Me and PayPal

I am unwilling to read the 34K words (24K in 2016) in the User Agreement for PayPal™ Service that PayPal insists that I read and agree to. (This count excludes a few sections which seemed by their title not to increase my liability.) I recently opened a bank account with a much smaller Agreement. I trust banks somewhat generically because of long personal experience and because banks have a good reputation. PayPal seems to have extraordinary authority to reach into my bank account and take money out, at least if I give them my bank ‘routing number’ and account number. They are like banks in this regard since they belong to ACH. I did see in the Agreement that I am liable for penalties when ACH pulls are refused by my bank. This sounds to me like I can’t even get out of the game. I have heard complaints from PayPal users who thought that they had been cheated. I suspect that any such actions were legitimate according to the Agreement but I don’t know what those actions might be and I can’t afford to learn.

The sums of money I have in mind spending via PayPal in no way warrant hiring a lawyer to read the Agreement. It is far too expensive for either me or a Lawyer to read and their reputation does not suffice for me.

There should be an easier way, such as the following. This would not suit all but it should suit most PayPal users:

I pay PayPal from time to time by some conventional means. (Cash on the barrel head)
PayPal keeps an account for me which we agree never goes negative.
I direct PayPal to pay someone else occasionally. Payment is contingent on available funds in my account of course since we have agreed that my account will never go negative.

In this plan I never ‘owe’ PayPal anything. My greatest possible loss is what I have payed them less those payments they have made at my request. This is a bounded amount. It fluctuates but need not grow unless I decide, based on experience, to trust them with larger amounts. I do not understand the limits of my liabilities under PayPal’s current agreement.

I grant that some sections of the Agreement binds sellers and that I am not a seller. Such sections are usually in my favor and at least do not impact my liability.

PayPal’s incentive to protect their reputation is good enough to guard my interests in the amounts I would like to spend via PayPal.

PayPal is in a complex business and it is good to have written policies for specified situations. It is even better to have them online. But it is silly to require me to read all of them before I use the service.

See this for another way.