paypal fees

[nineball]

it amazes me how many people, and mods of boards, allow people to charge extra for accepting a paypal payment. paypal themselves do not condone this practice and have a rule stating such as part of the signup process, so why would anyone else? even if it is a part that i am dying for if the lister puts "plus paypal fees" somewhere in the listing i pass immediately. be a man and just raise the asking price by a few dollars to cover the fee and be done with it or accept it as part of doing business.

sorry, i guess i woke up in a bad mood today.

[Rick Lee]

You can make and receive PayPal payments with no commission. Just use the dropdown window for personal or gift. A few weeks ago my wife was going to write me a check for around $1000 for some bills and discovered she had no checks left. She said she'd PP it to me, to which I replied, "hell no" because of the commission. She showed me how to do it with no commission, though she had to do it in two payments of under $500 each. Worked like a charm.

[nineball]

i know about the gift feature (which i am sure they will be closing soon as it gains in popularity) but when using "gift" you are afforded no protection as the buyer. i know that for purchases outside of ebay paypal offers limited protections but at least with a normal payment you have some course of action should things go wrong.

[Rick Lee]

I wasn't worried about the gift feature's lack of protections when my wife is sending me money. Ditto for anyone on the Porsche or bike BBS's I'm on. In my experience, those people are as honest as the day is long. I wouldn't use it for eBay though.

[nineball]

i can understand your point but it is not the same as the one i was making. sending a complete stranger a large sum of cash is not the same as your wife sending you cash. actually that was not even my point.

[javadog]

If I am not mistaken, the seller has the choice of paying the fees on his end, so I have no problem with the seller doing so. Paypal is faster than the old way of sending a check, which is still an option. I'm used to paying more for things that happen sooner. You get what you pay for.

JR

[71T Targa]

I have no problem with people saying that $500 (or whatever) is the cash price, and if you want to use paypal it's +3%. I just figure that in like I would shipping.
I may offer $500 shipped, and they may or may not accept.

[TerryBPP]

I dont ask that people pay fees when the $ is small i.e. $250 deposits. But when they want to pay for a $10,000 - $20,000 for a car your damn right they are paying the fees.

[gprsh924]

Zero problem with it, especially as the price gets higer, although if I am doing the selling, I would likely just factor it in to the price without even making the buyer aware of it.

[nineball]

actually, i looked it up and it is against paypal's user agreement.


No Surcharges. Under Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express regulations and the laws of several states, including California, merchants may not charge a fee to the buyer for accepting credit card payments (often called a "surcharge"). You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as payment. This restriction does not prevent you from imposing a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services, as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge (in other words, the handling fee for transactions paid through PayPal may not be higher than the handling fee for transactions paid through other payment methods). Nor does this restriction apply to Pound-denominated transactions by sellers residing in the United Kingdom listing items for sale on a UK-based website.


i guess everyone can react how they want to but i know i avoid any listings that ask for extra fees for paypal payment, even more so now that i know it is against the agreement everyone signed when they made a paypal account. if you want to sell something for $100 plus shipping and expect paypal as payment why not just change the price to $105 and be done with it? passing on surcharges that are a direct result of you making money is a bad business practice that. when you pay for your groceries the store does not charge you extra for paying with a credit card vs cash right? visa and mastercard charge a per-swipe fee, up to 2% per transaction and a statement fee for every month. discover is around 3.5% per transaction (to cover their 1% cash back policy).

i agree with terry that for larger payments other methods should be used to avoid the fees. once ebay bought paypal and forced sellers to pay 3 different fees i stopped selling on ebay as well.

[Super_Dave_D]

Buyer: “How much do you want for it”
Seller: “I want $100.00 plus the 3% Paypal fee”
Buyer: “Will you take $90.00 plus the 3%”
Seller: “Sure that will be $92.70”

Point is – everything is negotiable but I agree its a jacklegged way of doing business.

[70SATMan]

Most of the times I avoid any ad that asks for the fees up front.

I'm not running a business and I don't bother increasing prices on the things I sell to compensate for fees. I never ask for fees to be paid unless the transfer amount is over $300. In that case I ask the buyer if they would be willing to split the fees with me. I see it as paying for a convenience. The convenience benefits both the buyer and the seller in a quicker transaction. Even then I don't ask all the time.

If the buyer is unwilling to split fees then they are left with one option. Paying by money order and I only accept USPS money orders.

[wdfifteen]

When Visa and MasterCharge first came out merchants were up in arms about it and often tried to add a surcharge for the fees. Now that merchants are used to it no one complains publicly. We do *&%$# to the banks and they are often willing to negotiate a better rate but our customers seldom know about it. When PayPal gets some serious competition the charges will come down.

[Rich76_911s]

If you don't want to pay the fee, send a check.

I would venture to guess that you don't want to do that though. Because A) you want the added speed of Paypal and 2) you want the added protection from paypal.

TWO services you receive, that you are in essence asking the seller to pay for.

There really is little to no advantage for a seller to get paid via paypal over a check. The speed of cash getting into your bank account is slow via either method. The seller runs the risk of having money removed from his bank account, if the buyer is unhappy. Last time I checked too you can only remove money from you paypal account so many times a month, and paypal pays no interest on cash.

I always wonder what paypal does with the cash that sits in its accounts, I have to assume that they likely have millions of dollars that is sitting stagnant in paypal accounts. Do they invest that, are they allowed to, are they regulated as a bank would be? Just additional food for paypal thought.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Rich76_911s

If you don't want to pay the fee, send a check.

If you're buying through eBay, the new rules make that a hassle.

Originally Posted by Rich76_911s

I always wonder what paypal does with the cash that sits in its accounts, I have to assume that they likely have millions of dollars that is sitting stagnant in paypal accounts. Do they invest that, are they allowed to, are they regulated as a bank would be? Just additional food for paypal thought.

VERY good questions. Is there any guarantee they won't put the cash in some risky investment, lose it, and not be able to make payments to merchants?

[89911]

If you think your items is going to be paid with Paypal, incorporate that into the price at the beginning. 99% of items sold on Ebay are paid with paypal. If I bought something for $15 and I will list it at $18 to cover an Paypal charges. This could be why many items are cheaper on Amazon lately.

[nineball]

Originally Posted by Rich76_911s

If you don't want to pay the fee, send a check.

I would venture to guess that you don't want to do that though. Because A) you want the added speed of Paypal and 2) you want the added protection from paypal.

TWO services you receive, that you are in essence asking the seller to pay for.

if that was directed at me you are a little off. i do not accept paypal as payment for anything. usps money order or check (held) yes, but no paypal. i prefer to pay with a mo/check but a lot of sellers will not allow it.

you have it backwards on the services too. the seller is receiving the service from paypal, not the buyer. there is no benefit to using paypal as a buyer however the seller now has something of a guarantee that the funds will be there and the immediate availability to use those funds for another transaction vs waiting for a check to arrive, depositing it and waiting for it to clear. it is possible for the buyer to stop payment on a check, it is not possible to do so with a paypal payment.

paypal protection, for anything outside of an ebay purchase, is virtually nonexistent. for non-ebay transactions so long as the seller provides a tracking number paypal will decide in their favor. period. i bought some home audio equipment a few years back and when the package arrived i found three 2 liter bottles filled with water. paypal denied my claim of "significantly not as described" within a few hours because the seller provided them the tracking that showed a package being delivered to my door.

[Rich76_911s]

Nineball,

No I was not directing it at anyone. After I wrote it I thought about going back and changing the wording because I realized it could be read that way, but was too lazy. I have no desire to ruffle any internet feathers over paypal.

I think we have just concluded that paypal is a pain in the rear, for everyone involved and someone gets to pay to be inconvenienced.

I have always accepted paypal though and I don't think I;ve asked to get paid for the fee's, if I have it has been rare. Although it pisses me off anytime I have to pay them. Occassionally people add it into their payment without comment which I have found very cool.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by nineball

it is possible for the buyer to stop payment on a check, it is not possible to do so with a paypal payment...

I think you need to review the Paypal rules again. There's more than one way to make a payment and if I am not mistaken, some ways are no better than a personal check.

Originally Posted by nineball

paypal protection, for anything outside of an ebay purchase, is virtually nonexistent.

I'd rephrase this to say, Paypal protection, for anybody other than Paypal, is virtually nonexistent.

Paypal sucks and I won't use it for anything big. Big transactions get paid with a bank wire.

JR

[nineball]

Originally Posted by javadog

I think you need to review the Paypal rules again. There's more than one way to make a payment and if I am not mistaken, some ways are no better than a personal check.

there are. you can pay by bank account transfer, credit card or paypal account balance. but we were talking about something else. once you hit send you cannot take it back. if i mail you a check i still have up to 3 days to stop payment on it AFTER you deposit it. that is the difference.

those are two of the many reasons i only accept usps money orders for immediate shipping since i usually cash them while paying to ship the item. if a check is used i wait until the check has been posted and cleared then ship the item. both of these scenarios are spelled out to the buyer before we exchange anything though.