Why has Steam stopped accepting Paypal payments?

[Fliedermaus]

I'd like someone from Steam to explain why they no longer accept Paypal payments funded from non-credit-card accounts?

I've been a Steam customer for many years now, and it took a long time to convince Steam to accept any kind of Paypal payments at all, and even longer to accept echeque payments.

However, once they finally came to their senses, I was able to buy all my games, up to and including Portal 2, using echeque payments. This made a lot of sense - they are an order of magnitude more secure than credit card payments, they don't attract foreign conversion fees from the banks, and as far as I'm aware, vendors aren't charged any more per transaction than for credit card-based Paypal transactions. The only catch - and it's only a problem if the vendor doesn't exercise due diligence - is that it can take up to 5 business days for the payment to be finalised. But that could only ever be a problem if Steam shipped products before the payment was finalised - and that's not a customer problem, it's part of the vendors' responsibilities under the Paypal agreement! (I also accept Paypal echeque payments, but I never ship before funds clear. That's saved my bacon more than once - unlike creditcard transactions, where I tend to get stung about once every few hundred transactions, no matter what precautions I take!)

Since I've now spent many hundreds of dollars this way buying Steam products (and many tens of thousands of dollars worth of other products and services) using Paypal echeque payments, without ever experiencing any problems at my end or the vendor, I'm pretty confused as to why only Steam, of the 250+ vendors I currently use who do accept Paypal echeque payments, has suddenly decided not to accept them any more!

It just doesn't make sense.

Bottom line - I'm really disappointed. So, because Steam no longer accept Paypal echeque payments, you've just lost this customer. Oh, I'll continue to download and play the games I managed to buy before you reversed your decision, but I'm not able to buy any more through Steam. It's that simple. And I don't think that's fair, to me or to Steam, or to the other customers who can no longer buy Steam games online.

Comments from Steam?

[Zurakci]

I have done the same with all my games, but now (I havent used it for 3 months) it all ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up.

[Mivo]

I have no problems using PayPal to purchase games on Steam, and my PayPal account is not linked to a credit card

[Barren791]

I just started to have issues on the 1st of Jan. I have purchased 90% of my games with echeck and only had to wait once for the funds to transfer before I got my product. Never had a payment with paypal bounce. But now Valve only accepts CC from what Paypal said. I have switched my purchases to Green Man Gaming if they offer steam keys as they are still doing echeck there for me. Also Origin is still allowing me to do echeck.

Not really a stopper for me, its just sales that Valve would have had that is going elsewhere. I am someone that doesn't like credit cards.

[VengefulPotato]

I think it is the steam browser. When I was using the steam browser that pops up for a Paypal transaction, it would automatically bump me to the CC screen. I copied the URL and pasted it into Chrome, and sure enough, it let me proceed with the instant transfer purchase.

[LoTekRabbit]

Speaking of paypal...anyone know why my receipts always have this?

"Shipping address - unconfirmed"

It's only when I buy off Steam. My purchases always go through fine and whenever I looked it up people say it needs to be confirmed. I already have a confirmed address in paypal so I don't know why I get that when I buy from Steam. The transactions work so that's fine but it's still weird.

[Colon]

This is really stupid. My credit card expired 4 months ago. I can use my Paypal account on every other online store except Steam. Why won't they take my money?

[Payne☣]

Strange yes, I bought my last game using the instant transfer between my bank account and paypal to steam. I can't seem to use ECheck or instant transfer today either and paypal takes 6 - 8 business days to transfer money the other way. Guess I'll miss the steam sale.

[Alpine]

I know this thread is rather old, but yes Steam does still accept PayPal, but they do not accept eCheque, which is what Fliedermaus is trying to say. I have been wanting to get AC4 for weeks now and because I am under aged and don't have the time to get into town to get Steam credit, I can't get it because I use a debit card for PayPal and they take eCheques from that account. Rather unhappy that Steam doesn't accept non-instant payments even though I wouldn't mind waiting for the payment to go through, it just doesn't make any sense to me why they don't do it. But nonetheless, they have chosen to do that and that is out of our control, we can only wait for it to come out or not to come out at all.

[price]

Why has Steam stopped accepting Paypal payments?

As of now, Steam has no option for Paypal.
I'm trying to subscribe to CryEngine SDK and there's no paypal option.
I will not enter my C card into the Steam system

Also, everytime I try to log on, I get the, "This is a new computer" message and have to get a code from my email.
Then I try to go to support , and they want a new account and password. WTF is going on ?

[Gaming_Thipje]

First: Steam will always ask you to enter a password when signing into Steam through your browser, it gives users some protection.
Second: Paypal can only be used with single transactions, it is not capable (and safe enough) to credit Steam every month.

[HLCinSC]

1. I'm having no problem with Paypal. What country are you accessing it from?

2. Do you have some sort of system or browser optimizers that may be deleting Steam's cookie?

3. Support always requires a support only account. This is for security reasons for people who are having trouble logging in or have had their accounts highjacked.

[HLCinSC]

Messaggio originale di Gaming_Thipje:

First: Steam will always ask you to enter a password when signing into Steam through your browser, it gives users some protection.
Second: Paypal can only be used with single transactions, it is not capable (and safe enough) to credit Steam every month.

You are correct Steam has not incorporated Paypal for recurring payments. It is possible to use Paypal for recurring payments though my roomate uses automated payments from Paypal for Skype.

[Okami357]

hello OP, i have the same problem here
and if one day i decide to link my credit card it would be a problem because
i don't have any of the cards requested by paypal..
so no more games for me on steam ... : /

[IronWolf33]

I'm paying my purchases on steam with paypal and I'm not having any problem.

[76561197975983183]

Didn't even know you could :s