Avoiding paypal fees

bandXtrb

Banned
May 27, 2001
2,169
0
0
Does it work say you accept Paypal in your auction, and then try to strongly discourage the buyer in your email?

I received something like this in a winning email:



<< Paypal personal account limitations do not allow payment by credit card for PayPal. If you need to pay with a credit card, then please sign up for one of the other available options stated above. Use of PayPal is available if your PayPal account has a credit balance for an amount equal to or larger than this invoice total. D********@hotmail.com is a personal paypal account. Credit card payments or payments that carry a fee on this account will be denied.

Business account PayPal payment via credit card is not available due to PayPal's transaction fee of $0.95 charged to our account for transfer of money for this item. We feel this fee for this transaction is larger than the benefit this service provides us, since other - free alternatives are avaliable and it upsets many people if we ask for this payment.
>>


I didn't read it through the first time, so I signed up for C2IT (and got my $10 free!). So basically this guy is saying, use your checking account when sending Paypal payment or I won't accept it unless you add on the extra 0.95, right? Smart, I wonder if that would discourage payment though. Personally, I upgraded my account to premier business whatever, so now I incur fees for all payments.

Or, would it work to ask the buyer to pay 2.9% more for using Paypal?

On a related note, I have "strongly encouraged" buyers to use C2IT in my emails to winning bidders, but none have done so so far.
 

TonyG

Platinum Member
Feb 12, 2000
2,021
2
81
First of all, in Paypal TOA it states that you are not allowed to charge a fee for using paypal. That is the reason we are not allowed to charge a paypal fee here. If you are wanting to pay somebody with paypal with a CC and he wants to charge a fee, tell him you are going to pay with paypal, but refuse to cover the charge because they are not allowed to charge you a fee.
 

mithrandir2001

Diamond Member
May 1, 2001
6,545
1
0
I don't think paypal can prevent you from charging a fee for accepting paypal payments. They certainly have no qualms charing YOU a fee for their service. If you want to pass the costs along to a willing buyer, go ahead.
 

saltedeggman

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2001
3,775
0
0
just add a couple of bucks to shipping cost, thats what those ebayers do...

they charges shipping insanely!
 

b0mbrman

Lifer
Jun 1, 2001
29,471
1
81


<< just add a couple of bucks to shipping cost, thats what those ebayers do...
they charges shipping insanely!
>>


Not all of them (I don't). But the ones who do like to call Paypal costs part of "handling"
 

manly

Lifer
Jan 25, 2000
10,914
2,061
126
If a seller states that PayPal is accepted, then he arguably can't force you to sign up for c2it.

However, if you chose to send a credit card funded payment anyway, I'm sure the seller would deny/refund it.

If your intent was to send a credit card funded payment, then you don't have to accept his amended payment terms. You may risk a negative feedback as a result if you two have an unresolvable disagreement over the transaction.

The seller is clear if he states up front he won't accept a credit card funded payment.

Since I'm not a business, I'm not a fan of the fees for all payments received in premiere accounts; sellers don't really have much resource over PayPal fees though. Even if you hide the fees in the shipping costs, this no doubt influences the bids you receive anyway. The bottom line is PayPal is currently a de facto standard for electronic p2p payments.

If a seller amended the payment terms on me, and I still closed the transaction, I'd be unlikely to leave positive feedback.
 

b0mbrman

Lifer
Jun 1, 2001
29,471
1
81


<< If a seller states that PayPal is accepted, then he arguably can't force you to sign up for c2it.

However, if you chose to send a credit card funded payment anyway, I'm sure the seller would deny/refund it.

If your intent was to send a credit card funded payment, then you don't have to accept his amended payment terms. You may risk a negative feedback as a result if you two have an unresolvable disagreement over the transaction.

The seller is clear if he states up front he won't accept a credit card funded payment.

Since I'm not a business, I'm not a fan of the fees for all payments received in premiere accounts; sellers don't really have much resource over PayPal fees though. Even if you hide the fees in the shipping costs, this no doubt influences the bids you receive anyway. The bottom line is PayPal is currently a de facto standard for electronic p2p payments.
>>


Well...if you wanted to get into it, he *can't* charge you what Paypal charges you for using a credit card since it's illegal and Ebay *will* back you up on this (I know from experience)
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,413
1,570
126
i'd tell the seller to go funk himself and send him the paypal, IF it was clearly stated in the auction that paypal was accepted
 

Damon

Senior member
Jul 21, 2000
880
0
0
Hi,

Sellers are not allowed to charge a surcharge for PayPal Payments. Doing so can lead to an account restriction (after two warnings)-


Terms of use-Item#5
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).
 

Cerebus451

Golden Member
Nov 30, 2000
1,425
0
76
The message was not discouraging you from using PayPal. The message was telling you that he has not upgraded his account and therefore cannot accept credit card payments using PayPal. His reasoning for not upgrading is because he feels the fees are not justified.

Just wanted to clarify what he was saying in the message. He can still legitimately say that he accepts PayPal, but it is a little misleading, since most people assume they can use credit cards to make PayPal payments.