Compare · Holdy vs PayPal

A dispute decided by rules, not a moderator.

PayPal F&F has zero protection. G&S has 180 days of subjective review. Holdy hashes the brief at funding and lets the rules decide, same Stripe rails, real evidence trail.

The F&F trap

Why freelancers use Friends & Family (and why it's risky)

Freelancers ask clients to pay via PayPal Friends & Family to avoid the 2.9% + €0.30 Goods & Services fee. It makes sense on paper: lower cost, instant transfer, no fuss.

But F&F has literally zero buyer protection. No dispute option, no refund path, no delivery verification. If the client ghosts after paying, or the seller never delivers, the money is gone. PayPal explicitly states that F&F payments are not covered by Purchase Protection.

Holdy costs more than F&F (5-8% vs 0%), but you get: scope lock, delivery proof, auto-settle after 7 days, and chargeback defence. The fee is the insurance premium.

What you get for the fee:

  • Scope lock: deliverables defined before payment
  • Delivery proof: hash-timestamped file uploads
  • Auto-settle: payment releases after 7 days if no response
  • Chargeback defence: evidence submitted automatically
The G&S problem

Goods & Services protects buyers, not the deal

PayPal Goods & Services gives buyers a 180-day window to file a dispute. That sounds great for buyers, but disputes are decided by PayPal moderators based on their interpretation. There is no scope lock, no objective deliverables list. It comes down to "he said, she said."

For sellers of digital goods and services, this is especially risky. PayPal's Seller Protection program has limited coverage for intangible items. A buyer can claim they never received the work, and without a built-in delivery mechanism, the seller has little to show.

Holdy's approach is different: the deliverables list IS the contract. Both parties agree to it before payment. The outcome is decided by what actually happened (uploads, accepts, rejects), not by a moderator's opinion. Rules are fixed. No interpretation needed.

Honest take

Who should use what

Use PayPal if:

  • - You're sending money to a friend (an actual friend)
  • - You're buying something physical with tracking numbers
  • - The amount is small enough that you don't care about protection

Use Holdy if:

  • You're paying for online services or digital work
  • The deal has deliverables that need to be verified
  • You want objective rules instead of moderator judgment
  • You need delivery proof for your records
Feature by feature

The boring details, on one page

  PayPal F&F PayPal G&S Holdy
Fee on a €1,000 deal €0 €29.30 €65
Buyer protection None 180-day window Until accept or 7-day settle
Seller protection (digital) None Limited (intangibles excluded) Hashed brief as evidence
Scope at funding Not recorded Not recorded SHA-256 hashed
Dispute resolution Not eligible PayPal moderator opinion Fixed rules + Stripe Connect
Delivery proof None Buyer claim vs seller reply Hash-timestamped uploads
Auto-settle N/A N/A 7 days after delivery
Chargeback defence None Seller submits manually Submitted automatically
Anonymized switcher

A Rotterdam studio that stopped eating chargebacks

4

Disputes lost on PayPal G&S in 6 months

€6,400

Net loss before switching

0

Disputes lost since moving to Holdy

7 days

Auto-settle after delivery

A Rotterdam web studio took deposits via PayPal G&S for years. Twice a quarter, a client would file a "item not as described" dispute after their site went live, sometimes 90+ days after delivery. With no scope lock and no delivery hash, the studio had nothing to submit except email threads. PayPal sided with the buyer four times in six months. After switching to Holdy: every brief is SHA-256 hashed at funding, delivery files are timestamped, and the 7-day auto-settle closes the window before buyer's remorse becomes a dispute. Zero losses in the eight months since.

Stop hoping the moderator reads your emails.

Lock the scope before the money moves. Same Stripe rails, real evidence trail, payouts that don't get clawed back six months later.

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