[jedberg]

But yet somehow banks stay in business while being legally barred from these same protections.

[run4yourlives]

Of course, you're using a paypal instead of a bank for this very reason, mostly.

[jonknee]

Banks have a much more rigorous approval process and are more limited in the merchants they accept (especially internationally).

[Firehed]

Banks are not doing merchant processing for most people. Having some sort of reserve to guard against chargebacks is incredibly common in the industry; PayPal, however, is known for going completely over the top as the article and numerous commenters indicate.

[tripzilch]

> Banks are not doing merchant processing for most people.

Well, US banks aren't. Dutch banks are doing it just fine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL

Works very well and I trust this method a lot more than a payment processor that's not my bank.

I'm not entirely sure what the rules are from the merchant's side, however.

[lhnn]

Meh. As the author does, he finds another option. I'm not yet convinced that Paypal's shitty service is illegal, but I'm sure if it got bad enough, someone could reasonably argue theft or extortion.

Point being: The precedent of putting Paypal under the behemoth of banking laws/PCI/Frank-Dodd is more frightening than people still willing to do business with them getting shafted. Dare I say, if it were easier and less regulated to move money through the interwebs, Paypal wouldn't be an issue.