Hello,
I tried making a donation via the centos.org website but was blocked by PayPal. I tried today and a few weeks ago.
The error I got in both instances was:
"The card you entered cannot be used for this payment. Please enter a different credit or debit card number."
This strikes me as a strange response. It didn't say the card was declined; it said it "cannot be used." Also, the response was awfully quick so it didn't seem to be from the credit card processor, but from PayPal.
I setup e-commerce sites so am very familiar with on-line credit card processing. Also, I just used this card online a couple of days ago successfully, and I know I have plenty of available credit.
Has anybody else gotten an error like this?
I suspect PayPal is blocking this, not my credit card company. I suspect, too, PayPal is doing this to reduce their own costs rather than protect centos.org or me from a fraudulent transaction. I have a PayPal account that was set up a few years back as a test based on a PayPal offer to me, have never used beyond setting up, but which PayPal has suspended. I'm not interested in using this account nor jumping through the hoops they require. I may have entered this credit card in that account. I suspect PayPal is blocking this credit card number to push me to re-open my PayPal account.
Am I just being paranoid?
Take care,
Kurt Hansen
Kurt Hansen wrote:
I suspect PayPal is blocking this, not my credit card company. I suspect, too, PayPal is doing this to reduce their own costs rather than protect centos.org or me from a fraudulent transaction. I have a PayPal account that was set up a few years back as a test based on a PayPal offer to me, have never used beyond setting up, but which PayPal has suspended. I'm not interested in using this account nor jumping through the hoops they require. I may have entered this credit card in that account. I suspect PayPal is blocking this credit card number to push me to re-open my PayPal account.
I believe paypal users can choose not to accept money from credit cards due to the fees withheld, although doing this for donations would be kind of silly... paypal's system is somewhat opaque about this sort of thing.
John R Pierce wrote:
Kurt Hansen wrote:
I suspect PayPal is blocking this, not my credit card company. I suspect, too, PayPal is doing this to reduce their own costs rather than protect centos.org or me from a fraudulent transaction. I have a PayPal account that was set up a few years back as a test based on a PayPal offer to me, have never used beyond setting up, but which PayPal has suspended. I'm not interested in using this account nor jumping through the hoops they require. I may have entered this credit card in that account. I suspect PayPal is blocking this credit card number to push me to re-open my PayPal account.
I believe paypal users can choose not to accept money from credit cards due to the fees withheld, although doing this for donations would be kind of silly... paypal's system is somewhat opaque about this sort of thing.
Yes, I can see why you would do this for items with low margin. But, for donations, it doesn't make any sense at all.
I don't think that's the case here, though. Or, the PayPal error message is inaccurate since it suggests using a different credit card.
Can whomever setup the PayPal donation capability on centos.org give any insight into whether credit card payments are blocked? Maybe one has to tell PayPal to NOT block credit cards? PayPal does try to steer people to use a PayPal account. Considering they tend to be a customer-hostile organization, I wouldn't put it past them to make this the default.
Take care,
Kurt
Kurt Hansen wrote:
Can whomever setup the PayPal donation capability on centos.org give any insight into whether credit card payments are blocked? Maybe one has to
I'm not the maintainer of the site but I just submitted a few bucks via paypal using a temporary generated visa #, no problem.
I don't trust paypal with my real CC#. Yay for temporary numbers.
nate
Mark A. Lewis wrote:
I don't trust paypal with my real CC#. Yay for temporary numbers.
What's to trust? They do anything unauthorized, call your CC company and let them take care of it. That's the beauty of credit cards, your liability is almost nothing.
I guess it's more along the lines on how long the real credit card is valid for(years) vs how long the temporary credit card is valid for (1 month).
I've used paypal on a couple of occasions several years ago and didn't have a problem but I've read/heard too many stories of them screwing people over to trust them with anything.
I opened up a paypal account a few days ago to send a few bucks to someone else for a piece of software since I _really_ wanted it and he only took paypal. I plan to close it again soon.
Probably over paranoid I know but that's just how I am I guess. Fortunately to my knowledge I've never been the victim of fraud, identity theft etc.
nate
nate wrote:
I've used paypal on a couple of occasions several years ago and didn't have a problem but I've read/heard too many stories of them screwing people over to trust them with anything.
I opened up a paypal account a few days ago to send a few bucks to someone else for a piece of software since I _really_ wanted it and he only took paypal. I plan to close it again soon.
the ONLY problems I've heard of are related to them holding cash funds in the account when transactions are disputed. My solution has been to keep near-zero balance in my paypal account. I organized a group event a few years ago, had to collect money from about 100 people for camping and tshirts, paypal was invaluable. I've used it to buy many items off ebay, send cash to private parties, etc. I linked my account to a purpose opened checking account that has near $0 balance so I can transfer cash out, and I use an Amex card for all payment transactions, never had a problem.
of course, this is anecdotal evidence of 1 sample point, and therefore meaningless.
2008/11/24 Kurt Hansen khansen@charityweb.net:
Hello,
I tried making a donation via the centos.org website but was blocked by PayPal. I tried today and a few weeks ago.
I told my boss about this (our company is mainly in the online anti-fraud domain) and he said that it happened to him in the last few days too.
Maybe Paypal is suffering from a glitch or tightened their checks too much.
--Amos
Amos Shapira wrote:
2008/11/24 Kurt Hansen khansen@charityweb.net:
Hello,
I tried making a donation via the centos.org website but was blocked by PayPal. I tried today and a few weeks ago.
I told my boss about this (our company is mainly in the online anti-fraud domain) and he said that it happened to him in the last few days too.
Maybe Paypal is suffering from a glitch or tightened their checks too much
Really? That's very interesting. Was his attempt via the centos.org website or elsewhere?
Take care,
Kurt
2008/11/25 Kurt Hansen khansen@charityweb.net:
Really? That's very interesting. Was his attempt via the centos.org website or elsewhere?
Another web site (he didn't give details).
--Amos
Kurt Hansen wrote:
Hello,
I tried making a donation via the centos.org website but was blocked by PayPal. I tried today and a few weeks ago.
The error I got in both instances was:
"The card you entered cannot be used for this payment. Please enter a different credit or debit card number."
I remembered something else. When I first started using paypal a few years ago purely to make CC payments to other people, it only let me use a credit card about 3-4 times before I had to register for a proper paypal account.
-
Amos Shapira -
John R Pierce -
Kurt Hansen -
Mark A. Lewis -
nate