• by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15, 2026 @12:14PM (#66239858)

    You thought PayPal was shitty now? Come back in one year.

    • Paypal has been clueless for a while, gave up on them years ago.

      I'd guess that you are correct, PE will make everything worse. Maybe it is the push off the cliff that Paypal needs.

    • Yep, was here to comment the same thing. When private equity gets involved enshitification is not far behind. But then again, this is PayPal, so who cares?

  • My past dealings (mine and others) have lead me to think of PayPal as a criminal enterprise, and I've never had anything but great experiences working with Stripe. YMMV. I'm not normally in favor of consolidation when it removes consumer choice, but this one is an enthusiast "YES" from me.

    • I feel you on this, especially when it comes to consumer choice. PayPal is almost like a monopoly, since it's the only payment option on some sites, which has earned it a spot on my personal list of "evil, manipulative" companies. So, on one hand, I'm happy to see PayPal go. On the other hand, I'm worried my pessimistic side will just transfer that same dislike to Stripe.

    • "think of PayPal as a criminal enterprise"
      Musk & Thiel, nuff said

      • They (Thiel and Musk) haven't had any involvement in PayPal for 24 years. Currently there are parties to assign blame and concerns to that make sense. Besides being owned by Ebay then spun off there has been eight presidents of the company. What in your opinion do Thiel and Musk do at PayPal for the last 24 years?

    • Stripe has censored people in the past, just like every other payment provider. I once interviewed at Braintree (Paypay/Venmo) but didn't get the position. I've never had Venmo and I deleted my Paypal in 2022:

      https://battlepenguin.com/poli... [battlepenguin.com]

    • My past dealings (mine and others) have lead me to think of PayPal as a criminal enterprise,

      I've seen a lot of hate thrown at PayPal over the years.....and not quite sure why?

      I've used it a LONG time for eBay payments, sending money to friends and the odd small merchant.

      I wouldn't say I've used it a TON, but some.....and never had any problems.

      What problems have ya'll had that you dislike them so badly? Genuinely curious....

      • I think the hate stems from the seller side of the transaction. As a user I also never had a problem and continue to use it to protect having to give out any payment info direct to fly-by-night sellers.

      • Based on what you've written, your PayPal experience is largely as a payor, and not a payee. That's certainly the most common case.

        The other side of the transaction is very different. PayPal is heavily biased toward the former. That's a problem, because PayPal is quite unforgiving for payees. A big part of the problem is that payees are often ignorant, reckless or outright criminal, and their heads are often filled with small-business-person shit. People think they're clever or take things for grante

    • Your UID is too low to not be aware that mergers and acquisitions always end in enshittification.
       

  • ...when companies are acquired.
    Paypal sucked before, expect it to get worse.

  • They've both tried to censor, fine, and ban customers based on political speech that they didn't like so that makes sense that they'd work together well. I have a different recommendation though. Both of them get barred from operating in the US, lose their business licenses completely, have their assets sold to a non-profit holding company, and put all the management in jail.

  • ...do they pay 53 billions with PayPal ?!?

    • ..do they pay 53 billions with PayPal ?!?

      Yes, but after fees and additional charges the deal ends up only being worth $49.95.

      • No no, Paypal will freeze the payment, citing it as 'suspicious'. They hold onto the cash, and the acquisition can't go through :)

  • Yes, PayPal was really helpful as a way to proxy payments and hide your bank details over the last 2 decades to get payment protection if you didn't have a credit card (or even with one) but those days are gone. Google Pay is everywhere these days and does things better, with virtual cards and all, and quicker.

    I feel like Musk knows that and will take them up on the offer, and then call them suckers to their back.

  • that's what's missing from their business offerings

  • You could smell the foul stench a month ago when they changed the terms of their arbitration clause to use JAMS instead of the AAA among other things.

    Once a business starts engineering its arbitration agreements to favor it over its customers in most cases, its time to cancel.

    I think companies which use arbitration agreements should be avoided if at all possible, but it is getting very difficult to do so.

    Being owned by Private Equity is another reason to sever the relationship.