best, safest place to buy lindens with paypal not connected to SL ??

[Berlin Mesmeriser]

they're demanding I connect paypal to a bank account which I won't do.

[Rolig Loon]

Who's demanding? LL's instructions about setting up a payment method say,"Often the initial agreement can't be set up due to an unverified PayPal account. To use your PayPal account with Linden Lab, it must be verified and have a credit card on file as a backup funding source. Linden Lab does not accept e-check (bank account) payments through PayPal because they cannot be processed quickly enough to match the instant delivery of virtual goods and services.  Therefore, we require that you have a credit card on file with PayPal as a backup payment source."  It has been a very long time since I set my account up, so I can't recall what options I had, but that quote sounds exactly the opposite of what someone is telling you.  Perhaps Paypal is telling you that they want a bank account as their backup?

You don't have to use PayPal at all, of course.  You can have LL bill directly to a credit card.

[amarock Amat]

To bill, but not put funds back into, they only withdraw from cards and only deposit into paypal

[April Looming]

All I recall from setting it up a few years ago was having a PayPal account login, and that was it.  I didn't think Paypal could report to LL what funding source they use behind the scenes.  BUT: Why not set PayPal up with a link to an account?  I was paranoid about it at first, so I started a checking account specifically to tie to PayPal.  That made it easier to track what I earned from SL.  After years of no mysterious unauthorized activity, I have a lot more trust in PayPal.  They only charge something like $1 to transfer money out to your bank, and I think transfers IN are free.

[Berlin Mesmeriser]

well bottom line is this, I have money in my paypal account I want to use at SL.  If I can't use it at SL I'm done with SL.  My paypal is backed by an active credit card but I choose to not have it backed by my bank account.  I can't believe SL puts these kinds of demands on it.  That paypal money isn't good enough for them, even if backed by a credit card.

I guess I'm done with this place.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

With an unverified PayPal account(an account with only a bank account connected to it) , if you don't already have enough money in your account to cover any charges, LL would have to wait until it clears your bank before they are actually paid.  Its considered only a pending payment and not guaranteed.  This presents a nightmare for a company like LL having to track payment, because they certainly won't give you the lindens or consider your account paid based on a pending payment. They are saying is that when they charge your PayPal account, they won't wait for the funds.  However if you have a credit card on PayPal this shouldn't be a problem because PayPal would just charge your Credit Card.

I sometimes have cash in my PayPal account and that's used first to pay any charges against my account from any source before they charge my Credit Card.  I do have a bank account on it too that is a special one I set up just for to handle money transactions on the web.  When I get money from SL or any other source, such as a client payment,  it goes to PayPal then  directly to this account. 

You should call billing to clarify this because if you have a Credit Card then your account should be verified. 

[Jalida]

I keep a second bank account that I use only for online purchases and hooked up to my pay pal account and I suggest to all my friends that have questioned me about paypal to do the same.

 

I won't bother to go into details about it here, but my partner's Sister works for Paypal (unless I'm wrong, she's the head of HR), and told me why it's a good idea to keep a second bank account just for paypal, I concur with her fully on the subject.

 

While probably (made up percentage coming your way) 99.99% of paypal users have no issues, why in the world would anybody give paypal or any other company access to their real life bank account with all their hard earned savings in it?  It's best to just keep a throw away checking account that costs you maybe $5.00 a month to keep and only put money in that account as needed to make your online purchases.

 I use paypal to accept donations on one of my websites, and I've now learned to clear the money out of paypal every so often, as they are not inpenetrable... I had somebody hack my account (even with a 26 alphanumeric and odd characters thrown in) somehow using my password as mentioned prior and charge out $100.00 to it.  Of course I noticed it right away since Paypal send a notice on every purchase and I called the fraud dept who put my account on hold until I could change the password.  But still.... A 26 alpha numeric password and it was hacked?  The only place it was written down was on a card in my wallet, so either the hacker got damn lucky or the hacker found some loophole at paypal to exploit.

 

In all fairness however, that was the only problem I've personally ever had with paypal.  And it was resolved to my satisfaction in just a few days.

Take it for what you will.

[April Looming]

Re: "It's best to just keep a throw away checking account that costs you maybe $5.00 a month to keep and only put money in that account as needed to make your online purchases."

I totally agree, except it's better to use a Credit Union that has FREE checking accounts.  I have a FREE checking account that I use just for PayPal.

Sounds like the OP is leaving SL anyway, but for anyone else reading this and contemplating what to do, I think we have a consensus on the tips and tricks

 

[Lindal Kidd]

I think ANY website will require that you use a Verified PayPal account...that is, one that is tied to a real life bank account.

This is not onerous, or dangerous.  I've had a verified PayPal account for years.  Just to be on the safe side, I only keep a small amount of money in that bank account.  That way, if my PayPal account is ever compromised, I can limit my losses.

However, some of the legitimate third party $L exchange sites do have a more liberal policy on what payment methods they will accept.  If they won't take your unverified PP account, they may take your credit card, debit card, or prepaid card.  I've used VirWox with good results.