Yeah, I have to vouch for the idea that Paypal is a double edged sword. I have a Paypal Money market account w/ an ATM/debit card feature. It earns a little interest and is totally free, but yeah I did have to jump through assloads of hoops to get it. Now that I have though it's really easy for me to buy and sell stuff on ebay. If I sell something and I'm paid w/ Paypal, it's sometimes a matter of only a few minutes before I can go to the ATM and get my money. If I buy something and pay w/ paypal I'm almost always going to get positive feedback.
But there are many shady things that they do. For instance, often when I log in to check the balance of my account I get a really pushy full page ad that I have to click out of telling me I need to add some new feature they're promoting.
And then to upgrade to higher levels of membership you have to grant Paypal a monopoly on processing any electronic payments for your online auctions.
And one I really love is that there are different levels of being Paypal "verified". I keep upgrading and upgrading to find out that I'm not completely verified. Some people sign up for an option on their accounts that states that they will accept only "verified" addresses. Well, I'm verified about five different ways, but apparently my address is not "verified". Why isn't it? Well, after jumping through all these hoops I now have to either sign up for a Paypal Credit card or make like 10 or 15 or whatever purchases through "Paypal" stores before my address will be considered verified.
After paying for auctions and receiving payment for auctions through Paypal, having an ATM card sent to my address, verifying my bank account 2 different times, verifying my email address, and giving them private information about myself, I still have a list of things to do to prove where I live. Good grief.