number and some other info) either your account or credit card, I didn't have any problem since my account usually doesn't have enough in it to worry me

Or, I've heard of people using paypal as a surrogate bank account and storing money on there, usually sellers on e-bay do this, although some shopper have too because it's 'convenient' (the money would go straight from you paypal account to whoever you were buying from with no wait.) Unfortunately every 'horror' story I've heard has involved paypal locking accounts with money and people being unable to get them reopened. So my advice is simple, don't store money in your account.

Paypal was bought out by e-bay though so I honestly don't know how safe/unsafe it is. Course, I never stopped using it even after I looked at all the paypal hate sites. And unless you use a credit card, or get screwed, I've never been charged anything.