When you come across a business that only accepts payment by PayPal, this may be fine or may make you wonder why they cannot accept credit or debit cards. Is it to avoid extra costs and complexity in their business or is there a more shady reason?

A company may choose to only allow payment by Paypal for a variety of reasons, such as :-

1. They are a single person business and don’t want the complexity of a payment system other than the simplest, which is PayPal
2. They may only operate on eBay or ETSY or similar auction sites / niche retail sites and not be able to offer other payment options
3. They are a small business with plans to grow but don’t want the overheads of multiple payments systems until essential
4. PayPal charges area a lot less than credit card charges.
5. They are a scam operation and are likely to disappear after taking in customer payments.

Plus, Paypal payments release the money immediately to the retailer whereas payments by credit card take time to be completed.

Many small businesses find it difficult to pay the costs of having a credit/debit card payment system. Also, PayPal was started in conjunction with E-bay, so is well trusted by buyers and holds the money until the buyer verifies the quality and condition of the item.

It is easy to integrate PayPal with most website and a lot of hosting services offer Paypal integration without charge.

Adding a facility for taking card payments does cost – possible $25 – $50 per month from a merchant provider and the banks do often charge more for credit card transactions.

If you want to buy from an online business but are worried by the lack of alternatives payments to PayPal then research the business and check for online of their products and the business and then make your choice.

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