I'll make this short and simple --

1. Always use Paypal (if possible) to pay for anything you buy on the internet.

2. Credit cards are next best.

3. American Express is the best credit card to use. Amex protects their members and usually rules in your favor about refunds if you have a legitimate complaint or reason for requesting it. Visa and Mastercard don't have the same bargaining power with merchants as Amex has and getting refunds from Visa or Mastercard is usually slower and more cumbersome. Possible, but painful.

4. KEEP TRACK OF YOUR PAYPAL TRANSACTION NUMBER AND YOUR CLICKBANK RECEIPT NUMBER. They both send you emails when you buy something. The emails contain those two numbers, and those two numbers are like gold. SAVE EVERY ONE OF THOSE EMAILS. You'll need them for any questions or problems with the vendor, and they're also helpful if you want a refund. I'd suggest setting up a special folder called "mail order" or something like that. Put every confirming email into that folder.

5. Set up another folder for every email that contains name and/or password information. Call it whatever you want, but put every name and password, one way or another, into that folder. It can be an email folder or a folder in My Documents .... whatever. Just keep all names and passwords in one search-able place. It's kind of difficult to ask for a refund or cancel a subscription when you can't even log into a site, right?

SUBSCRIPTIONS, RECURRING PAYMENTS AND DEFERRED PAYMENTS

6. When it comes time to cancel that subscription, recurring payment or deferred payment, find your way to the hidden Paypal page that gives you a listing of every vendor who is authorized to charge your Paypal account in the future.

Huh?

Hidden?

Every vendor authorized to charge my Paypal account in the future?

Where is it?

7. Buried. Believe me.

8. I spent almost 30 minutes looking for it one night AND I KNEW IT WAS THERE! No, I'm not stupid. :) It's just hidden pretty well. Here's how to find it if you have the new, updated interface:

9. Log into your account and go to your Profile | More Options | My Money | My preapproved payments | update. See? I told you it was hidden.

10. "My Money" is in a block on the left side of your screen. "My preapproved payments" is in a list after you click on "My Money". It's toward the bottom of the page, and "update" is on the right side of your screen. So you will be "updating" your "preapproved payments".

First you have to choose "My Money".

That takes you to another screen where you find "My preapproved payments" and choose "update".

11. And here's what you get when you click "update" --

Wow! There it is -- every merchant who is approved to charge on your Paypal account with Merchant, Start date, Expiration date, Last amount billed, and Status. All right there in one place! And you can cancel any one of them with just a few clicks!

Page 1 of 3 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 3 | Next