Pay for your WoW account with PayPal
by Robin Torres 
Aug 15th 2007 at 11:00AM
BlizzCon attendees already know this, but Blizzard just officially announced the ability to pay for your WoW account with PayPal.At BlizzCon, there was a PayPal booth where you could enter a contest to win one of 2 Segways, complete with helmet, if you switched your WoW account payment over to PayPal. Even if you didn't stop by the booth, the PayPal employees handed out many, many flyers.
I think this is a step forward to make it easier for some customers to pay for their online hobby. Of course, the easier it is to pay, the greater the chance customers will keep doing it. It's good business. And it didn't even take developers off of whatever content you are waiting for!
Is this good news for you? Will this make it easier for those of you currently using game time cards?
And, if you are one of the BlizzCon attendees who won a Segway, will you please send us action pictures?
Filed under: Odds and ends, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Raileh Aug 15th 2007 11:22AM
Im not sure how this will make it any easier for anyone. Dont the people using prepaid cards buy them with cash? I always thought that PayPal had to be back by a credit card or banking account? If you have one of those, why not just use your debit/credit card to begin with?
Hunglikehors Aug 15th 2007 11:22AM
PayPal is the debil
Ayatsumi Aug 15th 2007 11:33AM
@1 -
it's a lot easier in a lot of ways. Just because you have a bank account doesn't always mean you have a credit card or even a debit card. Even if you do, not everyone cares to have your sub auto-drafted. Buying prepaid cards does require time and travel generally, and I know of a few people who live in rural enough areas they have to drive almost an hour for said game card. Another thing is that many people maintain Paypal accounts with a bank draft backup but use only the fund in that account for online purchasing. (I do this commonly with my ebay business.) It's hardly groundbreaking, but it does make paying your sub just that much more accessible to many people.
brian Aug 15th 2007 11:38AM
fyi, i have been using paypal since it began, years ago , and i still unfortunately use it, however here is a warning, Paypal is pretty much constantly under class action lawsuits by its users, they WILL NOT protect you for anything, they can also remove money from your bank account, when complaints from other users regarding transactions, Paypal is a RISKY place to put your bank account info into, although also unavoidable as the other options you have for online payment are about the same in regards to security. You have been warned, i am sure other paypal users have had issues as well. I am not saying its not a good wow payment option, just a... risky one. in my humble opinion.
Matt Aug 15th 2007 12:02PM
How is this new? When I started playing WoW about a month ago it was available as a payment method.
Kyane Aug 15th 2007 12:06PM
@ Robin
As I was told at BlizzCon, the segways were not being given away there, but only the promotion being pushed. Supposedly, all those that move their payment to PayPal would be eligible for the Segway drawing.
Erica Olson Aug 15th 2007 12:06PM
Won't be any easier for us. Actually, paying with PayPal would cost us money.
We do just fine having it automatically put onto our credit card. This card gives us cash back and we pay up every month so we come out ahead.
Yippee for them for adding another way to pay your bill. But I do think they should fix some of the issues in game (i.e. evading mobs that can kill you dead, horrid drop rates on quest items, broken quests, bugged quests, etc.) before they go charging ahead on tons of new things.
Baluki Aug 15th 2007 12:09PM
Good idea, Paypal. Give a couple WoW players a machine that will allow them to avoid walking. And you know it's only a matter of time before they put seats on those things.
Dave Aug 15th 2007 12:17PM
I like it if only because I sell plenty of crap on ebay and elsewhere and have a usual balance of 50 bucks or so hanging out in a paypal account at all times. This means no more having to bother with it coming out of my checking, which is a winner to me.
Leshrac Aug 15th 2007 12:50PM
I had someone hack my eBay account and subsequently my Pay Pal account to the tune of $500.00. When I went to eBay they said to talk to Pay Pal, which was a science project. I opened an issue and it took quite a while for them to resolve the matter, not only that but I wasn't allowed to close my Pay Pal account till the issue was resolved. And of course Pay Pal never took care of any bounced charges on my account either. I couldn't wait to cancel my Pay Pal account and to this day I still get numerous emails from Pay Pal asking me to reactivate my old account because they claim that I am missing out on so many advantages.
Pay Pal can rot in hell. They want your money and they will tell you whatever you want to hear but once you have a problem they go radio silent and it becomes a science project to get anything rectified.
If you really, really want to use a credit card online go to the store and buy those new pre-paid VISA, Master Card credit cards. They act exactly like a cc and you can make purchases anonymously over the internet /wink.
PallySucks Aug 15th 2007 12:53PM
Credit Card > Gamecards > Paypal
How hard is it to put a CC on file? The same amount of time as using Paypal.
I prefer my CC than Paypal.
Gamecards are great because if you are afraid of Blizz losing your CC data in case of hackers, than Gametime is the best.
I like the idea of using CC and doing monthly. So if I have to stop for month I can do it.
Paypal sucks because if your Account for locked or froze because a bidder on ebay sent you fishy money, why freeze my account or assets?
Police your own damn system instead of my money.
Leshrac Aug 15th 2007 12:53PM
Oh, and another thing - these r-tards were practically raping people as you walked by their booth at BlizzCon. They were also littering the place with their Pay Pal post cards all over the damn convention hall. These people are roaches.
Samhamwich Aug 15th 2007 1:53PM
I have been using paypal for about 5 years now, it's a great way to have your subscription renewd. As long as the monthly charge is the same from blizzard, it does not cost anything extra. (I know EA for UO charged extra when you used paypal(morons)...) But yea, I would much rather have the money removed from my bank account rather than placed on my credit card. For the person who says you got hacked, it's only your fault to blame for falling victim of a scam, I have roughly 200 US funds in my account at all times at there is nothing fishy about any transactions. It's very secure, and great for people who do not use credit cards, or would rather have money removed rather than charged. The only thing I would see as a downfall is if blizzard charges more to use the service, I havn;t checked out the ability to switch yet so I couldn't tell you. I imagine they won't however, having a subscription base of millions probally gets them some sort of deal ;) . Anyway, I'll be glad to switch!
Medros Aug 15th 2007 2:29PM
I ranted about this on my WoW Radio show back in late November, 2004. They said this would be out at launch, and it took them almost 3 YEARS to actually bring this about. I am disappointed in Blizzard that they said this would be available and it took 3 years. If this is any indication, I would say it means little hope for many of those things promised in the beta. Little did I know that PayPal payments would be on par with other expansion level ones.
Viper007Bond Aug 16th 2007 3:08AM
Oh man oh man, this makes me so happy. I don't have a credit card of my own (no use for one 99% of the time), so I've had to call up my dad and borrow his.
Now I can finally draw directly out of my bank account. :D
yotix Aug 16th 2007 4:12AM
PayPal has been all over german tech magazines for weeks: They keep "losing" transactions. Also, criminals are using hacked PayPal accounts to con people into sending them free goodies - and PayPal, according to reports, does nothing to curb the situation.
In short: DO NOT USE PAYPAL to pay for anything. They sometimes lose payments, they sometimes revoke payments long after the transaction has been made, they do not seem to ban or block hacked accounts, and their customer service -- erm -- blows.