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This may or may not be of any use to you, but Paypal has recently updated it's user terms and agreements which come into effect on June 4 2003 if you signed up for Paypal before 07 Feb 2003. I know a lot of osC users use Paypal and despite getting some very bad press they provide what most people think is a very useful service, esspecially if you are a small non US/Canadian based company or individual.
The following is taken from the new policy and is causing me some real concern, this information is provided by Paypal and is subject to change with notice but read it yourself and make your own minds up as to wether you think you need to consider alternative options (especially if you deliver digital content):
Quote
- Policy Conditions. PayPal agrees to indemnify sellers of physical goods from reversal liability resulting from a buyer's unauthorized use of a credit card and/or false claims of non-shipment of goods. This protection applies only to the sale of physical goods, and not to any non-tangible, non-physical goods or services pursuant to section 1 above. It applies to up to $5,000 per year of payments received by the seller through PayPal if the following conditions are met:
1. The seller has a U.S. Verified Business or a U.S. Verified Premier Account or a Canadian International - Verified Business or Canadian International - Verified Premier Account. Note: While International sellers outside of Canada may have a status of International - Verified, they do not qualify for and are not protected by the Seller Protection Policy and therefore may be responsible for any reversals made due to fraudulent funds
2. The seller ships to the buyer's Confirmed Address.
3. The seller can provide reasonable proof-of-shipment which can be tracked online. This documentation must show that you shipped to the Confirmed Address. (Most U.S. carrier companies offer this service, including the U.S. Postal Service.) For transactions $500 or more in value that are initiated between November 15, 2001 and April 19, 2002, and for transactions $250 or more in value that are initiated on or after April 19, 2002, the seller also needs to provide an online proof-of-receipt in the form of a signature from the recipient. Because comparable proof-of-shipment is not currently available for electronically-delivered items, we are currently unable to offer Seller Protection for digital goods and other electronically-delivered items.
4. The seller accepted a single payment from only one PayPal account for the purchase. (Multiple payments from different accounts for a single item are a fraud indicator. Sellers should not accept such payments.)
5. The seller ships to a domestic (U.S.) buyer at a U.S. address.
6. The seller cooperates in resolving disputes by responding in the following time periods: When a complaint occurs, the seller must provide complete information within 7 days of a request from PayPal. However, if PayPal is required by the credit card association to respond immediately to resolve a reversal, sellers must provide the information within 3 days. PayPal will indicate the response time required in the e-mail message sent to the seller.
7. The seller ships within 7 days of receiving payment.
- If you do not qualify for the Seller Protection Policy. When you receive funds through PayPal, if the sender's transaction is reversed for any reason and you do not qualify for the Seller Protection Policy for that transaction, you will owe PayPal for the amount of the reversed transaction plus any fees imposed on PayPal as a result of the reversal. You agree to reimburse PayPal from either your PayPal account or by other means as described in Section IV.2 under "Receipt of Payments."
1. The seller has a U.S. Verified Business or a U.S. Verified Premier Account or a Canadian International - Verified Business or Canadian International - Verified Premier Account. Note: While International sellers outside of Canada may have a status of International - Verified, they do not qualify for and are not protected by the Seller Protection Policy and therefore may be responsible for any reversals made due to fraudulent funds
2. The seller ships to the buyer's Confirmed Address.
3. The seller can provide reasonable proof-of-shipment which can be tracked online. This documentation must show that you shipped to the Confirmed Address. (Most U.S. carrier companies offer this service, including the U.S. Postal Service.) For transactions $500 or more in value that are initiated between November 15, 2001 and April 19, 2002, and for transactions $250 or more in value that are initiated on or after April 19, 2002, the seller also needs to provide an online proof-of-receipt in the form of a signature from the recipient. Because comparable proof-of-shipment is not currently available for electronically-delivered items, we are currently unable to offer Seller Protection for digital goods and other electronically-delivered items.
4. The seller accepted a single payment from only one PayPal account for the purchase. (Multiple payments from different accounts for a single item are a fraud indicator. Sellers should not accept such payments.)
5. The seller ships to a domestic (U.S.) buyer at a U.S. address.
6. The seller cooperates in resolving disputes by responding in the following time periods: When a complaint occurs, the seller must provide complete information within 7 days of a request from PayPal. However, if PayPal is required by the credit card association to respond immediately to resolve a reversal, sellers must provide the information within 3 days. PayPal will indicate the response time required in the e-mail message sent to the seller.
7. The seller ships within 7 days of receiving payment.
- If you do not qualify for the Seller Protection Policy. When you receive funds through PayPal, if the sender's transaction is reversed for any reason and you do not qualify for the Seller Protection Policy for that transaction, you will owe PayPal for the amount of the reversed transaction plus any fees imposed on PayPal as a result of the reversal. You agree to reimburse PayPal from either your PayPal account or by other means as described in Section IV.2 under "Receipt of Payments."
As you can see they appear to be saying if you are an International Verified user (Non US or Canadian Based then you are not protected against chargebacks to your accout....
They have also changed the feee structre with relation to 'chargebacks' as follows:
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# Chargeback Settlement Fee. To cover the cost of processing chargebacks, PayPal assesses a $10 fee to sellers who are determined to be at fault for credit card payment chargebacks. (A chargeback, or reversal, occurs when a buyer rejects or reverses a charge on his or her credit card.) The $10 fee will be waived in those cases where the sellers have fulfilled all of the requirements of PayPal's Seller Protection Policy. The $10 fee will also be waived for all sellers participating in our PayPal Preferred program.
The chargeback settlement fee will be assessed in the currency of the payment. The equivalent fees are:
Payment Currency Settlement Fee:
CAD 15 CAD
EUR 11.25 EUR
GBP 7 GBP
JPY 1300 JPY
- Membership Fees. In general, there is no fee to join PayPal. However, some users, at PayPal's discretion, may be charged a $1.95 Membership Fee. Additional information is provided in section III.1 of the User Agreement.
The chargeback settlement fee will be assessed in the currency of the payment. The equivalent fees are:
Payment Currency Settlement Fee:
CAD 15 CAD
EUR 11.25 EUR
GBP 7 GBP
JPY 1300 JPY
- Membership Fees. In general, there is no fee to join PayPal. However, some users, at PayPal's discretion, may be charged a $1.95 Membership Fee. Additional information is provided in section III.1 of the User Agreement.
Despite a number of attempts I have been unable to get a response from Paypal as to what this means as I said for :
- International Users (Non US/Canada)
- Merchants who sell digital items
- The Paypal definition of the following:
Quote
PayPal assesses a $10 fee to sellers who are determined to be at fault for credit card payment chargebacks.
I know a large number of UK sites use Paypal and I expect that international accounts make up some of Paypals 20 million members, IMHO it seems to me that Paypal are protecting the rights of US/Canadian users at the expense of other international ones (maybe something to do with the legal challenges that Paypal is defending accross various US states) I have not had a response from Paypal but I will be keen to see what they say.
I know this post is slightly non-topical but it does concern osC and e-commerce in general so I hope it doesn't get editied or removed.
Regards
Ed
i-netmedia
But the fact remains one of the reasons services like PayPal exists is because there aren't any inexpensive, easy to join and easy to use merchant accounts. I don't like having people go through another step in the checkout process, but because of my credit 
No they didn't give me that option. They insisited on a credit card and they seem to charge me around 5% per transaction once the currency conversion is taken into account but at least there are no up-front fees. I think they still disciminate against 'International' customers. I guess I'll have to move to North America then I can save on the VAT too. 
