Another Pal Pal question? "PAY AS A GIFT"

It's a way of the seller communicating to you that he/she wants to avoid the PayPal fees associated with a "sale."

The problem is, you BETTER AVOID placing any text in that PayPal "You've got money!" notification box (which is the email template that lets the seller know that you sent them funds) that your funds are for a sale of some kind.

PayPal have gotten smart to people trying to side-step their fee structure, and use human readers to intercept any funds transfers marked as "Gifts." If that human reader sees that the funds are actually targeted for a sale, *you* get a warning, and the seller gets worse -- possibly an invoice for their fees + a fine; possibly termination of their PayPal account.

-Sean
 
Have seen several say, or use the term "PAY AS A GIFT", what is that all about?

Normally Paypal charges a percentage of the transaction to do the transfer -- maybe 3% or so. They do not charge the transaction fee if it is a gift. If you are just paying for an item and mark it as a gift, you can screw them out of their normal fee. I also suspect that if something goes wrong with the transaction, they will not want to hear about any issue with the "item" you paid for, so you will have no recourse.
 
Normally Paypal charges a percentage of the transaction to do the transfer -- maybe 3% or so. They do not charge the transaction fee if it is a gift. If you are just paying for an item and mark it as a gift, you can screw them out of their normal fee. I also suspect that if something goes wrong with the transaction, they will not want to hear about any issue with the "item" you paid for, so you will have no recourse.

Yes, the "gift" option does not have any protection built in.
 
Bruce,

As long as you brought up Pay Pal, did you receive an e-mail from them stating revisions to their agreement? Like you (account owner) can not join a class action suit against Pay Pal. Interested in seeing who got it and what their thoughts are about the revisions.

Lyn
 
I've used the "gift" option.

But only with people I know.

Its an easy way to get scammed if you don't know who you are dealing with.
 
it's called beating the man............they charge fees for selling items and the NO FEE for receiving money as a gift.

Actually it's called fraud. :wink:


If I am buying I simply offer to add an amount to cover the fees. My Paypal account is a business account and I won't screw around with it for that reason.

So far, nobody has argued with me adding the 3% to cover the fees.

Personally, I don't understand why people ask for the gift though. Just consider the fees in your price and keep it legit....but different people think differently. I mean...it really isn't so clever....and it can cause problems with a company that you have a financial relationship with and legal agreements with. Why screw with that for 3 cents on the dollar? My integrity is worth more than that.

If one really does not like it, there are other ways to do transactions.




.
 
Last edited:
Paying by gift is a realllly realllly bad idea. You literally have no recourse should the seller decide to not give you what you paid for.

Don't do it unless you know the person in real life as it is the single most common way of scamming people over the internet.
 
Actually it's called fraud. :wink:


If I am buying I simply offer to add an amount to cover the fees. My Paypal account is a business account and I won't screw around with it for that reason.

So far, nobody has argued with me adding the 3% to cover the fees.

Personally, I don't understand why people ask for the gift though. Just consider the fees in your price and keep it legit....but different people think differently. I mean...it really isn't so clever....and it can cause problems with a company that you have a financial relationship with and legal agreements with. Why screw with that for 3 cents on the dollar? My integrity is worth more than that.

If one really does not like it, there are other ways to do transactions.




.

Well said,
Paying for an item as a gift is cheating pay pal out of their money for providing a service.
People here get all bent out of shape if a shaft is warped and not revealed, but think nothing about cheating pay pal.
WTF is up with that?
Buncha cheap b@stards!!
 
Well said,
Paying for an item as a gift is cheating pay pal out of their money for providing a service.
People here get all bent out of shape if a shaft is warped and not revealed, but think nothing about cheating pay pal.
WTF is up with that?
Buncha cheap b@stards!!

To one person it's a "cheap b@stard", to another it's just being financially streamlined. LOL! :grin:

To each his own, as long as we all get along, respect each other, and find ways to meet in the middle. :)



.
 
Back
Top