The service that made Elon Musk his first small fortune, is further leaning into the wayside. This comes after the news of PayPal raising its transaction and credit/debit card fees. It also came when Ebay decided to ditch PayPal for Adyen, a competitor, for its payment processing.
Things have been looking down for PayPal undoubtedly, but it is no slouch either. PayPal is still the preferred mode of payment for many people who hire freelancers. There are a lot of things PayPal makes easy because of its huge establishment. PayPal’s lead won’t keep the young startups at bay for much longer though.
Paying people overseas used to be a hassle. Figure the exchange rate, find the bank details of both parties, and head over to the bank’s website for a wire transfer. Then came, PayPal, and everything changed. Well, not everything, but it is an undisputed fact that PayPal is the easiest way to pay and get paid, overseas. Sometimes it wasn’t the cheapest, but that didn’t matter to most people, because the differences was marginal.
Nowadays though, it isn’t so easy to convince people to fork over their cash. Most freelancers still use PayPal to get paid because their clients can be anywhere in the world. This makes relying on wire transfers through banks a bit expensive. Recent developments have shown that PayPal isn’t that much better, but they still stick because of the ease of accessibility.
The company is also notorious for a their deplorable customer service. It would be a wonder to ever get a reply to your email, should you be so naive as to send one. People far and wide know that the only way to get them to talk is to phone them. Even so, they are a quite enigmatic bunch, and are usually very reluctant to give you a proper response.
It’s a wonder how the company is still trudging through. It may not be as bad as it seems, but it’s certainly getting there.