New Wrinkle (Hassle?) w/Paypal

As a seller, I expect to pay paypal fees which are reasonable and mirror typical fees businesses pay on internet credit card transactions.

As a buyer, if a seller says they accept Paypal, I expect them to pay the fees as it is deducted from their proceeds.

I do not suggest using the "gift" thing to avoid fees - there are several reasons, not the least of it has to do with IRS audits and buyer protection.
 
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jay helfert said:
So here's my most recent Paypal story. After three years of doing business via Paypal and paying all necessary fees on literally thousands of sales, they have decided in their infinite wisdom to hold all payments sent to me for 21 days before releasing the money into my account. They offered some weak explanation of why they felt that was necessary. I have exactly two disputes (one as result of an attempted scam, one for a book lost in the mail) during the course of thousands of successful transactions.

I wrote back and let them know how I felt about this decision. I told them that all they would do with tactics like this is drive their good customers away. No response so far. As advised to me last year, I now keep my balance relatively low on there. I almost got screwed last year for $500 by a scammer operating on Paypal. If I didn't have complete records of my dealings with this guy (including all e-mails) I would have been screwed. Paypal did nothing to protect me! As it was, it took one month to have the money restored to my account. Now this little slap in the face. Reno Rex is probably right.
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Basically Paypal is a middleman to banks and credit card vendors. Their view is they are extending credit during the window of time between payment and settlement.

I think you should call them, Jay, and speak to a supervisor, to find out exactly why they are holding up your payments. It's possible this can be corrected. I've had no probelm with getting transfers the next day to my bank account, etc for payments I've received.

All credit is getting tight now. Companies such as paypal, and your own credit card companies, routinely run credit checks on their customers. Even one dispute or blemish can affect people's status.

Chris
 
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If you buy from Canada in US, between paypal fees and currency transfer fees you just paid 10% extra.
 
I currently pay approximately 3.75% in PayPal fees as a Seller
on eBay and several other Auction sites. PayPal was "seller friendly"
prior to being gobbled-up by eBay. I have been paying for their services
since "day one" and they ruled against me on a $2500.00 deal that went
sideways, even though I had documented proof and affadavits from
experts that "I" was the injured party.
My best advice is to keep your PayPal balance very low by tranferring
excess funds to your Bank Account and pay for your purchases with
your debit or credit card. A close friend learned a valuable lesson when
PayPal froze his account ($25,000 +) for 45 days over a minor dispute.

As J.G. Wentworth says: "It's MY money and I want it Now !!!"
 
Kickin' Chicken said:
I just rec'd the following message from the good folks at paypal.

Maybe I'm wrong but why should they care if I receive money as a gift so as not to incur their fees?

Don't they get their fees from the sender, if it is sent as a gift?

Has anyone else dealt with this?

Best,
Brian kc

Thank you for using PayPal to accept money with your PayPal account. We recently changed our pricing structure so that you can receive money from friends and family for personal payments within the US for free. Personal payments are for sending a gift, splitting a lunch bill, paying your share of the living expenses, and everyday exchanges of money between friends and family.

If you receive money as a payment for a purchase or service, you will continue to incur fees.

We've noticed that some of your customers are sending you personal payments for purchases of items or services. Unfortunately, this is against our rules, and we need your help correcting it. Please don't ask or allow your customers to use personal payments to pay for their purchases.

If we continue to see such activity, we may have to disable your ability to receive free personal payments, and then you will pay fees for all money received through PayPal.

Here's how you can find more information about payment types and fees:

1.Click "Fees" at the bottom of any PayPal page
2.Click "Legal Agreements" at the bottom of any PayPal page, and then click "PayPal User Agreement." Sections 4 and 8 refer to receiving money and fees.

If you have any questions, concerns, or think we may have made a mistake, please contact us at P2P@paypal.com.

We value your business and appreciate your cooperation.

Sincerely,
Cathy
Personal to Personal Team

PayPal
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They care because they put the fee-less gift option there to encourage more people to use paypal for transferring money as gifts between each other. It's pretty much a personal honesty thing.

I understand your point. You don't want to pay the fees when you sell something so you either charge the buyer or they send it as a gift.

The problem is that when it's sent as a personal payment then PayPal doesn't get the fee either. Which they are technically due for providing you with the means to sell goods and get paid conveniently.

Many sellers abuse that to get out of paying the fees as well and to get out of not having to charge their buyers the fee. So they are effectively using paypal for free.

What they ought to do is include a "sender pays fee" option for purchase payments and warn buyers and sellers that if the no-fee personal payments option is abused then the accounts can be suspended.

When you make a wire transfer you are giving the option to pay the fee or have the receiver pay it. One would think that this would be easy for PayPal to institute.

But to answer the question of why they care it's simply that they want their money and when no one pays it on sales transactions they get pissy.
 
TATE said:
Basically Paypal is a middleman to banks and credit card vendors. Their view is they are extending credit during the window of time between payment and settlement.

I think you should call them, Jay, and speak to a supervisor, to find out exactly why they are holding up your payments. It's possible this can be corrected. I've had no probelm with getting transfers the next day to my bank account, etc for payments I've received.

All credit is getting tight now. Companies such as paypal, and your own credit card companies, routinely run credit checks on their customers. Even one dispute or blemish can affect people's status.

Chris
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When they act a credit card processor then they are certainly extending credit when they charge a card and the funds are made immediately available. But when the account is funded through debit cards and bank transfers then the money is instantly debited from the bank account and credited to the paypal account. In that moment paypal is not extending any credit to you whatsoever.

Here is the rub. You could transfer say $1000 of your own money INTO paypal and in the next second after the transfer is complete they can freeze your account up to six months with no recourse except to sue them to get that $1000 back in less than 180 days.

I have used them for ten years and barely had any problems. When I do have a problem I call them. I don't go through emails and online forms. I call and stay on the line until someone solves the problem.

I have to say that for me, traveling internationally, paypal with the paypal debit cards (with credit card numbers) has been hugely helpful to me. I can't count the myriad ways that PP works better for me than any other way to send and receive money. BUT I am fully aware that they are not a bank (as if that matters) and are not subject to whatever rules banks have to play by (as if THAT matters).

It's very true that many people get screwed by PayPal's decisions. On here Simon DeVali had a $20k payment frozen. Joe Salazar had around 25k frozen for a month. PP often errs on the side of caution causing hardship. They have had a umber of marketing faux pas moments when they have frozen legitimate charity endeavors such as gifts for kids at Christmas.

But overall the service is the nuts with no viable competition.
 
Paypal's fees are 2.9%+.30 USD for almost all intents and purposes on AzB.

It is good to know that some people honestly thought the fees were at 4% though. I thought they were just trying to con the extra 1% from me.
 
number9 said:
Paypal's fees are 2.9%+.30 USD for almost all intents and purposes on AzB.

It is good to know that some people honestly thought the fees were at 4% though. I thought they were just trying to con the extra 1% from me.
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I have nothing really insightful to add here, I just found it very refreshing to see someone correctly pronounce the phrase "intents and purposes".

Carry on......


Oh BTW- there are paypal fee calculators on line. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=paypal+fee+calculator
 
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