Hello all,

I am new to these boards, thnaks for having me. I am interested in setting up a business in Switzerland. The main aspect of my business will be taking electronic payments, preferably through Paypal.

Is it possible to have a Paypal account in Switzerland,and,if so, are there any withdrawal or receiving limits even on fully verified accounts? I ask this as I originally had planned on another country but they had a withdrawal limit of 400 Euros.

Thanks for your help.

I would suggest contacting Paypal, even though I personally am morally opposed to them.

I suggest you have other payment options as well. I like ChemGoddess am completely opposed to using them.

... don't get me started again

Read more here.

There seems to be no such limit for Swiss-verified withdrawals. They charge for 149 francs or less but above that is no problem.

Pay "Pal" does suck bigstylee though

Yes you can. If your credit card is issued by a Swiss bank or in Switzerland you will be enlisted on the Swiss Paypal site.

Are your customers from Switzerland? I ask, because I have not had a single request from a customer in Switzerland to pay via PayPal in three years. The Swiss prefer e-banking, yellownet, and trudging to the post office with a pay-in slip...

Are you serously basing your business location decision on the withdrawal limit on a Paypal account?

Surely the main aspect of any business is the provision of a service or product - the manner in which you collect payments is mere backoffice stuff.

Hi,
I never thought my first posting on this forum would be PayPal related, but stranger things have happened I guess.
My advice to you is to leave PayPal well alone for business purposes.

PayPal like all other systems only works between two honest people, but the PayPal dispute and refund system heavily biased towards the buyer and keeping in good with the credit card companies tends to support dishonest activity.
As a buyer PayPal is fine, but as a seller it can be a nightmare.
Seller protection for somebody in Switzerland is zero and I have the battle scars to prove it.
Do a quick "google" search on PayPal horror stories.
I am embroiled in a claim at this moment and whilst I did nothing wrong and followed every PayPal seller requirement to the letter, I am almost convinced I will lose, which will result in an eBay scamming team in Germany keeping my property and getting their money back.
Wait until somebody receives your items and then goes to their credit card company and files a chargeback.
How is this done? Purchases of high value items are made using a credit card linked PayPal account, then the credit card owner reports the card lost or stolen to their bank. All charges on the account are then considered unauthorised and the credit card company automatically removes the money from PayPal who will then remove the money from your account. You will never win this form of chargeback claim and could end up getting sued or having the debt collectors on your door courtesy of PayPal if your account is in negative.
PayPal also offers no seller protection for any transactions outside of eBay. If you are using PayPal for direct payments for goods and services via the PayPal website, you are on your own.
There is no system in Switzerland available to help you unless you are prepared to send good money after bad. Internal assistance is useless as well. Local Police have better things to do with their time than chase up complaints of failed internet transactions unless serious money is involved.
Ciao,
Gyro.

Thanks Gyro... my words exactly

BTW, welcome!

Thanks,
I have lived here for over 15 years and I found this forum by accident. I thought I might as an old hand at a lot of this I might have something to contribute especially for new arrivals. "Been there done that, bought that t-shirt" might help others avoid the same pitfalls.
Ciao,
Gyro.

Thanks for the warning and for sharing your experience, Gyro.

I've been using PayPal as a business seller for years without encountering such a nightmare, but it looks like that's only been because I've been very fortunate. It probably helps that I sell mainly small-ticket items.

Cheers,
Tim

I work in international mail-order and we only sell relatively inexpensive items also. However, our market demanded that we add PayPal as an option, so we did. Two years on we have only had one problem with thousands of PayPal transactions, which was solved.

The only complaint we have is the cheating on the exchange rates as they claim they can't use interbank rates, what a crock.

To the OP: I would never use PayPal for selling purposes as an available option for expensive items. However, for small items, as a complement to other payment systems, than I do find it acceptable.

Another trouble free Paypal user. As long as you take simple precautions e.g. only selling to verified PayPal'ers and ensuring that the two addresses match up i.e. Ebay and PayPal you should be fine. Having said that I treat every transaction as potentially fraudulent so I am extra cautious.. and if my suspicions are raised as has happened a few times, I will insist on a cheque/PO or a BACS transfer.

Hi,
I agree entirely on the exchange rate, but here's a little lesson. I have been using PayPal for many years, and only in the last year have I had any problems and here's where you get caught.
I only sell items that are surplus to my collecting addiction and usually small items at low cost. However, I had six medals that I wanted to get rid off. I listed them as individual items, but they were all won on eBay by the same purchaser. As individual items each was not a problem, but together they were a valuable package and worthy of attention by the eBay and PayPal scam artists. It's partly my own fault because I let my guard down.
Remember what we get on eBay is usually 40 to 50% of retail price so items such as medals, coins, certain badges, stamps etc that can be turned over quickly at fairs as individual items might not attract a crook, but with multiple potential profitable items all on sale at the same time from the same seller does and who can resist a system which allows you to buy, get a full refund and sell the items obtained for free all at the same time? Remember if they lose the claim they still have the items. If they do a chargeback you will always lose the money and your property.
Lesson learned: Never allow multiple purchases from the same buyer to be combined. Bad luck for the buyers from now on, but because PayPal allow combined items as one claim so I will never allow combined shipments again. Each sale must be paid for separately.
Seller protection is only provided when shipping to a confirmed PayPal address. PayPal don't care about the eBay address. PayPal only confirm addresses in the USA, Canada and the UK I believe.
PayPal does recognise Swiss Post online tracking so always send all packages registered and charge the buyer the additional 6,00CHF as well.
My rule for eBay and using PayPal is: Only accept PayPal for what you can afford to lose, for everything else do it by Überweisung (bank transfer).
Ciao,
Gyro.

Can someone please advise alternative ways to accept credit cards through Internet?
I was in a situation when the buyer from the U.S. was ready to pay by credit card only, and Paypal was the quickest way to do this, as I had already the verified account in hand.

P.S. Solutions like Telecurs are too expensive, unless you do a regular business in Internet shopping

We use Buy Now buttons on our website and the only time we had a problem was once when the client's address didn't match up - and to be honest, that signalled a problem with the client and a benefit with using a system like PayPal.

I have a paypal account in Switzerland it is linked to by UBS credit card. I have had no problems. Just changed my account info when I moved here.

Likewise, have had a Paypal account for nearly 5 years linked to my BCV card and so far have no scars to complain about.

I am fighting paypal now since 4 months as they locked my cash for 3 month
Got paid from USA and UK and they think i am laundering cash or something
Just locked account and i am sending faxes every week. no succes.
whenever i get the cash out i know, never again

i am verified but its just related to USA law
good luck