advice PayPal or Escrow?

Why do you want to use PayPal? It takes six months to confirm a payment. There are far better and safer payment methods in my opinion. You also miss out on the many people like me who have been burned by PayPal, and will never use them under any circumstances.

I have had domain buyers pay me with PayPal up to a thousand dollars. Above that they seem most comfortable with escrow.

If you investigate escrow.com there is or will be a way to integrate escrow.com into buy it now buttons, via API:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/the-escrow-com-api-announcement.1046868/#post-6406873

As far as "It takes six months to confirm a payment" - what he means is that a buyer may dispute the payment for up to six months, however - there must be grounds on which to dispute the transaction. I know most everything about PayPal and merchant accounts and while there is of course a chance that a transaction may be reversed, you the seller may protect yourself too if you know what you are doing, even with sales of intangible items like domains.

One thing about PayPal is that if you know what you are doing, there is no way that the transaction may be reversed for fraud, whereas with a standard merchant account there is no way to 100% protect yourself from fraud.

Given PayPal's history, I think it is unwise to rely on PP as a sole payment processor, or even a primary one.

I have used PayPal for transactions up to $2500. I record (screenshots) of the whois before transfer, the whois after transfer, all emails between me and the buyer and all emails from the registrars whether a domain transfer or a push. In 13 years of domaining, never had a fraudulent charge back. Even in my other business sales, I keep great records for at least 6 months and have never lost a fraudulent charge back case.

Thanks everyone for the replies, all important considerations. I was thinking of using paypal up to £1000, so about $1300, then escrow for anything over and above. Hadnt thought of fraudulent chargebacks, I will keep a close record of all transaction history.

I recommend Payoneer Escrow or Payoneer account to account transfer

I have never used escrow.com because it seems to have very high fees for small transactions. For example if a buyer pays a $300 sale through escrow with a credit card, there is $19 in transaction fees and a $100 concierge fee?

PayPal can block your account and money at any time.
My friend lost $X,XXX with PayPal.

NameOmnia said:

I recommend Payoneer Escrow or Payoneer account to account transfer

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+ https://blog.efty.com/2017/04/05/setting-up-your-payoneer-escrow-integration/

Casey L. said:

I have never used escrow.com because it seems to have very high fees for small transactions. For example if a buyer pays a $300 sale through escrow with a credit card, there is $19 in transaction fees and a $100 concierge fee?

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Pretty sure the concierge fee is not mandatory... that's an add-on.

Jurgen Wolf said:

PayPal can block your account and money at any time.
My friend lost $X,XXX with PayPal.

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how?

I’ve used concierge when the buyer is paying all fees which actually it is rare in my transactions that I as seller pay any portion of the escrow.com fees but concierge is unnecessary.

wwwulff said:

how?

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Easily.
They block when they want.

And he primarily used PayPal just to receive money from Sedo.
His account was British.

And there are many such stories... and not only regarding PayPal but also Skrill.

Concierge is good on some large dollar transactions for sure, you transfer the domain to escrow, you get paid, you don't have to do any of the hand holding, or delays in transfers etc.. Good to split fees, or charge it to the buyer, as it is more pricey. I don't know why it works on a % basis, as it is the same amount of work for them if it is $100 domain or a $100,000 domain, I think the fee is minimum about $100, and can add up with larger transactions.

I’m not a great fan of PayPal but what many people don’t realize is that just because you are able to open a PP does not mean you’ll be able to keep it open. The credit checks and verifications that are done before opening a regular merchant account are done later, on down the line, with PayPal.

Also while a regular merchant account processor does some verification of what you are selling and how quickly you are shipping it with some initial transactions on a brand new account, it pretty much leaves you alone after that initial trial period as long as you don’t get too many chargebacks.

PayPal on the other hand might step in at any time to question you if it detects what it deems to be unusual activity.

PP is good if you understand how they work and don’t let them get the better of you. For one thing, the general public is convinced that PayPal is great! and safe! so when you offer it as a payment method for - anything really, you gain instant credibility.

Jurgen Wolf said:

Easily.
They block when they want.

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There must be a reason to block an account or what...They can not just steal your friend's money

Yes, they can.
Welcome to PayPal...

That sounds strange and I do not believe they can keep your money for no reason - If they blocked my account and kept my money, I would take them to court and then they would be forced to argue to keep the money (I live in Denmark)

A lot to consider! I'm reconsidering PP. Always usually had smooth transactions with them though and from a buyer perspective (I'm thinking end user) it's very well trusted.

wwwulff said:

That sounds strange and I do not believe they can keep your money for no reason - If they blocked my account and kept my money, I would take them to court and then they would be forced to argue to keep the money (I live in Denmark)

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Use searchbox...
You will find at least a few stories even on this forum...

Criterion811 said:

A lot to consider! I'm reconsidering PP. Always usually had smooth transactions with them though and from a buyer perspective (I'm thinking end user) it's very well trusted.

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Yes, it is great for the buyers...
Because in PayPal - Buyer is always right by default.

wwwulff said:

That sounds strange and I do not believe they can keep your money for no reason - If they blocked my account and kept my money, I would take them to court and then they would be forced to argue to keep the money (I live in Denmark)

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Without getting into unnecessary details, yes - if PP doesn’t like you or what you’re doing they permanently limit (close) your account, but in almost all cases after 180 days you’ll get whatever money was in the account minus any buyer disputes that you lose during that period.

This has never happened to me but yes it does happen, regularly. But regular merchant account processors shut down accounts all the time too.

I heard PayPal was suspending account in the early days of bitcoin, even for purchasing of mining equipment.

Used to be a site paypalsucks out there, not sure if it was bought out like nodaddy.

Hopefully sooner than later blockchain technology makes this thread irrelevant.