Amazon blocked my account while trying to purchase a gift card and are now demanding proof of ownership of the gift card they just refused to sell to me???
Got locked out of my PayPal account but I apparently can’t close it.
A couple of years ago I was running a growing loans business on r/loans and the other one. One day, I got scammed. Loaned someone money and when it came to pay day, they reported me to welch out of the deal.
It took 180 days to get the money I had on my account. I tried closing the account and PayPal would not let me. It’s been years and all I get are notices of terms and marketing stuff. I try to unsubscribe and it keeps coming so I mark it as spam but Gmail does not care.
Gimp is what you use for image editing if you’re poor or Stallman-like. It’s good at being scripted for programmers that want to automate their image processing workflow.
Krita is what you use for drawing stuff if you don’t want to spend money on software or are Stallman-like.
Photoshop is what you use if you do photo editing or digital art for a living. Paid, proprietary options exist if you don’t do photo editing.
There’s one tool that comes close to competing with Photoshop and it’s Photopea, a subscription based/ad ridden website clone of Photoshop.
Recommending GIMP as a Photoshop alternative is like recommending LaTeX instead of Word. It’ll work for some people, and it’ll do some things much better even, but it’s ridiculous to assume any normal user of the proprietary product is going to be able to use the open source alternative without weeks or months of training.
I have to admit that GIMP has me beat - I’ve taught myself plenty of progs (usually in a panic because I told the interviewer I could use it and therefore had to learn it real fast - that’s how I learned Illustrator, CorelDRAW and QuarkXpress), but I just can’t seem to get the hang of GIMP.
I’ll agree with this. GIMP is the most user-unfriendly piece of photo editing software i’ve used to date. I can pick up video games like Shadow Empire and spend dozens of hours figuring out how it works but GIMP is a wall to me.
It’s one of the things I’ve bounced off of many times, but each time I come back and give it another shot it gets a bit easier until one day I thought, hey this isn’t as bad as I used to think. Not really a ringing endorsement, but I definitely don’t hate it anymore. I would still rather do as much as I possibly can in Krita though.
I highly recommend the Affinity suite of problems (Photo, Designer, and Publisher). While they aren’t free they are much cheaper than Adobe and they are only available for a one time fee.
I don’t do photo editing (Gimp) or drawing (Krita) but I have followed many aggregated blogs such as Planet KDE, etc over the years.
I got the feeling that most people have a hard time moving or transiting to Gimp. I have seen some posts from people who love Gimp but they seem to be a miniority. On the other hand, I got the feeling the drawing community love Krita and think it’s worth learning. Krita even shows up in unexpected places such as Godot tutorials on YouTube.
PayPal sent me an email telling me I couldn’t use their service because I had a VPN. No big deal, I’ll just start using my credit card. A few weeks later PayPal emails me to say we’re all good and I can use them again
Does anyone know of an alternative to paypal other than stripe ( same shenanigans) , for getting paid for freelance work that is available in Europe or Asia ??
Depends on the country and the context. For private people in the Netherlands, it’s free. On my business account I pay something like 12 cents, plus 2 bucks per batch (which is why most companies only do payments every so often)…
In the US it very much isn’t free. I realize the original commenter was asking about Europe and Asia, but something to be aware of if you want to visit this country. Here at least, you’re much better off using traveler’s cheques, rather than trying to rely on cash from ATMs and bank transfers.
I have no idea why, but I swear to god that we have the most bass-ackwards banking system in the world. They still use COBOL for fuck’s sake.
Oh, I wasn’t very specific what I was referring to is selling stuff online, like private store selling pdfs or royalty free music and stuff, cause the only two platforms that I know of are paypal and stripe
Someone in Norway has the same name as me, and they made a PayPal account. They accidentally used my email during signup and I got some weird emails in Norwegian. So I called PayPal. I asked them to change the email. “You can’t, because it’s not your account, you just admitted”. Uh, ok. Can you close the account? “It’s not your account”. Can you contact the account owner and tell them to fix it? “We don’t have their email”. Can I use account recovery and close it? “Then you would be breaking into someone else’s account”.
So what should I do? PayPal put a notice on the account in case they log in, and told me to just ignore the emails. I was baffled. Just ignore the emails? Stop sending them then! But there really isn’t anything I can do. I tried account recovery anyway, but it didn’t work.
They never logged in I think. They probably made another account with the correct details and never thought about this one. So I’ve been getting the “our terms and conditions have changed” email once or twice a year and ignoring them. They’re still in Norwegian.
I just looked it up, this has been going on since 2015. Maybe I should contact PayPal again and tell them how ridiculous they’ve been.
Same thing happened to me. Someone created an account with an email alias i never use. After calling Paypal and getting the same answer you received. I was finally able to use the forgot password feature to log in and close the account.
I don’t really know any. I have a prepaid VISA with my bank. Had some fuckery happen to some of my accounts where I had my regular visa debit saved as payment method and I lost about 20€. I got them back but disabled the option for online payment for the card.
So now I only use that prepaid with the exact amount of money needed to pay for what I am buying.
I cannot really suggest any such cards that are separate services because I do not know any. Maybe look into if your bank has the option to get one.
Yeah, this sounds reasonaboe, guess I habe to check if my Bank offers something like that. Credit cards are quite uncommon where I live, most people just use normal girocards for paying in shops and stuff (or physical money)
Well girocards will give the shop the permission to make a one time withdrawal of the amount displayed on the screen, if that money is in your account. If the money isn’t in your account, the payment will not go through. Also if the shop wants to make a second withdrawal, you need to insert your card again and enter your (secret) pin again, they can’t choose what’s charged an when (only before you insert your card an pin, and only THIS transaction will be authorized).
Its a pretty secure system, as (as long as the card terminal isn’t hacked) you can’t spend more than you have, you don’t need to trust shops to only withdraw the agreed amount, and they can’t charge you a second time. Also the spending shows up on your account balance normally within 1 or 2 days.
From what I understand credit cards just let anyone make withdrawals of any amount, as soon as you know the numbers written on the card. So not only you need to trust the shop to withdraw only the correct amount, you need to keep track over you spendings really good, because they could just charge you an arbitrary amount of money on an arbitrary company name months after you gave them your details. Also from what I understand (normal) credit cards just will always work, and if you pay more than you have you just automatically accept a credit contract you need to pay back to your bank. Also (years ago, don’t know if still true) payments get charged to your bank account on bulk at the end of the month, which makes security and not spending to much even harder.
the web page essentially accuses me of being a criminal and asks for my bank records. No way in hell.
Yeah don’t bother doing that. All that will accomplish is them gathering even more information on you, they rarely/never actually unlock your account & let you use it again. You’ve been permanently blacklisted on their service, just move on. And honestly you don’t need Paypal anyway.
Similar stupid thing happened to me too I think about 10-15 years ago, I was using virtual credit card numbers that my credit card company was generating for me & Paypal thought that was suspicious enough to close my account & permanently blacklist me LOL.
Fun fact: I did learn over the years that I can temporarily create new Paypal account(s) as long as I don’t use the same mailing/billing addresses or credit cards/bank accounts. But then it’s just a waiting game, they usually figure it out eventually and close the Paypal account yet again.
I got locked out of paypal for no reason I could discern from like 2007 to 2015. Can’t remember the exact dates but for years it was “I can’t use paypal any more because my account broke” and then finally after years if that one day it was “oh shit it work look at that”.
Because it’s convenient for paying online (one login instead of having to search my debit card and also, if I got scammed, there’d be another layer of protection for me) and it’s convenient for sending money to friends when we order pizza together or sth like that. What’s the alternative?
Really? Crypto? For one, I know almost no online shop that takes crypto, almost no person I’d send money to has crypto and I don’t want to own crypto either since it’s rather unstable…
Price Crypto at the one-year simple moving average, and the volatility stops. I personally use crypto all the time and make my budget using the one-year simple moving average and it completely eliminates the issue with the volatility because that average takes a very long time to move.
Better than back when they were saying we’d all be paying for our groceries with Bitcoin in a few years. And every time I pointed out that I wanted my milk to be the same price today as it was yesterday and tomorrow, they got mad.
Gratuitas.org sells premium grade coffee for Monero. You can also look at monerica.com. There are absolutely tons of legitimate businesses that accept crypto. Actually, when it comes right down to it, it makes a whole lot of sense to accept crypto because the transaction fees are so damn low that businesses save a ton of money over credit card transactions.
But why should I base my shopping habits around a currency/platform when I could just use one that almost everyone takes. When I want to order off a random online shop, I do not want to think about whether they’ll even take the money I have.
Fair enough, I’ll be the first to admit that it takes work in order to use it. I’ll give two reasons. One is a monetary, and one is not.
Reason 1: If we are right, and 15 years of data shows we at least have a point, then you would be an early adopter and very likely end up very wealthy.
Reason 2: You can buy anything from anyone, anywhere, in the world at any time without permission. And it’s guaranteed to be irreversible in 20 minutes.
That’s what multi-signature escrow is for. You deposit money into an account and you have one key. The vendor has one key and a third key is given to an arbitrator and at least two keys must sign the transaction in order for it to be completed. If the vendor sends you your product and you are happy with it, you sign the transaction and the vendor signs the transaction and the vendor gets the money. If the vendor does not send you what you ordered, you talk to the arbitrator and the arbitrator listens to your case and the vendor’s case and makes a decision.
then you would be an early adopter and very likely end up very wealthy
So it is speculative.
You can buy anything from anyone, anywhere, in the world at any time without permission
And should I feel the need to buy something from somewhere I need permission for, I will consider getting some crypto. Haven’t had a situation yet where cash didn’t suffice though.
I feel it’s speculative something like electricity was speculative in the early days of electricity when people were doing it wrong and burning down their houses and people laughed at electricity like who would ever want that and now we can’t really live without it. I will agree, cash is a bearer asset and untraceable and therefore is very good. The only real problem with cash is that it’s based on the monetary policy of the governmyth that issues it. They make bad decisions and you suffer for it.
Edit: That and it’s kind of hard to stuff cash bills into my computer and get them to come out on the other side halfway across the world.
Don’t get me wrong, crypto definitely has its uses. But other than national or international transactions that I‘d prefer to be untraceable, from a European perspective, it seems to be too unwieldy for day to day use. At least for the foreseeable future.
I use PayPal because it quicker and easier than grabbing cash from an ATM or to pay online. I use Apple Pay, because it’s quicker and easier than searching my wallet. Crypto would ad at least a step or two to any of those processes. It’s neither quicker nor easier.
And that’s a totally legitimate viewpoint. I am using it and helping to smooth out the edges so that when you are ready to use it, you will be able to and have the experience that you expect to have. I am willing to put up with the rough edges and difficulties now in order to make your life easier in the future.
But why would I use Linux when Windows comes pre-installed when I buy the computer and I don’t have to use the command line? /s
I’ve been a Linux user since 2010 and wouldnt dream of using windows as a daily driver ever again. If you are capable of running Linux, you are more than capable of using crypto. Whether you choose to or not is your own decision, but you are capable of doing so.
Once Linux is up and running it’s up and running. If I want to use crypto I have to go out of my way to use it for every transaction. I switched to Linux once Windows got more annoying than Linux was.
Which just means we need to continue to simplify the interfaces for crypto. That way, when OP is locked out of their PayPal account, they will just decide to say fuck it. I will use crypto because it’s easier than dealing with getting my PayPal account back. Make using crypto simple enough that people would ask themselves why take the risk in using the legacy financial system when my money could be confiscated at any time for any reason with no explanation required.
Maybe for you, but there are large parts of the world that are relying on crypto such as the African region which for them has been a game changer as an alternative to their unstable currencies.
That is legitimately great. Doesn’t make it a good or even viable PayPal alternative for me, a European, though. Or even a viable alternative for the Euro.
And that’s fine because you will always buy your requirements such as food, water, shelter, and transportation no matter what the price is. But you don’t need that new Xbox right now. It keeps prices steady, which is what people expect from a currency. And the more people who do it this way, the lower the volatility will become because more people are using it.
Sounds like an addoption problem for you. The question asked what other alternative there is and cryptocurrencies solve the problem you stated there is no alternative to. Simple as that
They don’t. They could maybe. But I want an easy solution to transfer money to people and pay online. Crypto is not that solution because I cannot pay with it in most online shops and I cannot send money directly to other people. The money has to be exchanged to some arbitrary other currency.
Unless everybody used crypto as their main currency and everybody used the same cryptocurrency at that, it’ll always be an extra step, subject to fluctuations in exchange rate and possibly fees/taxes. As long as that’s not the case, it’s not an alternative. So yes, it’s an adoption problem but one that isn’t realistically solvable any time soon
No one I know has venmo. Most people I know wouldn’t even know what venmo is. I’m not even sure it’s available here in Europe. I believe it actually isn’t, can’t find it on the AppStore.
And Google pay and Apple pay are nice and I personally use them but I’m not always on a device that supports them, I’m not always on shops that support them and I know a lot of people who don’t have credit/debit cards, only giro cards, and those usually aren’t supported either. And, at least in Europe, you cannot send money to friends via Apple Pay or Google pay.
In EU, you need to use PayPal at all.bank transferes are instant, banks provide disponible debit cards , you can use Google pay Almost anywhere, which keeps your Privacy. Where is that you NEED to use PayPal in EU?
Instant bank transfers cost me 49ct each and for most people I know it’s similar. PayPal is free. And I already use Apple pay, why would I use Google pay on top?
Does you bank have an option to send money for free? Mine does l. You just download their virtual wallet app and you can send instant transfers for free from that app to anyone that uses the same service. And most banks here offer it. They call it FLIK and it is really convenient.
Revolut, n26 try any bank whicubisbgood in online or the BIGGER names mostly has instant transfer, in my experience its the middle of road banks that are taking time .
I use PayPal for their dispute feature. Bank transfers using ideal are usually final, while PayPal will charge back most of the time until the dispute is resolved. It gives you a much better position as a consumer to deal with shady companies.
I know one person who owns crypto, no shops that take it and I know of too many people who speculate with it. If it is the future of finance, that future is still fairly far away.
Well now you know two people who use crypto and I use it as money. I don’t speculate on it. I buy my groceries and pay my cell phone bill and pay my insurance with it. I recently bought a Taylor Swift album with it as well.
I don’t think I could buy my groceries with crypto if I wanted to. What supermarket takes crypto? My phone provider wouldn’t either and my insurance is deducted directly from my paycheque because that’s just how it works here.
Instacart has giftcards you can buy with crypto and so does my cell provider. Sure, you absolutely could say that they don’t accept it directly, and you would be right. However, I still get my groceries in my refrigerator, and I still get service on my cell phone. So, at the end of the day, does it matter?
It’s an extra step. Two extra steps actually. I can go to the store and pay or I can exchange official currency to crypto and then exchange it again to giftcards. It’s good that the possibility exists, since it’s de facto untraceable but it’s inconvenient, slower and frankly unnecessary for most people.
That’s true. Once people start getting paid in it, that’s when it’s really going to take off. I don’t think a majority of people will be paid in it until such a time as their national currencies start to hyper inflate. Ask a person in the United States, Canada, or Europe, if they would want to be paid in crypto, and the vast majority would say no. Ask a person in Zimbabwe, Argentina, Venezuela, Lebanon, etc. If they would like to be paid in crypto, and I’ll bet you’ll get a whole different answer.
In most cases, it will probably be Monero or Bitcoin, primarily because those are proof of work, which means you actually have to put energy into it if you wish to break it. Keep in mind that once you have any crypto, it is extremely easy to get from that crypto to any crypto you desire. So even if your employer paid you in a crypto you did not like, it would be extremely easy to switch it into the crypto you do like and wish to use. I don’t use Bitcoin for example but I would absolutely take a job that paid me in Bitcoin and then I would immediately take that and convert it into Monero and I would use that and it would take me very little time to do so.
And how often do you end up paying more on real money due to the delay in transactions or awful gas fees for your transaction?
Crypto being a common currency is about as likely as Gary Johnson winning the presidential election. The average person is going to take up crypto as much as they use Tor. Both have their uses, but neither one will ever be mainstream.
I think that’s the fundamental disconnect. You may not see it as money, where I do, since I can buy the things I need to survive with it. And I can buy the things that I enjoy with it, which makes it money. Fees have never been a real problem. I mean, 1 US cent for a transaction is nothing
Edit: You and I would be unable to make a trade because we cannot agree on what is valuable. I do not value fiat currencies and you do not value crypto.
Honestly, no. The only money we’ve had in the past that even compares is when we were actually using gold and silver. The problem with those though is that they cannot be stored or sent digitally without the help of a third party whom you then have to trust. Crypto is the future because it has the same value whether you’re in Caracas or Chicago or London or Moscow. It can be transferred anywhere in the world in seconds and settles within 20 minutes, not three business days or more such as the banking system. It is a bearer asset that nobody can take away from you without force and no government can inflate away and leave you poor.
Meaning your money can be stolen and it’s gone forever unless you convince them to return it
that nobody can take away from you without force
Unless your wallet’s password is cracked, then you’re fucked and have no recourse. There have been so many issues with wallets generated with a bad algorithm that allows people to break your phrase easily and leave you without anything. And that’s not even getting into hot wallet issues where you get rug pulled and they steal all your money or you decide to give your money to someone like SBF and the whole exchange does down.
There are so many examples that disprove this statement that it’s honestly hilarious.
and no government can inflate away and leave you poor.
No, instead you can get left poor by some scam you fell for and have even less recourse to get your money back than if it was the government.
You may not see it as money, where I do, since I can buy the things I need to survive with it.
Can you go to a random store and buy food or goods? Can you send it to your landlord for rent? No, only a small sunset of orgs take it, because everyone else understands that shit like transaction delays and inconsistent gas fees means it’s impossible to effectively run a business on monopoly money that doesn’t have a set worth.
You can consider it to have monetary value, and I do insofar as you’re playing with an unregulated security that should be taxed, but it’s not money in that you can buy an arbitrary good for sale. You’re playing with monopoly bills that someone will agree to pretend is real money, but most businesses will laugh you out of the building and tell you to come back with real money. Because crypto is just a financial asset that people give monetary worth, but it isn’t money.
Where I am from everyone used Venmo… I never wanted it, I had PayPal forever due to ebay I think in the 2000’s so why did I need another service that did the exact same thing as PayPal and it’s even owned by the same company! Sadly, I lost that battle and caved. Idk why everyone said let’s use venmo or why it got big, but I’m stuck out of convenience for others now.
Personally, I love Zelle the most since it’s a direct transfer from bank account to bank account and available immediately without the 2 day wait like the other services.
Paypal locked my account after years of use for absolutely no reason. I never had a invalid charge, dispute, or any other kind of problem with it, just one day they decided to shut it down. They flatly refused to explain what was going on. With all the decent alternatives out there now there is no longer a reason to use their crappy service.
Love that they believe they’re the only game in town and can demand your bank statement.
you're going to be giving paypal access to your bank account/debit card if you want to get paid, or send money, giving them a bank statement, like many other financial vendors ask for before setting up and account or a loan, isn't unusual. you've decided it's your line in the sand, but it's no big deal, like, at all at all.
mildlyinfuriating
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