wendy gauntt’s tech zest

When PayPal first arrived in the late 90s, people were skeptical. We knew to be careful when shopping online; occasional glitches in their systems coupled with rapid growth and poor customer service caused mass concerns over their honesty and ethics.

Today, PayPal is a widely accepted and trusted payment option in the online world. It’s an easy way for nearly any business to begin accepting credit cards. Thanks to low transaction fees and no monthly charges for its basic service, it’s also one of the cheapest.

What you can do with PayPal

1. Make online payments–if you shop for specialty items, you may find small businesses online, and with PayPal you don’t have to worry about giving up your credit card
2. Accept payments on your website–it is fairly straightforward to add a “buy now” button or even create a PayPal shopping cart; if you run a non-profit, check out the “donate now” buttons
3. Send electronic invoices–not only can you send credit card invoices from PayPal’s website, they even offer a wizard to request money straight from QuickBooks
4. Purchase bargains on eBay–there’s no telling what you might find on eBay, but you can often find slightly-used big-ticket items on sale for a fraction of the retail price, and PayPal is the payment method of choice
5. Sign up subscribers–PayPal offers a subscription feature that automatically collects recurring payments like renewable subscriptions (e.g. annual magazine payments, monthly website hosting fees, weekly retainer fees, etc.); you can even do a discounted trial period

They have many more features offered for a nominal fee, and they continue to upgrade their services. Visit PayPal and check out the merchant services tab to get the latest scoop.