Idiot bloke who has a jumped-up view of himself. If he knew what he was talking about, he'd know that gocardless is not a "scheme" its a simple direct debit payment method. If if you've never heard of it, 5 minutes reading their website tells you all you want to know.
I'd say to him, just because of his attitude, sure you can continue to use paypal, the surcharge will be £22 on top of the £22 for window cleaning.
PayPal have gotten way too big IMO, they have a virtual monopoly on online payment these days.
That would be ok if they didn't arbitrarily freeze your account or hold your funds "pending a security review" for absolutely no reason.
A guy I know had a paypal account he used every month for 2 years no problem. He had an average balance of about £500 from selling on ebay, doing freelance work etc.
Then one day, out of the blue they closed his account and said that his funds were being held "pending a security review".
So he waited, then he emailed, then he called etc etc. (ever tried actually talking to someone at paypal? ha good luck)
9 months (yes 9 months!) later they emailed telling him his case had been elevated and would be resolved soon. 3 months after that they finally transferred the money to his bank account. No apology, no explanation.
It wasn't just the £500 they held onto for so long, it was the fact that he couldn't use paypal for transactions all that time that was the real killer. In his freelance buisness, clients always want to pay by paypal, so it was big problem.
Why have we allowed a faceless american company, that you can't contact when something goes wrong and is basically immune to regulation to become so deeply integrated into our society?
I, like most people, have to use paypal because for many things there's just no alternative. But I never leave a balance on my account. I withdraw it immediately, because I just don't trust them.