Paypal is evil
Apparently I will have to repeat the Paypal is evil line about once a year.
This year's revelation comes from Robert X. Cringely's PayAcquaintance: When It Comes to Selling Virtual Property, PayPal Isn't Always Your Pal.
To wit:
...PayPal yanks the money back out of the seller's account EVEN IF IT HAS ALREADY BEEN TRANSFERRED TO A BANK ACCOUNT. One minute the money is there, the next minute it isn't, and the seller has almost no recourse at all. (emphasis his)
And later on:
PayPal is not built to reliably support a peer-to-peer economy.
My latest experience involved my wife trying to use our joint credit card on her Paypal account. She tried to register the card on her account, but couldn't because Paypal would not let the same credit card get registered twice (I use it for my Paypal account). So she called Paypal, asked them to do this, they refused, suggested she register a bank account to her Paypal account.
My wife lost her temper at that point, and pointed out that if Paypal cannot handle a simple joint credit card, then why should she trust them with her bank account information?
The Paypal representative had no response to that point.