Paypal's a reasonable system and allows small time hobby traders to accept
credit cards and deal with "instant" transactions but it's expensive and
their trading terms are pretty draconian. They seem to be able to freeze
your account for any number of fairly trivial reasons - I've done quite a
bit of trade recently, all without much in the way of problem until someone
decided to raise a complaint on Paypal, you can't actually talk to or
correspond with a real person it seems. As the situation didn't fit their
scenarios I was in danger of losing the account with all the cash in it just
over a misunderstanding that had already been cleared up! Fortunately for me
the guy who complained withdrew the complaint and all was well but I can see
why people prefer to trade without Paypal. There are alternatives including
Nochex and all the other money transfer services but Paypal seems to be the
only one buyers like - out of about 200 transactions three quarters were
Paypal, a few cash, postal orders and bank transfers and the rest, about 35
were cheques.
I've never had any bad payments - not yet anyway but the golden rules are
simple
1 It's not paid until you can see it in your account as available funds
2 A cheque is just a piece of paper until 1 occurs
3 Paypal don't charge to withdraw sums over ?50 so when there's ?50 in
there, take it out!
4 Do ALL your business with Paypal themselves through their website and none
of it through email

Oh and as a general rule your credit card or any PIN number really is yours,
no one, not even the Bank will ask for it all - don't give it to anyone,
ever!