I agree with conman killer, Credit card every time due to the liability.

Ok, Thankyou!, thats kind of what I thought. I have changed my mind about even setting it up now though I think as if Paypal cannot even manage to help me set up an account, then what help will I get if something goes wrong?! Zilch! nothing! I dont think I can rely on them with my own money when they are not even based in the uk, so legally its a minefield.

I have emailed paypal and got a couple of useless answers back from them that still have not actually answered my question about how to remove my old details from an email address and so paypal account that I no longer have any access too. It cannot be impossible!

I phoned them in Southern Ireland today on the non 0870 no!!! and all I got was an automated string of questions, to which I can now recommend that once you get bored with it, if you shout NO or HELP loudly down the phone to every question you will get transfered to an operator quicker! or in my case the start of a queue which told me would take approx 10 minutes ! Bugger that on a peak time call to Europe before even getting through to a real person to speak too! So I hung up!

Paypal are the scum of the financial world. I have google checkout set up so maybe I will just have to use that when people in USA want to pay me.

I just use a normal credit card, any transaction that has not been authorised can be challenged and reversed, in the unlikely event they did remove funds without your permission.

Under the consumer credit act 1974 the card issuer has a equal liability to reimburse any funds removed without the correct authority.

I have set up a brand new paypal account, but I have used it in the past and dont trust these ebay/paypal pickpockets as far as I can throw them lol! so this time round I will not be giving them access to my current bank account as I did last time naively, so I am not giving them my debit card either.
I want as much control over what they can and can't take as possible.

What's best? give them a bank savings account that and keep the funds very low in there?

Advice appreciated, as I am very wary that once you have given them any financial details, although they say you can remove them, I am reliably informed that they keep them anyway.