I've been using ebay for yeeeears and for the first few was always paying by cheque or postal order which was just a pain, having to go to the post office to get postal orders or buy stamps, plus the extra time it took to do anything. Then one day I had enough and got a PayPal account and it's so much more convenient! From what I can remember, there were quite a few fiddly online forms to fill out to get the account, but it's probably for the best as it increases security and only needs to be done once! If you are opening an account to use with ebay it really couldn't be easier, with ebay having direct links with PayPal in the 'checkout' when you pay for items you have won. It's all instant (from your bank account to the PayPal account of the other person) and completely safe. The only problem I had was when I accidentally pressed the send button twice when paying for something and the person not replying to emails to be refunded, however within 24 hours of reporting it on PayPal the money was back in my account! I have since also used it on sites other than ebay, plus even to send money to friends and even pay bills!