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?

[Seraphita]

I am not from steam and I don't mean any disrespect... But unless it's a bug, are you really playing the pity card because steam doesn't accept e-checks anymore...? I am curious, if you are able to buy so many games with paypal, why don't you have a credit card, yet? Just saying because I have a credit card myself since forever now with my own bank and I never had any issues with it. (Still paying with Paypal and not CC, anyway)

[Cornflakes]

引用自 Sera：

I am not from steam and I don't mean any disrespect... But unless it's a bug, are you really playing the pity card because steam doesn't accept e-checks anymore...? I am curious, if you are able to buy so many games with paypal, why don't you have a credit card, yet? Just saying because I have a credit card myself since forever now with my own bank and I never had any issues with it. (Still paying with Paypal and not CC, anyway)

For some people credit cards are not very convenient. I'm with you on your recommendation, I've had a CC quite awhile and have never had issues, but our own personal experience isn't everybody's. There are a lot of countries where CC use is rather low and debit cards or bank card use is very high. And without implying anything about the OP specifically, some people have low credit scores which makes the rates on CCs unfavorable. I'm also curious as to why Steam reversed its policy on Paypal.

[Seraphita]

引用自 Cornflakes：

引用自 Sera：

I am not from steam and I don't mean any disrespect... But unless it's a bug, are you really playing the pity card because steam doesn't accept e-checks anymore...? I am curious, if you are able to buy so many games with paypal, why don't you have a credit card, yet? Just saying because I have a credit card myself since forever now with my own bank and I never had any issues with it. (Still paying with Paypal and not CC, anyway)

For some people credit cards are not very convenient. I'm with you on your recommendation, I've had a CC quite awhile and have never had issues, but our own personal experience isn't everybody's. There are a lot of countries where CC use is rather low and debit cards or bank card use is very high. And without implying anything about the OP specifically, some people have low credit scores which makes the rates on CCs unfavorable. I'm also curious as to why Steam reversed its policy on Paypal.

Ah yes, I guess seen that way... I wasn't thinking from all angles. Well, now my curiosity is also about the change. The OP did say that it always worked, before.

[Satoru]

Most likely because issues with ePayments means funds are locked for DAYS rather than being instantly transferred. Which then creates problems as users wait for a game that might not clear for days.

The thing is if you have ePayments you already have a debit/credit card attached. If you're already filtering such payments through Paypal I don't see how more 'secure' you are. ePayments strike me as less secure as if Paypal gets compromised your banks' routing gets compromised which is a gazillion times worse then if you lost your credit card info.

[ulia]

I do got a credit card, but I have no reason to use it as what I earn for excess spending is on my paypal account. Rather than waiting for it to be transferred over to my bank account (which can take days), and to only then be able to pay off the bill of what I've spent through my credit card, it is far more convenient to be able to use the paypal service right away.

I mostly only use my credit card for more important things such if I'm low on money for a bill that I have to pay, rather than small spending on games and gadgets online.

[Jawaka]

Where are you reading that Steam no longer accepts PayPal?

After seeing this thread I went to Steam, put an item into my cart and when to checkout. PayPal was still listed as a payment option.

[Quietman]

Can you not use a debit card with your Paypal account? That still works.

[tmwfte]

Instant transfers from a bank account still work for me (Steam has never accepted e-cheque as an option for me, only instant transfers). Maybe it's region-specific?

[ChrisW]

I thought you could only make instant payments if you had a credit card attached to your PayPal account (probably why I have never had a problem with PayPal). I would assume Valve does not have the ability to delay the game being added to your account until the payment has been cleared, which could take days.

[Zorlac]

引用自 Jawaka：

Where are you reading that Steam no longer accepts PayPal?

After seeing this thread I went to Steam, put an item into my cart and when to checkout. PayPal was still listed as a payment option.

It's still listed as an option but my last few games through paypal weren't accepted. DOn't know what's wrong with it, but there is a problem.

[Zurakci]

Yeah I just bought Far Cry 3 through Steam with PayPal. It worked for 2 days then I got the messenge that it had not been payed for. My account clearly said both on PayPal and my Bank that it clearly was payed for. ANd now my account is blocked when it comes to buying new games... Dafaq Steam? what are you doing?????

[Spawn of Totoro]

Sound more like paypal then Steam. Has anyone tried asking paypal yet?

Paypal has been knows to lock purchases from account for "security" reasons. They are more parnoid then a bank some times. That is why I don'y use it.

[Zurakci]

I have. They dont wanna answer me at all. No messenges, nothing. Not even a "Thanks for using paypal service. We will start your request as soon as possible" email from them.

[Adriana]

I'm paying my purchases on Steam with Paypal and I'm not having any problem.

[jayquik03]

Bought all my gamesa w/ an account w/ no credit card through paypal but with bill me later. Maybe they count that as a credit card but it is not. So I dunno