What is the single factor that drives most corporate decisions? Money. Plain and simple. The reason PayPal wants everybody to become verified involves money. Not stealing it, however. Whenever you make a purchase using a credit card (or a debit card for that matter), there is a transaction fee involved. In the case of a credit card, I believe it is based as a percentage of the purchase price. In the case of a debit card, if I recall correctly, it is a fixed fee. In either case, the transaction charge goes to the bank that issued the card. By linking directly to your bank account, they are able to bypass this charge. As an alternative, if you use a PayPal card, they would be in effect charging themselves, so that 's another way around paying the transaction fee. Once you are verified, they don't block you from using your credit card, or from using a card different from your PayPal card (if you went that route instead of linking your bank account), but they Do make the direct bank or PayPal card the default payment method. In other words, they make it a bit more inconvenient for you not to use the method that's most cost-effective for them. My suspicion is that the reason they don't push for these options initially is to allow customers time to get used to, and more importantly become dependent on their service. That being said, there's nothing diabolical in what they're attempting to do, but I do take issue with two things: 1) If you protest and simply state that you do not wish to provide your bank account information, and do not wish to apply for their credit card, that should be the end of it. They shouldn't back people into a corner. You should be waivered out and allowed to continue as before, plain and simple. 2) This B.S. about being verified being more secure, valued by merchants, blah, blah, blah. Explain the situation as it really is, and rely on people's common sense to win out. For instance, the alternative might be that they have to start charging people an annual fee to use their service if they don't become verified, and this will end up saving the customer a bit of money. Don't B.S. the customers and assume that they're stupid enough to buy into an obviously false explanation (read as "lie"); Verification is really best for YOU. This is a GOOD thing. WE'RE doing YOU a FAVOR by verifying you.)
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