The only time I've been locked out of my account was just to verify my and bank account name - at the same time. There are other options, such as money order or some 3rd party checkout system, but none of them work quite as well as PayPal does, honestly. If you give them correct information the first time, there should be no problems.

The only reason PayPal would have to lock out your account is because of suspicious activity; such as getting too much money via gift receipt, putting porn descriptions in their message, etc.. But I have yet to have an actual problem with them aside just from verification.

Besides that, PayPal does have the option to send invoices to your clientele's inbox. It's all about how you use your account for its intended purpose.

One person I used to commission was kind enough to send me his address, but at the same time, he lived a number of states away, and even then, I can understand how uncomfortable one would be giving out their address to a complete stranger.

Google Wallet's integration to Gmail is a potential option. o3o

square and square cash. Its literally "just send an email" and you need a debit card. thats it.

It is LITERALLY as easy as an email. not joking. Anyone can sign up (as long as they have a debit card)

Also! You usually get money next day, as it avoids ACH and uses Debit card system.

win/win/win situation

here is more:
https://square.com/cash

and I'm liking that I can get the physical square for transactions at conventions... HMMMM...

Thanks Pamf!

I don't think there are any alternatives that are actually better, since every online payment service is likely to operate by similar rules. Every one of them would be just as likely to lock a person's account if their rules are broken. None are going to lock your account for no reason, as that would seriously hurt their business. You hear more about PayPal simply because it is the largest by far.

I've personally used PayPal for around 1,100 transactions so far, and have never had a problem. I've also never actually met someone who had their account locked, and I've been using it since they started. If you read their rules and obey them, there is no reason to worry.

I hear people talking sometimes about someone they know having their account locked. Of course, I investigated, because I wouldn't want it to happen to me. It is almost always for one of two reasons when it happens. The most common reason is people trying to avoid fees, against the service's rules. That is where sellers try to avoid fees by having buyers send money as a gift, rather than doing it as services or goods and paying the small fee. To put it simply, commissions are not considered to be gifts by PayPal, nor by any other online payment service. A gift is when nothing is expected in return. Someone doing a commission expects money in return for their service, therefore, it is not a gift, and cannot be paid for as a gift, according to PayPal's rules. AlertPay, and others have the same rule. If you accept payment for commissions as gifts, you'll likely get away with it a few times, but your account will be flagged. When too many gifts are flagged, they will audit the transactions and likely lock both the buyer's and the seller's account, since fee avoidance is legally considered as fraud. This is probably the number one reason that PayPal would lock an account, but it is totally avoidable, simply by never selecting gift when paying for a commission.

The other reason is for people who buy or sell adult art via PayPal. That is also against the rules for most online payment services. This one is easy to get around. Do mention the details of what you are buying or selling when paying for it. Discuss those detain here, or somewhere else, but never through comments on PayPal's site! When paying, just say something like, "Here is payment from 'your name' for the art commission we discussed." DON'T say anything like, "Here is payment for the gay triple-c@ck-dripping orgy art!" If PayPal, sees that in a comment, they are probably going to look over the rest of your transactions, and those of the persons you deal with. There is no way they can know what is being paid for, unless you say what you are buying or selling on their site. Keep the comments generic, and discuss any gory details elsewhere.

Those are the two main reasons why a user's account might become frozen. Both causes are easily avoided. Both apply to most any online payment service. So, it you don't want to use PayPal, you are probably no better off using another service. You can always go back to using money orders or checks, and waiting several extra days for them to be mailed. Using either of those is far from free, considering the cost of stamps, and they are far less secure. Reading and obeying the rules of the service, and using common sense, will prevent any problems. PayPal certainly isn't going to lock an account without reason, since that would make them look bad. Keep in mind that there are many millions of PayPal users, but the number of people who end up with locked accounts is only in the hundreds. In other words, it's not likely to happen, unless you make it happen.

Could try those new Bitcoin things... No content restrictions, no chargebacks, no sending limits, and little to no transaction fee.

Looks like they even have a FA group you could ask around in:  bitcoin

(Also just remembered, some places you can even buy cupcakes with bitcoins! ^_^ )

I've heard people say good things about AlertPay, but your basic problem using anything other than Paypal is that the person on the other end of transaction will have to sign up with them and give them their bank account information, too.

So if you decide not to use Paypal, you'll have to also convince all your customers to do the same, and good luck with that...