Have you ever made a purchase for someone and your card details are left in the person's account, then one day you get a debit alert showing that the person had made a purchase and you are the one billed. Well it has happened to me before. I helped a friend activate his iTunes account with my debit card and then one day I got three debit notifications. He had purchase some apps on iTunes and I'm the one billed. I wasn't happy at all.
But there is another that I am still struggling to avoid. Occasionally, I help people set up their website domains. It's a very easy process and I don't want them to be ripped off. The unpleasant side is I have to use my card for the $15 purchase. And the domain seller keeps my card details for renewal each year. And it is very not easy to explain to non-techy people. So I try to find a simple way to manage it.
These two points above brings us to PayPal's advantage number 1. PayPal allows you cancel from your PayPal account page any recurring payment. You don't need to have access to the site your payment detail was entered (like I didn't have to the iTunes account of that my friend). From PayPal you simply cancel the authorization for that website to automatically charge your card. And this has saved me a lot of times from websites that don't even make the cancellation page on their site easy to find. I just head to PayPal and cancel from there.
Advantage number two is that you can request for a refund. Within 180 days of making any purchase you have a buyers protection that allows you to initiate a refund request if you feel you were shortchanged. No other payment options that give you that latitude. Imagine making an online payment via Interswitch and 2 months after you call Interswitch that you want a refund as the product you bought was inferior. You'll be the subject of fun discussion in the customer care department that day.
Advantage number 3 is that your card details are safe and even protected from the seller. This greatly reduces your risk of being defrauded online. The seller wouldn't have access to bill you directly or have record of your card details. And unlike Interswitch, you don't have to enter it always (plus the annoying token extra step).
Advantage number 4 is that it is the most friendly and non-cumbersome payment process to use. All the others require too many steps and form filling. PayPal makes your online shopping life simple.
And those are the benefits of using PayPal over the other payment options.
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