Google Wallet May Compete With Paypal

theskeptic writes "According to the WSJ, Google plans to offer an electronic-payment service that could help the Internet-search company diversify its revenue and may heighten competition with eBay's PayPal unit. Codenamed Google Wallet, a payment service could represent a significant expansion beyond online advertising, which generated 99% of its $3.2 billion in revenue last year. Google's move could potentially threaten eBay's successful PayPal service, which generated $233.1 million, or 23% of eBay's revenue in the first quarter."

good, paypal needs competition

[marcybots]

Having used paypal and ebay when selling, I know well that the fees and such add up quickly when using these services. I didnt even use all the special junk they try to push on you like bold headings, gallery etc and I still wound up paying 11 dollars to sell a 75 dollar item...thats robbery. Hopefully this google wallet will make paypal's credit card use fees come back down to earth.

Re:Competition is a good thing....

[Sancho]

Lots of similar horror stories:

http://paypalsucks.com/ [paypalsucks.com]

Re:good, paypal needs competition

[arodland]

Most of that was eBay listing fees. Paypal fees are usually only a few percent, and only on certain transactions (others are free).

Re:Too late

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone buy that, quick!

Umm... I think Google already owns the domain google.com. Unless they're planning to sell a contract for the subdomain, it's already theirs lock, stock, and barrel.

Purchase domains much?

Re:I agree - I look forward to Google Wallet

[MindStalker]

No but paypal often locks up entire accounts over a complaint. So if you frequently keep hundreds of dollars in your account, you could be royally screwed and put out of buisness over one false complaint. So you funnel the money into another account as quickly as you can and don't let paypal take it out.

Re:Too late

[turg]

Well, if the stock is worth $300 a share and drops to $0.01 a share, his $2 billion would become $66,666 -- still not a bad return on a $10 investment.

Re:I agree - I look forward to Google Wallet

[Rorschach1]

Have you tried accepting credit cards directly? You'll still get a $10 fee for chargebacks. *IF* you're not dealing with a high-risk industry, PayPal's not all that bad. I've received hundreds of PayPal shopping cart purchases from customers in 24 countries, and have had only one minor problem.

Yes, they charge more - over 3% on most of my transactions - but there's no monthly fee. I'm just now getting enough sales volume to make it worth switching to a regular merchant account with a 2.02% discount rate (plus $0.27/transaction). PayPal's an easy, low-overhead way to get started.

That said, their customer service sucks big time. Got ripped off by a vendor and discovered that even if you receive an empty package that's good enough for them. They won't do anything to the vendor. And it's damn near impossible to get a human on the phone.

If you're looking to get a merchant account, I'd suggest checking out MerchantPlus.com. I'm only using them for payment gateway service, but they've been very responsive. I had my account set up less than an hour after sending a message, and got an immediate response to support questions. I can't say the same for most of the other outfits I checked with.

A lot of it comes down to the customers you're dealing with. Some people are never satisfied, and in certain industries you can expect people to try to rip you off. Caveat vendor.

Wrong

[jbellis]

Once you have a premier account (which is required to accept credit card payments AT ALL or other payments over some small limit -- $100 per month, I think) you get charged fees for all payments you receive. Even ones that don't cost paypal a thing, like a transfer from someone's paypal balance.