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Money letters

With Pals like this

Sir,

Your correspondents regularly complain about bank clearances taking longer than they should. One organisation that may have escaped your notice is PayPal, which is, increasingly, becoming the payment vehicle of choice for more than just settling eBay accounts.

Recently I wanted to make a donation to a voluntary organisation that uses PayPal. The choice was to use a PayPal account (assuming one has one) or a debit/credit card. Wanting a quick transfer I tried the latter, but PayPal detected from the card number that I had an account with them and refused to process the payment. I had to use my account – after first replenishing it with funds.

The snag is that it takes PayPal ten days to accept bank transfers from elsewhere, so unless I keep a sizeable balance in the PayPal account – on which, of course, they pay no interest – my impulsive generous gesture rather loses its impact. Sadly (for the recipient) the donation was not made.

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Yours faithfully,
PETER FINCH
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

Another country

Sir,

Thank you for your recent article on broadband in the country (“Postcode potholes on the superhighway”, Times Money, June 16). I am now trying for the second time to get a connection.

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Having had multiple assurances that we would get a 1.5mb speed, I connected the modem on activation day. Nothing – and I am still waiting for an engineer and an explanation.

Your suggestion of staying with a dial-up connection would be all right if we could get a decent rate. But we also have a poor phone line and lose our connection about twice a year.

How can we make BT provide us with a decent service?

Yours faithfully,
SHIRLEY McNIVEN via e-mail