PayPal's "Do Stuff for Money" puts some cash behind your begging

PayPal just rolled out a fun little mini-site called Do Stuff for Money. The basic premise is that you can send one of your friends an offer, either through Facebook (using Facebook Connect) or e-mail, to do something of your choosing for some sum of money. For example, a recent offer reads, "Laura offered Adam $10.00 to 'Write all the thank-you cards from our wedding.'" If your friend accepts and does what you have asked, you can instantly pay them via PayPal, without having to mess with cash.

Somehow I don't think Steve Jobs is going to take me up on this offer.

(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)

Do Stuff for Money is more of a novelty promotion than anything else, but PayPal has really been trying to push these sorts of smaller transactions between friends. Since the service is mostly used for purchasing things online, PayPal would love for people to get used to pulling out their phones and sending a friend money when they say, "Hey, you owe me five bucks." PayPal needs to break into some of these other markets if they want to continue to expand. They are already a dominant player in e-commerce transactions, so expanding their presence in everyday life and the real world is a good route to explore.

[monkeyfun14]

"Somehow I don't think Steve Jobs is going to take me up on this offer."

Me neither he has enough 20's to wipe his ass with already.

[Police_States_of_America]

i stopped using paypal when ebay started shoving it down everyone's throats

[digitalducki]

i stopped using it when "I" accepted a stolen credit card as payment, and then 3 mos after all of a sudden my acct was negative 300 dollars. Last I'd checked THEY accepted a stolen credit card. And after months of explaining, reasoning, pleading, yelling etc, I got nowhere. Screw them.

[Drummer16161616]

LOL yes you, me, and about a million other people that had the same thing happen... Not to mention the joke of a collection agency they send after you when you don't pay up. They say I owe them over a grand, but I just sent them a letter saying that I do not have any debt with them and to screw off. I don't see how WE are liable for that crap. I used them for quite a while, so they lost a valuable customer. Sucks for them, as there are other ways to pay.

At least now I don't have a choice...I cannot use paypal because I will be immediately banned :)

[Xenite227]

I stopped using both PayPal and Ebay once they turned it into a monopoly. Googly should of sued them when they refused to allow their payment service on ebay. Anyone who wants to do business online with ebay is forced to use PayPal and PP is notorious for screwing honest people over. I've seen horror stories of PayPal locking accounts of PowerSellers for terrible reasons then basically keeping thousands of dollars with no recourse.

It's also a well known fact that their has been multiple cases of stolen identity's perpetrated by former PP employee's who stole personnel information from accounts. Horrible company!

[Voice_Of_Logic]

"Laura offered Adam $10.00 to 'Write all the thank-you cards from our wedding.'" - this is a prime example of the laziness of our society. One needs to look to Iran for inspiration on what we should be looking like these days. We're all fat, dumb and happy sitting in our lazy chairs watching our government rape us. Laura is our poster-child. Do your own wedding cards you lazy sh*t.

[asabharwal]

It may be impossible for paypal to break into these other markets - eg: "Hey you owe me 5 bucks"
Simple reason being, for such small amounts wouldn't it be easier to just wait until you get the cash.
If and when I can use paypal for my day-to-day shopping at the corner store, these mini transactions would start making more sense.

[pp4pp]

yo asabharwal, you can use your paypal debit card, (did you know they have one) to pay for your day-to-day shopping at the corner store - so it will make sense to you

[SDRebel_007]

My friends and I transfer each other money all the time to split the tabs. We use wells fargo online server. Most of us have wells fargo and love that it is free. I couldn't see myself paying paypal to transfer 10 bucks to a friend, when Wells Fargo does it for free. Other banks have this as well, I know.

[Winniroo]

Joking about a man's liver transplant?