If you’ve already bought my book or heard me speak at WordCamp Vancouver then you know I’m against credit cards. They are not a great idea at all, at least not how they are typically used.
Heck I even blogged about it already.
But I was a hypocrite
If you did purchase my book already you probably noticed that the only form of payment available was via Credit Card through Stripe. Stripe is awesome and it makes accepting payments so much easier. I love Stripe.
It’s pretty hypocritical to say how bad Credit Cards are and then not accept any other form of payment though.
As of right now (well earlier today actually) you can purchase the book with Paypal. Yes you can just back it with a Credit Card and spend money dumb anyway but at least you can also have a balance.
Seriously if you are putting my book on a a Credit Card and it’s not in your budget DON’T BUY IT. Put it in your budget for next month or the month after.
Traditional Credit Cards that let you spend money you don’t have are stupid.
14 responses to “PayPal now accepted and I was a hypocrite”
I buy things online all the time through “credit card” gateways… with my debit card. I don’t own a credit card and don’t want to. You’re not a hypocrite 🙂
I was being one because of how I was accepting payment.
And if you’re in Canada, the debit cards don’t work that way as far as I know. I certainly wish they did.
It might be more correct to say that you accept payment by credit/debit card, or by Visa/MC/Amex/Discover. But unfair to assume that anyone paying by card is putting it on a credit card, which they cannot afford to pay off.
I personally can’t stand PayPal and take all of my payments by credit/debit card. I don’t think you’re being fair to yourself by calling yourself a hypocrite when indeed you’re offering people the opportunity to pay by debit card (which just so happens to extend to credit cards).
Does Stripe actually accept debit card transactions? I am 99% sure I couldn’t use my Canadian debit card with it.
Absolutely. From their own FAQs:
Cool. Even more respect for Stripe now.
I happen to agree with you that credit cards (non-debit cards) are a bad idea and financial poison.
I don’t think anyone would call you a hypocrite for accepting only Stripe on your site since debit cards can be run through the credit card networks. I know Dave Ramsey says it’s ok for normal businesses to accept credit cards, just not HIS business since he makes a living off of railing against them. I think adding PayPal will probably increase purchases. I see a 70/30 split between Stripe/PayPal on my site.
Just wanted to voice my support for you and say I don’t think you are a hypocrite.
(just bought the book+vids via Stripe with a debit card 🙂 )
Thanks for the support.
Maybe ‘hypocrite’ was the incorrect term. It just felt off to me to not offer another way of payment. At least in Canada I can’t use my debit card as you are.
Actually, it often makes sense to use credit cards, provided they can pay them off in full each month. Many cards give people rewards, such as travel or even up to 2% cash back. If you can put 2% of your purchase money back into your pocket, I think that makes more financial sense than paying cash.
I think credit cards hurt small business though, since they often have to pay 3% or more in terms of merchant fees when someone uses a credit card. So I try to pay cash for businesses that are small or mom and pop type businesses. But for bigger businesses I always use my credit card and earn rewards. I’m up to about $900 in free travel on my Capital One credit card since picking it up in about four or five months. The amount of interest I’ve paid by using it: $0. So for me a credit card makes more sense, and I suspect many others.
Sorry Duane I’m going to have to disagree with you there. 99% of people don’t use them smart at all and they don’t pay off the balance and they spend way more than they would if they used cash. The average North American spends 12 – 18% more if they use a Credit Card for purchases. Once you factor how much that 12% means in real dollars then you didn’t get out ahead at all.
I have never seen a rewards program that stands up to the math of 10% overage (which is below average for North America). Typically if you spent cash and spent 10% less you could have purchased reward for half the cost of that 10% extra spent.
I think debt in the hands of anyone who can’t be responsible and live within their means is bad, and credit cards are probably given out too freely. I don’t think your example is fair – vilifying credit cards because some people spend too much on them is like vilifying a restaurant because some people can’t push back from the table when full. At the end of the day personal responsibility has to factor into it somewhere.
I’m not sure that we can really have a discussion properly in the comments about this.
It’s not ‘some’ people it’s the vast majority of people that don’t use Credit Cards properly. As in above 80%.
Debt in any form (outside of a mortgage is bad). Having debt means you just bought something you couldn’t afford (or you’d have the cash for it).
Anyway I think we should just have this discussion in person sometime.
A mortgage means the same thing though, a person just bought something they couldn’t afford.
Agreed though, let’s offline this! I’ll send you an email with some further thoughts.
Stripe is indeed awesome. I brought my stripe reader with me on my current trip to Europe just in case I sell anything here 🙂