andy m. Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 I have wanted to subscribe to photo.net for a little while, but I do not want to open a Paypal account. I understand from the text that this is not necessary, but why do I see, "Password - Your password should be 8 characters minimum and is case sensitive. Please write it down." This to me suggests opening an account. I never normally have to set a password up when paying by card. Could someone please advise? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zcreem Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 There are two account types on photo.net, on is a subscription account and the other a free account, you will have a login name and password for both. You may upgrade to a subscription account at anytime, there are a number of advantages to doing this and they are listed here <a href="http://www.photo.net/photonet-subscriptions"> Photonet Subscripstions</a> The choice is yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy m. Posted October 19, 2004 Author Share Posted October 19, 2004 I understand that, thank you anyway. <i>I want to subscribe</i>. I just don't want to subscribe to <b>paypal</b>. <p> It seems to me that if I enter my card details to pay for photo.net subscription, that I will also be getting a paypal account. Why else would i need to enter a <b>paypal</b> password?<p> Of course, I could just go on using the site for free, but I would like to contribute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobatkins Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 What's the problem with a Paypal account? You don't ever have to use it, and you can always close it. If you're paying using a credit card, Paypal will have your credit card number anyway, so that's not a concern. If they have your credit card number I assume, since they are the merchant, they have access to other related info, just like anyone you buy anything with a credit card from does. I know some people don't like/trust Paypal and they are certainly entitled to that view. I've had no problems with them (yet) but some people have. It does appear that you need to "join" paypal in order to pay by credit card, but they take no more info from you than any other online merchant does. They all want your account number and billing address info. Just what you lose or what risks you take by "joining" I don't know, but I don't see any myself. There are many online merchants which require you to "join" their site, set up an account and get a password in order to make payments. I think Amazon does for example. If you absolutely hate, detest, loath and fear Paypal, the subscriptions page still lists the alternative of sending a check or money order via snail mail - provided you live in the USA, though that's not the preferred method of payment and there can be significant delays in registering your subscription if you do it that way. If you're wondering why photo.net uses Paypal, I belive it's because they are easy to deal with and they take the smallest commission of any of the online payment service. I believe they take less than the credit card companies would take if photo.net accepted credit cards directly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy m. Posted October 19, 2004 Author Share Posted October 19, 2004 Thanks Bob. I am in the U.K., so no other payment option. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilkka_nissila Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Paypal is ok when you use them the first time. But after a while, they sent me e-mails asking for all sorts of personal and bank info and said that if I don't provide it, they ask me not to use paypal. So there's a lot of trouble in using it. That's the <b>only</b> reason I don't subscribe at the moment. If you want more subscriptions, do it some other way than paypal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_henderson Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 I made some similar points when attempting to renew my subscription from the UK earlier in the year. I had great difficulty using Paypal despite having done so previously, and its clear that Paypal's site doesn't work well (if at all) with certain operating systems and browsers. Further if you make even moderate use of it elsewhere you soon run up against the issue of validation which requires giving bank details and looking up codes on statements etc. I presume this is the issue Ilkka refers to above. Paypal is more complicated than it needs to be and certainly more complex than Photo.net needs it to be. Surely this site is big enough now to make its own merchant account realistic. I mean if every hotel in the US, large or small, can do it why not Photo.net? There's a constant need for subscribers here-surely its valid to make it as easy as possible for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobatkins Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 There are lots of email scams that look like Paypal asking for personal details. They are scams. Sometimes they ask for passwords, sometimes that ask that you confirm credit card or bank account numbers. They send you to a site that looks like Paypal and if you use IE6 without the security patches, even the address displayed looks like the Paypal address. Just ignore them. If you have a Paypal account and want to see if paypal are trying to contact you, log into your account. If there are no messages, Paypal doesn't need to hear from you. I've had a Paypal account for many years and Paypal hasn't once contacted me for information. I get several Paypal scam emails each month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_henderson Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Bob, that's not it. Paypal appears to have several different operations and their procedures differ by country. The information I'm getting isn't from a scam email; its from logging onto my Paypal account and following the chain of "rules" set out there. It boils down to this. When you set up a Paypal account in the UK you are given a cumulative sending limit which isn't very high. Mine is $750 or equivalent. This means that you can't ever send more than this without becoming a validated user. The procedure for validation again varies by country but in the UK requires you to register with them a bank account which they then use as below, lifted from their site. You have to go through a similar convoluted process with your credit card account. "Set Up Direct Debit Setting up Direct Debit allows you to electronically transfer any funds from your PayPal account into your bank account. When you click the link to confirm, PayPal will deposit two small amounts into your bank account. Check your bank statement to find the amounts, and then enter them on the PayPal website to confirm the account and become Verified. Validate Your Account Information You can validate your account information by adding a credit card and then either authenticating your address by phone or in writing, or by completing Expanded Use Enrolment." This process is a pain in the ****; it is anything but instant; looks unnecessary when you consider that the payments sent are instantly funded by a credit card, and I'm not sure I trust anybody who asks for information they don't need. If they asked me to verify my credit card limit I could understand it. In the UK Paypal doesn't really exist apart from eBay which pushes it at you hard. I'd hazard a guess that most UK residents using Photo.net won't have a Paypal account and won't want to go through the process above to maintain one. I suspect- but clearly can't prove- that its costing the site money. If you want(rightly in my opinion) to make regular users feel like they should be subscribers too, then you'll succeed most if you make it really easy to pay and remove the excuses. You can't do much about the US banking system charging a fortune to cash cheques raised on non US banks, but you can do something about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobatkins Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Actually I can't do anything. I have nothing to do with photo.net finances. Only Brian has control there. This issue has come up more than once and as far as I know (which isn't very far...), Paypal still represents the best alternative for photo.net. <p> It does seem unreasonable to have to jump through hoops simply to make a credit card payment, and I'm sure it must cost photo.net some subscribers. In the long run it would probably be in photo.net's best interest to have a method which made subscribing easier, but given the cost of some alternative services it might not make economic sense. I'm not in a postition to comment on that since I don't know the facts involved. <p> BTW my earlier comments were responding to Illka's statement "<em>they sent me e-mails asking for all sorts of personal and bank info</em>". My suggestion was that maybe those emails weren't actually from Paypal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy m. Posted October 20, 2004 Author Share Posted October 20, 2004 Oh well, this is the reason I have not subscribed. I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with paypal, just that I choose not to open an account. The site wording I think suggests that paypal <i>membership</i> is not necessary though, so maybe I am mistaken?<p> Anyway, sorry photo.net. It is a great resource and I would like to have contributed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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