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Wire
Money
What
does this mean for a world traveler?
(the long version)
Your
parents can email you
money when you run out
Yeah,
I'm sure you would NEVER do this... but just in case, you might
want to set up an account. The cool feature is that you can
either risk shame and humiliation and use PayPal to "Request
Money" from your parents, or they can altruistically take it
upon themselves to use PayPal to "Send Money" …just because
they care. Oh yeah, maybe it's time you finally introduced your
grandparents to the Internet.
Sign-up
now
Easily
split bills with and pay back
traveling buddies while on the road
Anybody
who has traveled with a group of their buddies knows that there's
usually a revolving tab on who owes who what because it's often
a hassle to pay for everything separately, especially when you
using a different currency from week to week. PayPal makes it
easier to settle these tabs on a regular basis - you can all
square up every time you hit an Internet café. Another tactic
that borders on what some might call creative financing, is
using PayPal to "leverage the power of your buddies credit card".
You're buddy doesn't have any cash (actually none of you do,
big surprise!) so he puts the $600 tab on his gold card for
the weekend sailing trip through the Great Barrier Reef for
all three of you, and then you each PayPal him money from your
respective credit cards for your share directly back into his
bank account. Voila, he has cash again.
Note:
PayPal expressly prohibits users from using its service to do
an end-around on cash advance fees, AND WISENOMAD.COM DOES NOT
ENDORSE THIS IN ANY WAY. We recommend you take a close look
at their rules to see what is and is not allowable.
Sign-up
now
Send
money via email to friends that
don't even have a PayPal account
You
can send anyone money without worrying whether or not they already
have a PayPal account set up. Of course, to retrieve the money
you sent them, they will have to open up an account. Don't worry.
It's fairly painless to set up an account. The big plus here
is that you're not confined to only playing with the existing
PayPal user base.
This
may sound like a frivolous point, until you consider the classic
"Fax machine dilemma". Imagine owning a fax machine in the early
days before everyone had one. Having one was relatively useless
because you couldn't send anyone else a fax. Not so with PayPal.
Sign-up
now
Sell
anything to anyone online
and they can pay you instantly
Wouldn't
it be nice to sell the $300 backpack to someone across the country
that you met on the WiseNomad.com web site? Now you can much
faster with a lot less uncertainty. They pay you with PayPal
and the money instantly goes into your PayPal account. You can
UPS it to them the same day.
How
can they trust you? Well, they can't for sure, but being that
PayPal acts as the intermediary and has bank and/or credit card
information on both of you, it makes it a great deal less attractive
for someone to rip you off. You can also file a complaint with
PayPal, which becomes visible to others that they do business
with.
The
bottom line is that dishonest people look for easy targets.
The way that the PayPal system is set up, it makes it very unattractive
for anyone looking to make a career out of screwing people who
use PayPal to buy their stuff. This is precisely why PayPal
has become so popular on eBay.
Sign-up
now
Book
a bed and pay for your
hostel accommodations remotely
This
one is not here yet, but it's just around the corner because
PayPal is such a tremendous solution for both Hostels and travelers.
First
off, Hostels hate paying exorbitant credit card fees (rightly
so), so quite a few of them don't even accept credit cards,
or they pass the cost on to the traveler if they choose to pay
with a credit card. For them, the inexpensive PayPal fee structure
makes more sense than taking credit cards directly, and since
PayPal allows its users to pay with a credit card, the travelers
that have a credit card but no PayPal account won't be left
out to dry. Additionally, the hostel gets paid instantly with
PayPal. What's even better, hostels won't experience as much
credit card fraud because PayPal will have already verified
users credit cards.
Travelers'
benefit even more. They can make a reservation by phone, by
instant messaging, by email, or whatever by just sending their
email address and saying "bill me". Then the hostel sends a
PayPal "Request for Money", the traveler validates payment,
the hostel gets their money instantly, and the reservation is
secured. Travelers don't have to make themselves vulnerable
by giving their credit card number to some random front desk
at a hostel. Sure, credit card companies will reimburse you
for any fraud beyond like fifty bucks, but this reimbursement
process takes a frick'n long time to happen. This isn't going
to do you any good when you suddenly realize that someone fraudulently
fleeced your entire credit card limit and you're in the middle
of a three-month trek through the Australian outback.
Now,
we've just got to convince the hostels to start accepting PayPal.
Rest assured, WiseNomad.com is diligently working on it. You
can help by mentioning it the next time you're at a hostel.
…
and it doesn't cost you a dime!
Sign-up
now
Sign-up
now
and you'll get Five Bucks!
Show
us a little love by supporting WiseNomad.com. Sign up through one
of the links one this page and PayPal will pay WiseNomad.com five
bucks for referring you, which we're more than happy to do because
this truly is a great service for travelers.
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