posted on November 12, 2000 12:56:49 PM new
Just last week it was announced that Paypal was at last available for UK internet users. Unlike our US cousins, Paypal have no way of verifying our home address via our credit cards, so have come up with a rather unique solution. What they do is post two credits to your credit card account that are supposed to look something like 'x.com paypal*store #089' and another which looks just the same but with a different 3 digit number.
You wait until your credit card statement appears, or check it online or phone your credit card issuer (depending on how impatient you are!), then you go to the site, enter both 3 digit numbers and BANG, your credit card is verified. You pay for your purchases using your credit card and any credits you receive as a seller can be credited to your credit card.
This is nice in theory. But it doesn't actually work very well. The 2 credits that appeared on my credit card were supposed to have a three digit number after the merchant name, mine had a one digit number and and what the credit card company say is a merchant phone number in both cases, so looked like 'x.com paypal*store #7 800 123 456' (compare this with what it SHOULD look like above).
Well, first of all I tried putting the one digit number followed by the first two digits of the phone number. It didn't work. Then I tried asking for help on the Ebay UK and International Community Boards. But the replies I got were along the lines of 'Yeah, that happened to me too, I tried contacting Paypal but their support lines suck'. With typical British grit they'd tried sending an email, not got much of a reply and GIVEN UP.
Damon - are you there and can you help me out on this one?
posted on November 12, 2000 02:05:16 PM new
Sorry, I'm not Damon, but he has not been around much lately...so I'll give you my suggestion. If it were me, and I were given a 1 digit number (7 for example) and I needed a 3 digit number out of that...I would try to add 2 0's in front of it (007 for example). It may be that your credit card company dropped the 2 unnecessary 0's. Hope it helps.
posted on November 12, 2000 05:39:30 PM new
If it were me, I'd thank my lucky stars that I avoided Paypal's clutches. They can't even get it right in the US, why let them invade the UK with their insanity?
If it were me, and I were given a 1 digit number (7 for example) and I needed a 3 digit number out of that...I would try to add 2 0's in front of it (007 for example). It may be that your credit card company dropped the 2 unnecessary 0's. Hope it helps.