[Asterisk-biz] Tomtelecom

[Paul]

trixter aka Bret McDanel wrote:

>On Sat, 2005-11-19 at 21:34 -0500, Paul wrote:
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>>1) Setup a paypal account
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>business or premium account, the 100% free normal account doesnt
>qualify.
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>>2) After 60 days request the card. It's free.
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>Its not 'free' as such, you have to subscribe to an account that charges
>you to receive paypal payments.  
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Nobody has ever paid me using paypal so I have never paid any fees.

>You are entitled to two paypal accounts in total, a personal and a
>business account.
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The businesses are corporations. One account per corporation is allowed.

>Further paypal has been sued many times for wrongfully seizing money, in
>some instances they placed a fraud hold on the funding checking account
>via their payment systems (basically they call someone who calls somenoe
>who gets hold of someone at your bank who then locks your account).
>This has resulted in MANY lawsuits (far more than the class action I was
>involved in).
>
>For these and many other reasons there are a geat many people who dont
>like paypal. google around and you will find many websites dedicated to
>sharing such experiences, and resolutions.  
>
>I am not saying dont use paypal, they do process billions of dollars a
>year in transactions, so there has to be a certain level of customers
>that decide to use it.  I am however saying dont go in blind, and then
>get caught later.
>
>Also be mindful of their TOS.  A colo company got their account
>suspended becuase they allowed adult website customers colo boxes.
>Pretty petty if you ask me, but meh.
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Again, I don't use paypal to collect. If i did the same "know your
customer" rules would be followed.

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>>3) Use the add money procedure to get a few dollars into the paypal
>>account. It takes 2 or 3 days for them to debit my bank account and make
>>the funds available.
>>
>>4) Now go to websites of vendors you hate and give them the new card
>>number. You will typically see a charge for $1 that is voided a day
>>later. This is how they check the new card number when you enter it.
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>paypal has disposable virtual card numbers as well, you can get that
>online and use that instead of the plastic one you get in the mail.  It
>used to be a different number at any rate.
>
>Bank of America and a few others have had similar online only virtual
>cards where you can set a specific amount available on the card and only
>that amount.  
>
>Greendot.com has prepaid mastercard debit cards (part of mastercards
>'wired plastic' program).
>  
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Are these free? Even if they can be "recharged", I'm not going to pay
issuance fees, recharge fees or a percentage in order to pay my vendors.

>There are many alternatives, but there is a big problem with them all,
>especially green dot which lets you pay in cash, while the patriot act
>requires them to verify the info on the primary account person
>subsequent cards in different names can be ordered (greendots student
>card program allows for 2 cards linked, paypal lets you get 2 cards,
>etc).  The second name can be ANYTHING and the billing address is easy
>to get around.  So even if you have a merchant account that verifies
>name, address, etc a customer can subscribe with only $20 on the card
>and if its not a prepaid service they can rack up several thousand
>dollars in charges in a month then walk.  You cant bill the card becuase
>there isnt any value on that card.
>  
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Same thing can happen with a real credit card. Once the credit limit is
used up, the transactions are declined.

>This is harder for someone to do with paypal but there are many many
>companies that offer this.  There are also some companies in foreign
>countries that dont verify any info, but give you a mastercard debit
>card.  Google for 'wired plastic' to see some examples.
>
>It applies more than just to cancelations, it can be a vehicle of fraud.
>Prepaid customers are generally safe from this type of abuse, however
>subscription customers can have serious problems in this regard.
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The only "cost" to me with paypal is the delay of a few days in moving
funds between bank account and paypal. Note that when moving funds back
to my bank they are immediately removed from the available balance on
the card.