Want to do more with Twitter than just search and send messages? Twitpay lets you send payments via Paypal to other people using the popular social networking service.
Sometimes asking for help falls on deaf ears. Until, of course, you make it known that you’re willing to pay for said help. Enter new PayPal-sponsored site, Do Stuff for Money.
Hoyts has paired up with PayPal to offer the ability to book and pay for movie tickets via your (Net-enabled) mobile phone, a potentially convenient option if you don’t fancy hitting the Web. Payment can be made either by a standalone credit card or through a full PayPal account. There’s a couple of catches — you can only book for movies today or tomorrow, there’s a one-dollar booking fee which seems a tad unfair, and you still have to queue at the cinema to get an actual ticket — but it’s a handy option if you want to be sure of snagging a seat for a competitive evening session. If you’ve found the service useful or useless, share your experience in the comments.
Hoyts MobileA new survey from PayPal Australia about Christmas shopping habits reveals that we’re still pretty conventional when it comes to gift buying online (DVDs, books and lingerie top the list). However, the study (which covered 1274 adults) also revealed an interesting detail: of the online shoppers who planned to use PayPal, more (51%) planned to use money linked from a bank account than via a credit card (32%). I’m not sure whether that’s due to careful credit management or paranoia about credit card details getting stolen, but it’s definitely a sensible move.
Vodafone is now allowing its prepaid customers to top up their accounts via PayPal, a service which will be accessible via its Vodafone live! on-phone Internet access. The account has to be pre-activated for use, and a password is still needed when purchasing to minimise security stresses. Not much help for the segment of the prepaid market which can only pay in cash (read: teenagers), but a useful extra option for everyone else. If you’re still a bit nervous about using PayPal, consider adding SMS authentication for payments. VodafoneVodafone
If you’re reluctant to use PayPal because of security concerns, then the addition of an SMS security feature might help ease your paranoia. Sign up and you’ll be texted a unique six-digit code that you’ll need (in addition to your regular password) each time you log in to the service. Despite some confusing wording on PayPal’s site, you don’t have to pay to register for the SMS option: there’s a charge if you want to order a security token to generate a unique password, but not for the SMS version (save any charges you might pay to receive an SMS on your phone plan while overseas). The service is initially being rolled out in Australia, the US, Canada, Austria and Germany. PayPal
eBay is now allowing payments for auctions via PayPal on mobile phones (and holding a contest to promote the service). My personal view is that using any eBay-related service on a mobile is a potential recipe for disaster, since the one time I did my account suffered a still-unexplained security breach. If you’ve had a better time taking eBay mobile, tell us about it in the comments.
One of the hot-button issues which arose this year during eBay’s failed attempts to make PayPal its sole payment method was the difficulty of getting hold of a real live person to deal with problems. That’s still pretty tricky with eBay itself, but has just gotten slightly easier with PayPal, which has expanded its customer support line hours to 6am-10pm, Monday to Saturday. Have you found PayPal problems easier to solve on the phone than online? Let’s hear your experiences in the comments. [eBay announcement board
It looks like eBay still needs to encourage sellers in the wake of its embarrassing PayPal backdown. Less than two weeks after its last discount listing offer, the auction site is now offering a 10-day period of free insertion fees for auctions starting at $0.99 or below, running from July 12 to 21. That’s only a saving of $0.30, but if you’re keen to sell some stuff with low reserves, it’s as good a time to do it as any.
