How PayPal Works

What is PayPal?

 PayPal offers small business and individuals the opportunity to send and receive small payments for services and goods over their secure server. They offer both money transfer from a bank account and money transfer supported by a credit card. In both circumstances you will not be paying me directly but, your payment will go to my registered PayPal account where it will stay for 3 months to confirm that you are happy with the goods or service. After that time I get the payment transferred to my own account (after paying PayPal transfer charges etc). The only currency allowed used to be the U$ Dollar but, in October 2002, the Pound, Euro and the Japanese Yen were added enabling me to set up my goods and services. If you have a friend or colleague who is already an account holder why not see if it's easier for them to send the transfer.


Who Uses it?

 PayPal started as and still is the choice of many people who use internet auction sites like eBay etc. Where item costs are under U$200 (or set personal limit) the system allows for individuals, with no business or invoicing methods, to pay or receive the cost of the item. B2B (business to business) sites use paypal because they can pre calculate the charges from PayPal and allow for them in the charged price. A small company would normally need a direct link with a bank account and permission from the bank to receive payment by credit card. This is complicated and too expensive for individuals like myself who offer goods or services in order to support a website.


How much does it cost me?

 You pay only the stated cost of the item or service or the value of a voluntary donation. Once you confirm your credit card address YOU PAY NO OTHER CHARGES WHATSOEVER.


How do I use PayPal?

 To use this service you must first register. Once you have registered you can use your account to buy goods or services from any websites that support PayPal.

Signing up
1) On the Secure PayPal webpage is an option for signing up for a free PERSONAL account. Click on the "Sign up" option. You are now in a FORM page which will be asking for the following info:

1) Account Owner contact info (name, address, telephone, country of citizenship).
2) Account login and password details (login email address and password).
3) Password recovery (memory jogger for the password).
4) Security measures (user agreement "tick box" and manual code entry).

Click the "sign up" box in the bottom right. You are now presented with the data you just entered and are asked to confirm it (double check the email address that it is correct as this will be your login from now on).


Adding a credit card or Bank Account

 This is what will fund the money transfer. Fill in the requested details. At this point I think that most people would enter the details of one credit card as that is what I have already done.



Sending Money

 By clicking the "Send Money" tab at the top of the page you will be asked for seven pieces of information;
1) The email address of the person to whom you want to send the money. That info is on the gif below (it is my email address in gif form to prevent internet robots from recording it and sending me junk mail).

2) The amount you want to send (determined by the stated price of the goods or service on the website.
3) The currency which I request to be EUROS so that I do not have to pay foreign currency costs at PayPal.
4) For "type", select "Goods Non-Auction" for the Headstart kit or voluntary donation.
5) In the email subject box enter the word "support" (optional).
6) In the notes box enter details about the goods or service that you would like (again optional but, saves time if I have some details i.e. please send me the Prague Headstart Kit, I'm staying at ....hotel)
7) The shipping address is the address to which you want the goods sent.
By clicking the continue tab you will now be presented with a summarised sheet showing the details entered on the previous page. If the details are correct (please double check that my email address and your postal address are correct) then click the "send money" tab at the base of the page. An example of this sheet can be seen below;

What happens next?

 Your money has now been transferred to PayPal and I will now receive an email from them confirming the transfer and also containing your email address (and if you completed the notes, your postal address and your requested goods or service). I will send you an email confirming the receipt of the transfer. The goods will be in the post the next day in the case of the Headstart kit. If you are a new PayPal account holder your address will not be verified until you have received your next credit card statement and completed the registration by entering your member number. At present I will send goods to an unverified address but, I do ask that you complete the registration as I then know that the credit card holder matches the address.

It all looks a bit complicated but, believe me, the signup form is straight forward and once completed the rest is easy. Once again I have to stress that there is NO COST to you for any of this service and when you find other sites that use this method of tranferring money you won't have to register again, just use your existing account.

You may now wish to return to the prior page offering goods or a service or, you can now continue to the PayPal website to initiate a donation or purchase by clicking on the PayPal logo at the top of this page.