I hear way too many stories about this. I was even paying a company through PayPal when they had their account frozen and their money taken. 3 times. The company continued to use them because so many of their customers demanded PayPal. They had continued to use PayPal because it was cheaper to lose their funds (they regularly withdrew) than the customers. After the third time losing everything in their account, they finally had to tell their customers 'no PayPal' and live with the consequences.
Yes, you read that right... PayPal took every cent in their account 3 times. And there's no law against it.
I imagine PayPal gets the worst rep because of its larger user base - though I could be wrong. Google Checkout has some horror stories, too.
One of the last times this was discussed, a YC-funded start-up was mentioned: http://ycombinator.posterous.com/need-to-process-payments. I haven't seen nor heard anything about it, and it's US-only, but maybe pg can give us the inside scoop on the progress.
I've yet to use it myself, and I'm not sure if it's entirely been released yet, but Amazon has a payments system in the works: http://aws.amazon.com/fps/
It seems to have been out for a while. Does anyone have any experience with FPS? I'm launching a new project soon and the one thing left is payment processing. I'm scared to be tied to just PayPal and am looking into Google Checkout and Amazon as well.
I know, I know, just get a merchant account. And I will. But this is not really a startup or company and much more of just a small idea I'd like to test out. Ideally, if it picks up steam, I'll switch over to a real merchant account.
I believe buyers need an Amazon account or Amazon FPS account to use Amazon FPS. How about an alternative to just accept CC# like Paypal's Website Payments Pro? (without needing a separate internet merchant account)
Do I have to have a Social Security number and driver's
license with a photo to sign up?
Yes. You can use a passport as an alternative to a
driver's license.
I assume that means you are not operating outside of the US?
Yes, you read that right... PayPal took every cent in their account 3 times. And there's no law against it.