PayPal has always prided itself on security and the ability for one to protect themselves from fraudulent activity, and it does this in part with their policy on purchase protection. PayPal makes it extremely easy for people to send money to others or pay for goods online or in retail stores (where accepted) just by tapping their devices, or clicking a button then logging in to an account and hitting the buy button. Money transfers usually happen pretty quickly and payments for goods online or in store are immediate. For the longest time PayPal’s purchase protection policy has only ever covered a list of specific groups of items purchased, things that are physical goods, but now PayPal has updated the policy for purchase protection to include some new types of goods and services.
This now includes a wide range of intangible purchases. According to PayPal’s description, this includes digital goods, services, travel, event tickets, as well as other intangible items. That last bit isn’t exactly the most descriptive as other intangible items could be anything, but should users wonder about whether or not they’d be covered for something that they believe may be included, they can always submit a request and wait for PayPal’s answer. According to the details the new changes to the purchase protection policy won’t take effect until July 1st, so there is still a couple of weeks to go.
If you’ve never had to use the purchase protection, you’re lucky, but also may be uninformed about the way it works which is OK. However, it isn’t a bad idea to know just in case. The basic breakdown is that if buyers have paid for an item, tangible or now intangible, they can submit a dispute if they haven’t received the item or service or if items or services are not as described, and PayPal will research the issue. What’s odd is that PayPal is just now bringing this protection feature to the U.S., but at any rate, soon consumers will be able to pay for intangible goods and services with the same feeling of confidence and protection that UK PayPal members have been experiencing for a while. As they say, better late than never.