I'm trying to buy something from an on-line retailer with whom I've not 
dealt before - found from a Google search, *not* via Ebay. The site offers 
several payment methods including credit card, PayPal, Worldpay, etc. For my 
own reasons, I wish to use my credit card, even though I have a PayPal 
account.

When I get to the bit where I enter payment details, the PayPal option is 
very prominent, and I have to search for the link to enter credit card 
details instead. I do all that, and when I've finished it says words to the 
effect of: "According to our records you have a PayPal account . . click 
here to return to merchant" and won't let me get any further with the 
transaction.

Anyone else ever seen anything like this? What the hell is going on? Surely, 
if several options are available, it's up to ME to choose the one I want? 
How do *they* know whether or not I've got a PayPal account?

[I've emailed similar questions to the firm concerned, but have not yet 
received a reply!]
-- 
Cheers,
Roger
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Roger Mills wrote:

> When I get to the bit where I enter payment details, the PayPal option is 
> very prominent, and I have to search for the link to enter credit card 
> details instead. I do all that, and when I've finished it says words to the 
> effect of: "According to our records you have a PayPal account . . click 
> here to return to merchant" and won't let me get any further with the 
> transaction.
> 
> Anyone else ever seen anything like this? What the hell is going on? Surely, 
> if several options are available, it's up to ME to choose the one I want? 
> How do *they* know whether or not I've got a PayPal account?

Sounds like the supplier use PayPal to handle credit cards for them. At 
least, they're not doing it themselves - what company would put "return 
to merchant" on an internal link on their site?

Presumably there's some option for them to say "don't accept a card if 
this email address has a PayPal account associated with it". Might be 
cheaper for them, and PayPal probably prefer people to keep using their 
accounts.

How about redoing the order with a different email address?

Pete

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Pete Verdon <usenet@verdonet.organisation.unitedkingdom.invalid>  wrote:

> Roger Mills wrote:
>
>> When I get to the bit where I enter payment details, the PayPal
>> option is very prominent, and I have to search for the link to enter
>> credit card details instead. I do all that, and when I've finished
>> it says words to the effect of: "According to our records you have a
>> PayPal account . . click here to return to merchant" and won't let
>> me get any further with the transaction.
>>
>> Anyone else ever seen anything like this? What the hell is going on?
>> Surely, if several options are available, it's up to ME to choose
>> the one I want? How do *they* know whether or not I've got a PayPal
>> account?
>
> Sounds like the supplier use PayPal to handle credit cards for them.
> At least, they're not doing it themselves - what company would put
> "return to merchant" on an internal link on their site?
>
> Presumably there's some option for them to say "don't accept a card if
> this email address has a PayPal account associated with it". Might be
> cheaper for them, and PayPal probably prefer people to keep using
> their accounts.
>
> How about redoing the order with a different email address?
>
> Pete

The email address I was using *isn't* the one which is registered with 
PayPal - so they must have matched my name and postcode or somesuch.

I eventually got an email back from the merchant suggesting that I opt to 
pay by Worldpay instead. I did so, and *that* allowed me to use my credit 
card - so all is well on that front. It's still a bit worrying though that 
all and sundry appear to know that I have a PayPal account *and* are able to 
display the registered email address on the logon page.
-- 
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

On Fri, 1 Aug 2008 14:32:01 +0100, Roger Mills put finger to keyboard
and typed:

>In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
>Pete Verdon <usenet@verdonet.organisation.unitedkingdom.invalid>  wrote:
>
>> Roger Mills wrote:
>>
>>> When I get to the bit where I enter payment details, the PayPal
>>> option is very prominent, and I have to search for the link to enter
>>> credit card details instead. I do all that, and when I've finished
>>> it says words to the effect of: "According to our records you have a
>>> PayPal account . . click here to return to merchant" and won't let
>>> me get any further with the transaction.
>>>
>>> Anyone else ever seen anything like this? What the hell is going on?
>>> Surely, if several options are available, it's up to ME to choose
>>> the one I want? How do *they* know whether or not I've got a PayPal
>>> account?
>>
>> Sounds like the supplier use PayPal to handle credit cards for them.
>> At least, they're not doing it themselves - what company would put
>> "return to merchant" on an internal link on their site?
>>
>> Presumably there's some option for them to say "don't accept a card if
>> this email address has a PayPal account associated with it". Might be
>> cheaper for them, and PayPal probably prefer people to keep using
>> their accounts.
>>
>> How about redoing the order with a different email address?
>
>The email address I was using *isn't* the one which is registered with 
>PayPal - so they must have matched my name and postcode or somesuch.
>
>I eventually got an email back from the merchant suggesting that I opt to 
>pay by Worldpay instead. I did so, and *that* allowed me to use my credit 
>card - so all is well on that front. It's still a bit worrying though that 
>all and sundry appear to know that I have a PayPal account *and* are able to 
>display the registered email address on the logon page.

The PayPal account is linked to the card, not the email address. If a
card is linked to a PayPal account, you can't use it to pay via PayPal
without being logged in to that account.

Originally, you couldn't use PayPal to make payments at all unless you
had an account. Then they introduced a pseudo-gateway system which
allows buyers to pay with a credit card without having an account. But
the key factor here is that it isn't a true gateway system (like
Worldpay) - it's still PayPal, but without an explicit account. The
way it works is that if you don't have a PayPal account, then the
first time you use a credit card to pay via their system, it creates
an internal account for you that exists on their system but is
transparent to you. Every time you subsequently use the same card via
PayPal, those transacations are recorded against that account. If you
subsequently set up a full account and add the card to it that you've
previously used for a direct payment, then the "invisible" account
which already has your card details is merged into the new full
account. However, as with all Paypal accounts, a credit card can only
be registered to one account. So, if you already have a full PayPal
account which has a card registered to it, you can't use the same card
to create a separate invisible account - instead, you have to make the
payment by logging in to your existing account.

Mark

Mark

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Mark Goodge   wrote:

> On Fri, 1 Aug 2008 14:32:01 +0100, Roger Mills put finger to keyboard
> and typed:
>
>> In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
>> Pete Verdon <usenet@verdonet.organisation.unitedkingdom.invalid>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Roger Mills wrote:
>>>
>>>> When I get to the bit where I enter payment details, the PayPal
>>>> option is very prominent, and I have to search for the link to
>>>> enter credit card details instead. I do all that, and when I've
>>>> finished it says words to the effect of: "According to our records
>>>> you have a PayPal account . . click here to return to merchant"
>>>> and won't let me get any further with the transaction.
>>>>
>>>> Anyone else ever seen anything like this? What the hell is going
>>>> on? Surely, if several options are available, it's up to ME to
>>>> choose the one I want? How do *they* know whether or not I've got
>>>> a PayPal account?
>>>
>>> Sounds like the supplier use PayPal to handle credit cards for them.
>>> At least, they're not doing it themselves - what company would put
>>> "return to merchant" on an internal link on their site?
>>>
>>> Presumably there's some option for them to say "don't accept a card
>>> if this email address has a PayPal account associated with it".
>>> Might be cheaper for them, and PayPal probably prefer people to
>>> keep using their accounts.
>>>
>>> How about redoing the order with a different email address?
>>
>> The email address I was using *isn't* the one which is registered
>> with PayPal - so they must have matched my name and postcode or
>> somesuch.
>>
>> I eventually got an email back from the merchant suggesting that I
>> opt to pay by Worldpay instead. I did so, and *that* allowed me to
>> use my credit card - so all is well on that front. It's still a bit
>> worrying though that all and sundry appear to know that I have a
>> PayPal account *and* are able to display the registered email
>> address on the logon page.
>
> The PayPal account is linked to the card, not the email address. If a
> card is linked to a PayPal account, you can't use it to pay via PayPal
> without being logged in to that account.
>
> Originally, you couldn't use PayPal to make payments at all unless you
> had an account. Then they introduced a pseudo-gateway system which
> allows buyers to pay with a credit card without having an account. But
> the key factor here is that it isn't a true gateway system (like
> Worldpay) - it's still PayPal, but without an explicit account. The
> way it works is that if you don't have a PayPal account, then the
> first time you use a credit card to pay via their system, it creates
> an internal account for you that exists on their system but is
> transparent to you. Every time you subsequently use the same card via
> PayPal, those transacations are recorded against that account. If you
> subsequently set up a full account and add the card to it that you've
> previously used for a direct payment, then the "invisible" account
> which already has your card details is merged into the new full
> account. However, as with all Paypal accounts, a credit card can only
> be registered to one account. So, if you already have a full PayPal
> account which has a card registered to it, you can't use the same card
> to create a separate invisible account - instead, you have to make the
> payment by logging in to your existing account.
>
> Mark
>
> Mark

OK, that makes some kind of sense - thanks. So, presumably, if I'd used a 
different card from the one registered with PayPal it would have created a 
second, invisible, account and gone through ok? And presumably the same 
thing would have happened had I removed that card from my PayPal account 
before attempting the transaction?
-- 
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!