Well, in the case of PayPal, I received messages to renvew my account that looked legitimate: However, they turned out to be fraud attempts. I never answered those mails, and later read about the fraud that caught quite a few people.
In the case of Visa or Mastercard, you won't see things like this; I have been using Visa for more than 10 years without a problem. AND, should anybody abuse your Visa or Mastercard account, Visa / Mastercard will cover your losses. Not so with PayPal.
No more PayPal for me, that's for sure.
Geir Ove