What is PayPal?
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You've heard of it. Perhaps someone in your family has said you should 'get it' but you really didn't quite understand what it was all about. Don't let that bother you: there are far more people who don't understand PayPal than those who rave about it. You're not alone - but soon, you can be an expert on this stuff. REALLY!
PayPal was created as an online payment system, primarily to allow small payments at online auction sites to be transacted in a safe and secure environment and without the need for a seller to set up a credit card processing system with a bank just so they could process a couple of $10 credit card transactions. PayPal allowed the FAST electronic transfer of funds from one party to another through a trusted intermediary without the need for either party to know any financial details about the other.
How PayPal Works
It works simply: you tell PayPal to send money to someone else. If you don't already have a PayPal account, they'll ask how you want this transaction to occur: either by a bank withdrawal or a credit card charge. They do the transaction and debit your bank account (you've already given them the details when you signed up if you wanted them to do some transactions this way) or by charging your charge card. (Again, you gave them this information when you signed up if you wanted them to pay others this way.)
Immediately when you tell PayPal to send the money to someone else - using their e-mail address as identification - they debit your checking account or credit card. They then e-mail the person you wanted to pay and tell them that they've credited that amount to their bank account. In the case of the Maine Masonic College, the buttons on our course pages have the information embedded into them letting PayPal know to send payment to us. We'll then send you a confirmation.
It's really just that simple.
Let's say that I - Ed - want to pay $15.00 to Larry. I sign on to PayPal's web site and give them Larry's e-mail address along with the amount I want him to have. PayPal knows that I want the money to come from my 'mad money' checking account at a local Credit Union so they withdraw $15.00 from there. They then send an e-mail to Larry telling him that they've put the money into HIS account. If Larry is a 'merchant' (someone who might sell things regularly and collect money for them), he'll pay a few cents for this convenience. If I just wanted him to have the money as a donation towards his purchase of a new bicycle, he'd get the full amount I sent.
Does this make sense?
What's the catch?
Truthfully, nothing! PayPal makes money by charging 'merchants' for the transactions but because merchants save by not putting terminals and equipment in retail locations. The cost is quite low. Just so you know, we'll pay less than $1 for a $35 course registration done through PayPal but because we've got all the information AND the funds electronically, it saves the Registrar the problems of getting to the bank to make a deposit etc. PLUS you get immediate confirmation of your registration! And if for any reason the course is cancelled, we can immediately cancel the transaction using the same methodology: quick, simple and easy!
Not long ago the huge online auction service e-Bay bought PayPal and it's now under their corporate umbrella. Both of them have excellent reputations to maintain and they do so diligently. Without this, the service would rapidly crumble.
How about those e-mails?
Yep, e-Bay and PayPal 'warnings' and 'suspensions' are probably the most often scams on the internet today and you may get them regularly making you very wary of using this methodology. That's fine: feel free to use the mail if you'd like to send a check that way.
Despite some Masons' misunderstandings, there's no requirement that you use PayPal to register.
But it is SO very easy to tell the real from the fake e-mails from either of these organizations. Simply, ANY communication you receive from e-Bay or PayPal will have YOUR NAME in the salutation line. Right there! Dear John Jones.... NOT Dear PayPal User but Dear John Jones! All the rest - those ones that issue dire warnings about your account being cancelled if you don't go to their web site immediately - will be merely scams. Beyond that, neither PayPal nor e-Bay will EVER ask you for your password. Don't EVER click on a link in a message, whether it's supposedly from Bangor Savings Bank (a recent scam victim) or PayPal or any other financial institution. Close your mail program and go to the site directly - or, if you really, really, really think that this one might be real, then PHONE the organization at the phone number you already have (NOT the one in the e-mail!) and ask whether there's a problem.
Want to help a Masonic charity? I'll bet you $10 that there's no problem - ever! Loser will make a donation to the Masonic charity of their choice. I guarantee that will be YOU making the payment. Financial institutions will SEND A LETTER if there's some problem with an account. They don't use e-mail. EVER!!!
So, in short, hit delete on every single one of those messages and move on.
One more time: how do they get the money from me?
When you first sign up, PayPal will ask you how you want to make payments. You can have withdrawals from any checking or savings account you designate OR you can have a charge against a credit card OR you can have both (and you can have multiple cards too!). I personally like to keep life simple: I have a very small checking account at a local credit union I use for small online purchases with PayPal. I keep about $200 in it at any one time ($100 being the minimum balance for free checking and $100 being my 'mad money'). Then when I want to sign up for a Maine Masonic College Course (yes, the Regents have to pay too! DARN!!!) or when I want to buy some small piece of software online, I can use PayPal to process the payment.
With the College, after you're a PayPal member, you simply click on the button and - honestly - follow your nose from there. You'll see what you're paying for, the College Registrar will get a notice of your payment which will be deposited to the College's checking account automatically (thanks for saving us the paperwork!) and you'll get both an online acknowledgement as well as a confirmation from both PayPal and - within a couple of days - the College also.
It's really pretty easy.
Well, we've written a lot here - a lot more than is on the PayPal site - but don't let all the words fool you. This really is easy, quick, and - most of all - no cost to you, to either open an account or send a payment.
If you've got any further questions, let us know. We want this to be a real convenience for you!
PayPal's web site is http://www.paypal.com
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