The Issue of Paypal
When I first joined the online spiritual business sphere 10 plus odd years ago PayPal dominated the payment market online. Any other platform that existed wasn't as secure or reliable as PayPal nor did it exist in as many countries and through the years PayPal ended up having a hearty reputation.
And then you started to get things like Square and Stripe and Apple Pay on the scene.
And PayPal decided they needed to "make some changes" which has since resulted in a bit of a catstrophe for the company.
If you go to their Twitter handle now you will see their feed filled with people complaining that PayPal has suspended their services, that you can't get a hold of a person, that their money has been on hold for 2, 6, 8 months or some even up to 2 years they've been fighting to get thousands owed to them that PayPal is keeping hostage.
Despite all this when I initially decided to relaunch my business I decided to try to add PayPal for a few reasons (if you've looked on my website you will know that I don't have them...this will explain why...but first...)
I wanted PayPal because despite these other online payment systems coming out of the woodwork PayPal is still one of the most versatile in terms of the countries that it services. It surpasses both Stripe and Square and for the most part will fill in the gaps in currencies and countries that Stripe and Square don't service.
But...it became very clear that the Twitter feed wasn't really lying when it said that Paypal went down the tube. Having not used Paypal in a number of years I didn't realise how bad it had gotten until I tried to open an account for my business and before the account was even fully put together I was already labelled with a restriction.
After having emailed multiple times, attempted calling their number that never gave you to an actual person, dealt with their robot chat system that just copied and pasted the "answer" from the severely lacking FAQ section I decided it wasn't worth the hassle or the risk.
If I was having this many problems before I had even had a bank account attached or Business verification properly put through what would problems be like once people started trying to purchase products and services?
I ultimately decided that it wasn't worth the risk and went ahead and removed the account (despite having finally gotten through to someone via the help line who told me they would "escalate the issue and to keep an eye on my email over the next 30 days." It's been over 6 months and I've received no word.)
I understand the loyalty to PayPal and I know many people who use PayPal and have no issues with the system to date and for that I am glad.
But for me and potentially for many future spiritual business owners...this isn't going to be the case.
Currently I use Stripe to manage my payments and I've had very few issues with them all of which could be resolved quite easily and efficiently with little to no hassle. And while you have to be a bit more care when using Stripe in a Spiritual Business Platform setting and how you word your offerings and products (as to not violate the Terms of Service) it's easier for the peace of mind that you get knowing that you aren't going to be at as near a high of risk getting your money locked out as if you were with PayPal these days.