When I signed up for my merchant account, I had to give them all of my bank records, company information, board of directors, credit history, bank history, etc.

When I signed up for Paypal, I gave them a 16 digit number.

I agree though. WP.com needs something more than just Paypal.

We really do need another method of payment; certified cheque or postal money order (easy because you can get it in US dollars even in Canada and it's FAR cheaper than through the bank) would work.

I found the solution to this issue I was having in WordPress Tags.
To remain listed under my categories publicly, I needed to change the default under Privacy Options blog visibility to "I would like my blog to appear in search engines and public listings around WordPress..."

Now, my posts are visible under the appropriate categories.

Paranoia, gone!

While I'm not going to give out my numbers, I know my break even point on hosting once you throw in everything like bandwidth, payment on the boxes, support, payment for back-end software, etc., is a bit more than $1.25 a month.

Paypal allows folks to start taking money without any outlay of cash or credit check.

True, which is probably why they started off with it; there isn't a huge market for custom CSS, since most of those adept enough to make use of it are also savvy enough to see the $15 would be better spent on hosting themselves and getting total control over their template. They're probably not making enough yet to justify the extra overheads to take credit cards or cheques, but when there are more upgrades available I imagine that will change.

Maybe reading the thread in question that you just posted to might help.

Put it this way, I've never come across another host with only one payment method.

I can think of about a dozen off the top of my head without even trying. Two seconds over at webhostingtalk could probably come up with dozens more. I don't but I have a real merchant account with my bank (*grumble* 2.9% + 25 cents for most transactions + $25 a month *grumble*) which allows me to take all the major credit cards (Heck, I can take Diner's Club but I don't) and checks. Paypal allows folks to start taking monry without any outlay of cash or credit check.

i mean, will it really kill me if i didn't buy it? What's the goods of it?

**flinging herself at the feet of sysadmin and groveling appropriately she cries**

"Please oh please kind sirs, will you allow an alternate method of upgrade payment for css customization? I cannot use paypal and many other wordpress bloggers cannot use it either. I can airmail a money order or a certified cheque in US funds to a US post office box from my small island, won't that do?"

"Please oh please kind sirs, will you allow an alternate method of upgrade payment for css customization? I cannot use paypal and many other wordpress bloggers cannot use it either. I can airmail a money order or a certified cheque in US funds to a US post office box from my small island, won't that do?"

'Policy' meaning Not a Support Issue that we normally deal with here in the forums.

And, "policy" always makes me more paranoid!

Am I just paranoid?

Probably but that's a policy question that we can't answer here in the forums for you. Best bet would be a feedback or a comment left on their post about them on their blog.

Am I just paranoid?

*shrug* Mine got paid for but if you haven't guessed, I never have any extra money. (And my rent went up last month which is going to make things worse for me)