[Wikipedia-l] Re: PayPal is set up

[Till Westermayer]

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Hi Delirium,

>>Without creating a PayPal account (which I didn't want at the
>>moment) I wasn't able to make sure if this applies to free PayPal
>>accounts and to bank accounts outside the US. Could you please
>>give some more information on this?

>I was unable to find any more information by logging in either.
>The "add a checking account" section doesn't specifically say
>anything about it being a US checking account, but since it knows
>I'm from the US it may be displaying the "US version" of the page
>to me.  Perhaps a euro-zone Wikipedian with a paypal account could
>investigate?

Any euro-zone PayPal Wikipedian who can say something on this?

>>But credit cards just are not that common in the Euro zone -- I
>>guess you're not familiar with money transfer systems here. E.g.,
>>a lot of operations in Germany is made via Online Banking systems
>>at the moment, and there is also the Maestro EC debit card system
>>used in many countries of the eurozone.

>Yeah, I'm not too familiar with them.  I do recall that many
>places in Belgium did accept credit cards last time I visited,
>particularly restaurants (Diner's Club seems particularly popular
>there, while it's rather unpopular in the US, but I saw plenty of
>MasterCard, Visa, and American Express signs in restaurant and
>shop windows as well).  Oddly it was my *debit* card that wouldn't
>work (the US and European debit card networks must not be
>interconnected).

Maybe I should be more precise next time: a lot of shops and restaurants
accept credit cards, but they are not that common in the sense that most
people only use them for business transactions and travel, but not in
daily-use. Most people own a bank-issued debit card ("EC" card).

>What is the usual procedure in the Euro-zone for ordering stuff
>online, e.g. from amazon.de?  Do you enter a debit number with
>PIN, or do a bank transfer?

I do bank transfer, that is, amazon.de has an option that it can
withdraw (is that the term?) money from my bank account, I use this.
IIRC, this direct bank account transfer system was made part of
amazon.de because credit card shopping is not so common in Germany,
especially (like Erik Zachte said for the Netherlands, IIRC), because
many don't believe in internet security.

If paypal includes a possibility to pay with such a system, that would
be a good thing.

PINs together with EC (debit) cards are only used at ATMs, and in shops
(with small card-readers-cum-numeric-keyboard).

HTH,
 __ .
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