Blogs /1346/ 12/17/12
"December Blues"
Hey
What's up? All is well here in CMC. Yea it's December, it's the 1 month of each year that all convicts can't wait to end. I have always loved Christmas but can't stand it now due to being locked up. Believe it or not, I still try and have a nice time. I save up what $ I can and try and get some presents for my cellie. This year I have no $ so that won't happen. Anyways I wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas if you do Christmas. Soon it will be a new year, let's hope we all have a nice one. 2012 wasn't all that good 4 me, I'm praying 2013 brings some good news my way "legally". There is a case out now in the CA courts called Doe v. Harris. It will help me a lot. This case can get my sentence cut in half. When this case is final and US prisoners are allowed to use it, I'm gonna also ask the courts to dismiss my restitution. I'm enclosing my inmate statement report. It's my Nov 2012 paycheck basically. As you can see I make $12 a month, restitution takes 1/2 of it. They take 1/2 of any $ I make in prison and any $ that anyone sends to me.
I refuse to ask anyone to mail $ to me because they take half of it. I have been locked up since Oct of 1994 and as you can see the state hasn't taken much. I have been doing a lot of thinking about parole and this Doe v. Harris case. If I ever want to get a parole date and get out of this hell hole I'm going to have to hire an attorney. Without a good attorney I think I will stay in prison for the rest of my life. When you have a life sentence you can't get out without a good attorney period. What I really need to do is figure out a way to get enough $ to hire an attorney to represent me. I need to get an attorney before I'm too old and just don't care about the streets any longer. I have been told that I need to set up a PAYPAL ACCOUNT NOW! If I can figure out a way to do that then I may be able to get the $ I need put into the Paypal account that is strictly for attorney fee. I need an attorney, it's my only chance to get out of prison. A good attorney can get me out now but I haven't figured out a way to get this Paypal account set up. I want to put it on my blog and when I get enough $ then I'll have someone use every cent of it for hiring an attorney. If any of you know how to set up a Paypal account please write to me on my blog so I know how to get this started. I don't like asking anyone for help information, but we're talking my life. I have to figure this out now before it's too late.
My problem is I don't know anything about how to set up a Paypal account. Secondly as you can see I make $12 a month and after restitution I get $6 a month. That's just not going to work. If I can get someone to tell me how this Paypal account works then I'll have to find someone to put in their name I guess. I just don't know how any of this works. PLEASE if anyone knows how I can get this going, please let me know. I just have to get out of prison. For those of you who don't know me, I have been locked up half of my life and I've missed out on everything that life has to offer. I think of all that I've never experienced. I have never been married. No children. Never even had a driver's license. Never had a ticket. Never owned a car or motorcycle. I have been locked up since 1992 except for 84 days. I first went to prison in 1992, I was 22 yrs old. I got out in July 31 of 1994 and was locked up on Oct 19th 1994. I have been down since. One thing I don't want is pity. I would never want anyone to feel sorry for me due to having a life sentence. I didn't deserve life but nevertheless I got it when I was just a kid. I'm now almost 43 years old and I want to be a free man. I want to work and pay bills and put something back into society. I have skills, I'm a certified optician etc. I just want the chance to prove that I'm a good man. I'm not a bad person and I know it. But if I don't get an attorney I will die behind these walls and I just can't do that.
Anyhow it's December and everyone is busy. Hopefully when this New Year starts someone who knows how to set up this Paypal account will send me the info on how to do it. I think I can get the money raised for an attorney and if that happens I can get out of prison before it's too late.
If anyone out there can help me out with this information I would really appreciate it. I will do whatever it takes to get this Paypal account started. I just don't have the knowledge/knowhow to get it started. Any and all help in this matter would be much appreciated. I will do whatever I can from behind these walls. I just need the smallest of help.
Thank you for your time
Respectfully
Donnie
Merry Christmas everyone
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Replies (13)
I hope this information arrives to you before the New Year. It'll be a nice way to cap off 2012, don't you think?
I am copy-and-pasting useful paragraphs from information sites HowStuffWorks and Wikipedia. The articles themselves are too long to include in their entirety.
Introduction to Paypal:
"PayPal is an online payment service that allows individuals and businesses to transfer funds electronically. Here are some of the things you might use PayPal for:
- Send or receive payments for online auctions at eBay and other Web sites
- Purchase or sell goods and services
- Make or receive donations
- Exchange cash with someone
You can send funds to anyone with an e-mail address, whether or not they have a PayPal account. To receive the funds, though, the recipient must have a PayPal account associated with that e-mail address. Basic PayPal accounts are free, and many financial transactions are free as well, including all purchases from merchants that accept payments using PayPal.
If you have a PayPal account, you can add and withdraw funds in many different ways. You can associate your account with bank accounts or credit cards for more direct transactions, including adding and withdrawing money. Other withdrawal options include using a PayPal debit card to make purchases or get cash from an ATM, or requesting a check in the mail."
"Signing up for PayPal does not require you to enter any bank account information. However, if you want to use many of PayPal's features, you will need to add and verify a checking account OR credit card. To get started, internet access is required. A "Sign Up" link can be found at the top of the site's home page.
At the next page, you'll choose whether you want a personal, business or premier account. If you just plan to use PayPal for the occasional eBay auction or online purchase, a personal account is the right choice. If you intend to use PayPal to accept payments for a business, then a business or premier account would be more suitable. If you select a personal account, you can upgrade in the future.
From there, PayPal asks for some basic personal information: your legal first and last name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. You'll also need to check the box indicating that you agree to PayPal's user agreement, privacy policy, acceptable use policy and electronic communications policy. Once you click to create your account, you'll receive an e-mail with instructions for verifying your account and confirming your address.
From here, you should know what PayPal means when it refers to this verification and confirmation process. Having your information vetted by PayPal shows both buyers and sellers that you are less likely to be a scammer.
A PayPal account is verified if you've associated that account with a current bank account or credit card. This is more than just entering account information. PayPal will ask you to follow certain steps to complete the verification process. For a checking account, for example, PayPal will make two micropayments to that account, usually about five cents each. Then, you'll need to enter the amounts of those micropayments as verification.
A PayPal account is confirmed if you've completed one of three options to signal to PayPal that the address on your account is valid. The fastest of these is to verify a bank account or credit card matching the address you've entered as the PayPal account's address. As an alternative, you can request a confirmation code by mail after you've had the account for 90 or more days, or you can apply for a PayPal Extras MasterCard which confirms your address by running a credit check."
"PayPal has three account types: Personal, Premier and Business. All these account types can use the following core PayPal functions:
- Sending money
- Requesting money
- Using auction tools
- Making payments from a Web site
- Debit card services
- Customer service
Besides these functions, the three accounts also share certain features and limitations. For example, if you have a verified account, you can send up to $10,000 in a single transaction, and there are generally no transaction fees for sending and receiving money between PayPal accounts. However, you'll pay a fee when using a PayPal debit card or receiving money for something that requires a currency exchange. Unverified accounts, including those without an associated bank account or credit card, have more restrictive sending and withdraw limits. You can determine the limits on your account by clicking a "view limits" link near the top of the page after you sign in to PayPal.
The three PayPal account types differ in some important ways. First, Personal accounts give you access to the core features, but that's all. PayPal handles customer support for Personal accounts primarily by e-mail or through a virtual customer support agent at the PayPal Web site. There's a phone number available, but it's not toll-free and may have extensive wait times.
Premier and Business accounts are almost the same. The main difference is that a Business account must be registered with a business or group name, while a Premier account can be registered with a business, group or individual. Also, you can set up multiple users to access a business account.
In addition to PayPal's core functions, Business and Premier accounts provide these options:
- Accepting debit and credit card payments
- Allowing senders to set up recurring payments (subscriptions)
- Unlimited use of a PayPal ATM/debit card
Business and Premier Accounts also get a toll-free customer service number and extended customer service hours. These extra features come at the cost of transaction fees, which we'll take a closer look at later.
If you're starting your own PayPal account for a business, compare the fees and services from PayPal against other credit card transaction services to determine which works best for your needs. Consider that with PayPal, most of the code you'll need to add to a Web site is automated for you, too. Shopping cart functions or "pay now" buttons may not be as easy to implement through other services."
"In using PayPal to receive money, many options are available. If you give someone the e-mail address associated with your PayPal account, that person can send you money from their own PayPal account. If you're selling items on eBay, you can select PayPal as an option for accepting payment through eBay. If you're selling from your own store or Web site, there are a number of options available for completing sales transactions with PayPal, including the following:
- Adding a PayPal "buy now" button for each item you are selling
- Integrating a PayPal shopping cart with your Web site using the PayPal application programming interface (API)
- Accepting payments offline or off-site to process later using PayPal's Virtual Terminal
When you're signed in to PayPal, the "merchant services" tab reveals the options available to you as a seller. Cost and availability of these services depend on which Web site payments type you've selected for your account. You'll have the "standard" type by default as a recipient, but you can upgrade to the "pro" type for a $30 monthly subscription fee. Merchants with a moderate to high volume of transactions should choose the pro type to avoid various fees.
From the merchant services page, you can set up new "buy now" or "add to cart" buttons for your site. This generates code you can copy and paste into the HTML for your Web pages. When a buyer clicks one of these buttons, your site links to a shopping cart at PayPal's site to complete the transaction. This takes the burden off you, as a seller, of managing how that online shopping cart and checkout should look and function.
Once you're set up to receive money, the burden is on you as the recipient to cover the transaction costs. PayPal charges its business and premier account holders a per-transaction cost of 30 cents, plus 2.9% of the transaction amount. If the merchant has a higher sales volume within a month, that percentage could drop to as low as 1.9%. PayPal also charges fees for exchanging between its 25 accepted currencies in international transactions. These fees help cover PayPal's customer support and other services reserved for business and premier customers.
The last option shown above is accepting offline and off-site payments. This means you've taken the buyer's name and credit card information outside of PayPal. You can enter that information and process the transaction using PayPal's virtual terminal service. Unlike other fee-based services at PayPal, virtual terminal requires a subscription of $30 per month. As well as the fee, the per-transaction costs mentioned above still apply.
As a recipient, you can remove money from your PayPal account by making a withdrawal. These are your options for making the withdrawal:
- Transfer money to a bank account associated with your PayPal account
- Request that PayPal mail you a paper check for a certain amount
- Make purchases using a PayPal debit card."
"Though PayPal rose to stardom via eBay, one of the keys to PayPal's success has been its ability to expand beyond that market. You can use it to send money to a friend, donate to charity, and buy items online. In order to send money using your PayPal account, you'll need one of two things:
- Funds already transferred to your PayPal account before the transaction
- An instant transfer account, usually a checking or savings account, from which PayPal will withdraw the necessary funds to cover the transaction
From there, it's just a matter of knowing your recipient. To send money to a person, all you need is the e-mail address associated with that person's PayPal account. For an organization or business, you can usually send money from a PayPal link at its Web site.
From the sender's perspective, PayPal is a free service. In fact, if you send money directly from a checking or savings account, there are never any fees involved. The one exception would be if you pay for something by taking a cash advance from your credit card. While PayPal might not charge you for this service, your credit card provider probably will.
One thing to be aware of when sending money, particularly with donations, is designating the money's purpose. In some cases, you'll link from the recipient's Web site to a shopping cart page that automatically makes this selection for you. If you click to "Send Money" from the PayPal Web site, you have the following two tabs of options to indicate whether you're buying something or just sending money:
- Purchase tab with the options of Goods, Services or eBay items
- Personal tab with the options of Gift, Payment owed, Cash advance, Living expense, Other
After you send money, the record of your transaction should appear on the History page at PayPal.com. If necessary, you can search that history for a specific time in the past. If you click the "details" link for a transaction, you can view all the details, including the amount, date, recipient and a unique transaction ID used by PayPal to track your transaction. If you ever dispute a transaction, customer service will use this transaction number when handling the dispute from both sides, sender and recipient.
If a Web site only accepts credit cards and not PayPal, you can still use funds in your PayPal account to make a purchase. To do this, you'll need to request a PayPal debit card which operates on the Master Card network. You can use that card number with any merchant who accepts MasterCard, and the funds will be deducted from the PayPal account. This service is free, but has a daily spending limit of $3,000. That debit card can also be used at ATMs to withdraw up to $400 in cash daily from your PayPal account, and it can earn 1 percent cash back on purchases if you're enrolled for PayPal Preferred Rewards through eBay."
"The biggest criticism of PayPal is that it acts like a bank, but it isn't regulated like one. PayPal isn't required to maintain any of the security, customer service or dispute resolution services that banks provide. At the same time, PayPal holds large amounts of their customers' money, makes millions of financial transactions and even offers credit and debit cards.
In 2002, the FDIC declared that because PayPal didn't meet the federal definition of an entity accepting deposits as a bank, hold any physical money or have a bank charter, it was not a bank.
In other words, PayPal isn't a bank because it doesn't call itself a bank. As a result, most states license PayPal as a "money service." One of the most common problems encountered by PayPal users is the sudden and inexplicable freezing of accounts. If your PayPal account is frozen, you can't add or withdraw any funds from your account, and you're required to go through a complicated process to verify your identity."
User Agreement Selections:
Paypal's User Agreement, as mentioned above, is EXTREMELY long, but I did a word search within it and nowhere do the words "prison(er)", "incarcerated", or "criminal history" appear.
However, I did find, under "User Responsibilities":
"II.6. Correct Email. You agree and warrant that you have access to the internet and to a current functional personal e-mail address."
This is a huge issue in creating and maintaining a Paypal account. Are you allowed internet access at CMC? I know that access can vary due to facility or prisoner status. If you do not have access, I would highly recommend asking a friend on the outside to set up an account for you.
Also:
"II.4. Prohibited Transactions. You agree that you will not use PayPal to accept payment for illegal products or services, including but not limited to materials that infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties. You will not use the Service, the PayPal website or any of the services offered therein for any unlawful or fraudulent activity. If PayPal (or Wells Fargo, in connection with processing credit card transactions) has reason to believe that you may be engaging in or have engaged in fraudulent, unlawful, or improper activity, including without limitation any violation of any terms and conditions of this Agreement, your access to the Service may be suspended or terminated. Further, if such behavior involved a MasterCard or VISA credit card transaction, it may result in you/your business being prevented from registering for payment acceptance through any payment provider or directly with any bank acquirer operating under license to either the MasterCard or VISA card associations."
I think that further research is needed to ensure that your Paypal fund for an attorney does not approach anything fraudulent. Even if a mistake is made in ignorance, Paypal can disable your access to the account for violating their UA.
I have included 8 topics across 7 replies: Introduction to PayPal, Signing Up, Account Types, Receiving Funds, Sending Funds, Problems & User Agreement Selections, and Final Thoughts. If for some reason one of these is missing, please let me know so I can re-send it. In addition, let me know if you would like PayPal's user agreement, privacy policy, acceptable use policy and electronic communications policy. I will see if I can mail them directly to you instead of sending them piecemeal through BtB's reply service.
(Altogether, I estimate they might make up 50+ pages of 8.5x11 paper. The UA is 35 pages alone.)
By the way: The closest thing I could find to a mailing address is a P.O. Box linked to addressing errors in already-existing Paypal accounts. Most forms of contact or question-resolution are handled online... But it's worth a shot?
"Errors with Account:": Paypal, Attn: Error Resolution Department, P.O. Box 45950, Omaha, NE 68145-0950
"Errors in Paypal Debit Card": PayPal, Attn: PayPal Debit Card Department, P.O. Box 45950, Omaha, NE 68145-0950
"Withdrawing Consent": Paypal, Attn: Electronic Communications Delivery Policy, P.O. Box 45950, Omaha, NE 68145-0950
You can call Paypal Customer Service at: (402) 935-7733. Expect a long wait time.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to have internet access. From experience, actually making and maintaining a Paypal account online is a breeze. I think that your most major hurdle would be setting up the account. Gathering donations or money through sold items should be easy, technology-wise, after that.
(I mention sold items because a lot of grassroots causes, like yourself, gain revenue through the token 'sale' of small, handcrafted items. I have heard of prisoners selling artwork for monetary donations. I'm not sure how you might facilitate that in your situation, but it's a thought.)
Best wishes to you, Donnie, and have a Happy New Year!
There are three types of PayPal accounts: Personal, Premier and Business.
Here's how you open an account:
Click Sign Up at the top of the page.
Select your country or region.
Choose which account type you want and click Get Started.
Enter your information, including your full email address, and choose a password (it must contain at least eight characters and is case sensitive). You will need these to log in to your PayPal account.
Click Agree and Create Account or Continue. The button option depends on the type of account you have chosen to open.