PayPal: The Delights, Frustrations, and Annoyances

In the rare event you’ve never heard of PayPal before, allow me to introduce you to this payment platform that has stood the test of time. PayPal enables people to make online money transfers through its website and phone app, making it convenient for users to send and receive funds digitally. Established in 1998, PayPal quickly gained popularity and became a subsidiary of eBay, further enhancing its reach and influence in the online marketplace. Despite the emergence of new contenders like Google Pay and Apple Pay, PayPal continues to reign supreme and remains the go-to platform for online transactions. As of March 2022, PayPal boasts an impressive 429 million active user accounts. However, it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. Over the past 15 years, my experiences with PayPal have been a mix of the delightful, the frustrations, and the annoyances. Today’s blog post is inspired by those encounters with the service. [Image Credit: Mayur Roshen]

PayPal – The Delights

I signed up for PayPal primarily because of the high level of security it offers for online transactions. PayPal serves as a middleman between the merchant I want to purchase from and myself, ensuring that my card details are not exposed to the merchant. Once I link my payment card to my PayPal account, all I need is a valid email address to send and receive payments. If a merchant I have previously dealt with gets hacked, I don’t have to worry about my card details being compromised because the merchant doesn’t have access to them.

PayPal serves as a middleman between the merchant I want to purchase from and myself, ensuring that my card details are not exposed to the merchant.

Another reason I chose PayPal is the ease of disputing transactions. If I have valid reasons for a refund, PayPal will reverse the payment after I answer a few simple questions. This feature makes PayPal a popular payment method for people who buy or sell on eBay. Additionally, PayPal allows me to pay in US Dollars and receive a receipt in my local currency, which eliminates the need to wait for the monthly statement or contact the bank to find out the exact value of a payment made in US Dollars. Nevertheless, PayPal also has its frustrations.

PayPal – The Frustrations

When I mention drawbacks, I’m referring to significant issues that negatively impact the overall user experience. To begin with, the smartphone app appears to be incompatible with certain devices. When I initially installed the app on my Oppo A12, the login screen would bypass the fingerprint scanner and prompt me to enter the password instead. The only solution I found was to uninstall the app and reinstall it, which resolved the problem. However, the exact mechanism behind this fix remains a mystery to me. Additionally, the website fails to save the “Security Questions” and instead displays a vague error message stating, “We can’t complete your request now. Please try again later.” This prevents me from securely saving my security questions, which is quite frustrating.

When I initially installed the app on my Oppo A12, the login screen would bypass the fingerprint scanner and prompt me to enter the password instead.

It is astonishing to see that both the app and website of a fintech service, which handles an average of 41 million transactions daily, are experiencing such significant malfunctions. What is even more concerning is the apparent lack of action being taken by the responsible individuals or teams to address these issues. This raises the question of how many other bugs may be lurking undetected within the system. These undetected bugs have the potential to allow a single cybercriminal to compromise the entire platform, putting at risk the security and integrity of the 429 million users worldwide. Unfortunately, we may remain unaware of the true extent of these vulnerabilities until a disaster occurs.

PayPal – The Annoyances

Now, let’s talk about the annoyances. The fingerprint scanning feature is incredibly helpful for me because my typical password consists of at least 38 characters, including letters, numbers, symbols, and special characters. It’s practically impossible for me to manually type in such a lengthy password. So, I decided to use the app’s fingerprint-scanning feature to log in after uninstalling and reinstalling it. However, to my dismay, I discovered that I still have to enter the code generated by the 2FA (two-factor authentication) app every time I log in! This is a major inconvenience. Additionally, the app doesn’t provide an option to mark the device as a trusted device, which would alleviate some of these annoyances.

However, to my dismay, I discovered that I still have to enter the code generated by the 2FA (two-factor authentication) app every time I log in!

Furthermore, when it comes to PayPal, while they do offer support for Two Factor Authentication, there is no option available to add a phone number as a backup method. Backup codes are also not provided as an alternative. The only other option provided is to add a security key. As a result, if you happen to lose access to the app or your phone itself, there is absolutely no way to regain access to your PayPal account unless you have a security key or contact their customer support (which, let’s face it, is often not very helpful). If you do not have a security key, it is advisable to use an authentication app like Microsoft Authenticator with cloud backup enabled. This way, you will have a backup available in case you are unable to access the app for any reason.

Wrap UP

This rant is about the positive and negative aspects of PayPal, but the most concerning issue is that PayPal has reportedly ignored vulnerabilities that were reported through their bug bounty program in the past. Multiple sources have highlighted this problem, and you can find two reports on it here and here. It raises the question of how the world’s largest fintech company can overlook network vulnerabilities and potentially jeopardize its users’ safety. Despite being aware of these risks, I still use the service, but I do so cautiously. The existence of even minor bugs suggests that the system may not be as reliable as it should be. If you haven’t used PayPal before but are willing to give it a try, go ahead. However, it’s important to be vigilant and closely monitor your account.

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