Ebay selling question

[Muse]

I've bought quite a few things on ebay over a span of 4-5 years, but just started selling middle of December. I've sold 3 DVD's, that's all, used. The first two went smoothly. I have Paypal as my payment method and I've done everything very plain vanilla, using the Ebay defaults, basically.

The 3rd DVD buyer used his credit card and I got a message from Paypal that I wasn't set up to accept credit card payments. They provided a link and the gist of it is that if I want to accept this guy's payment, I have to sign up for Premier Paypal and it looks like I will pay 2.9% of every payment to me back to Paypal (+ $0.30), whether it's a credit card payment or not. Near as I can tell, that's what would happen.

Now, it doesn't really sit right with me that I find myself in this predicament. When I checked out Ebay selling a few weeks ago I wasn't made aware of this. I believe that Ebay bought Paypal and to me it looks like I'm being snookered somewhat if I just sign up with this Premier Paypal service to accept this one guy's payment. I sent the guy an email explaining my situation to him, that I don't have a small business or anything, and just started selling a few of my unneeded items on Ebay, and ask him if he can change his payment method to either his Paypal cash account or a Paypal registered bank account. He emails me back:

"so how do i pay you as i normally would?

i only have paypal lnked to my credit card??"

I respond:

"I'm pretty sure you can transfer money from your credit card to your Paypal account. When you register at Paypal you have a Paypal "cash" account. Since you have a Paypal approved credit card I'm sure you can draw on your credit card to put money in your Paypal cash account. Then you can send funds from the cash account to me or anybody else registered with Paypal."

He says:

"why dont you just give me your address and name and i will send a check"

I just emailed him back:

"That'll work but do you really want to wait until the check clears? That could take an extra 10 days to two weeks, maybe more, I don't know. If that's not an issue, then yes, you can send me a check for $9.50 to

<my name and address>

But if you'd like to get the DVD a lot sooner, just try doing what I suggest below (I quoted our previous email below). It should be really easy and straightforward. Give it a try!"
- - - -

Am I right here that it would be very easy for him to just put money into his Paypal cash account using his credit card as a source? I'm surprised he didn't know about Paypal cash accounts. I figure that they are standard with ordinary Paypal accounts. Am I right there? Thanks for advice, hints, explanations, demystifications, clarifications, etc. 😀

 

[Coquito]

I usually put the "I do not accept credit card payments" disclaimer in my auctions, though most people tend to ignore it. You offered the correct instructions though.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Coquito
I usually put the "I do not accept credit card payments" disclaimer in my auctions, though most people tend to ignore it. You offered the correct instructions though.

Do you put that in your description or do you alter the payment method somehow? Thanks!

 

[KarenMarie]

If you did not state in your auction that you do not take credit card payments, then I think your are pretty much at the mercy/kindness of the buyer. If he is offering to send you a check, that is really quite nice of him. Many buyers would expect you to take the paypal payment in any form they choose. In this instance, if you can get the buyer to link his paypal account to his bank account, he can pay you with a transfer and you will not get the fees. Failing that, you will either have to take credit card payments, or state in your auctions that you cannot accept credit card payments.

Every business that accepts credit cards take a hit on fees. usually 2.5-3%, so paypal as a money transfer system is just recouping their expenses.

 

[Coquito]

I put the disclaimer in red at the bottom of my auctions, yes. You can also change your paypal settings to not allow credit card payments. If you can't get him to use a transfer, I believe you can change you account back to a normal one once or twice.

 

[Kelemvor]

All you do is in ALL of your auction you put a line that says "BANK ACCOUNT FUNDED PAYPAL ONLY. NO CREDIT CARDS."

THen if they use a credit card you just reject it. DO NOT sign up for a premier or whatever it's called account or you will get charged all the time. And if you do upgrade, you can only downgrade once....

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
If you did not state in your auction that you do not take credit card payments, then I think your are pretty much at the mercy/kindness of the buyer. If he is offering to send you a check, that is really quite nice of him. Many buyers would expect you to take the paypal payment in any form they choose. In this instance, if you can get the buyer to link his paypal account to his bank account, he can pay you with a transfer and you will not get the fees. Failing that, you will either have to take credit card payments, or state in your auctions that you cannot accept credit card payments.

I don't want to ask him to link his Paypal account with his bank account. I assume that he doesn't have a Paypal registered bank account already. Reason I don't want to ask him to do that is that I think it's a pretty complex and time consuming process. IIRC, they verify your bank account by making two small deposits into your bank account and then they ask you to check your account after the depostis show up and tell them the amounts of the deposits. It's a freaky and time consuming process and I wouldn't want to ask him to do that at this point.

I figured, though, that a Paypal cash account was standard with every Paypal account. I'm surprised he didn't know about this. Am I wrong about this? Seems to me he can put money ("cash") into his Paypal cash account with his Paypal registered credit card and pay me from that. My Paypal cash account is what gets credited when someone makes a Paypal payment to me. I have a few bucks in it now, from the other 2 DVD auctions and from a couple of things I sold on Anandtech Forums the last couple of months. It earns something like 2% interest these days. You can also draw on your Paypal cash account when making payments to others. In fact, if I were to make a Paypal credit card payment to somebody that was in excess of the cash I have in my Paypal cash account, Paypal would first draw off all the money in my cash account and make up the difference in a credit card debit. My experience is that this is the way it works.

Thanks for the help, folks.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Coquito
I put the disclaimer in red at the bottom of my auctions, yes. You can also change your paypal settings to not allow credit card payments. If you can't get him to use a transfer, I believe you can change you account back to a normal one once or twice.

Yep, thanks for the explanation. I was quite tempted to sign up for the Premium account but thought it over and decided to just ask him to make some kind of alternative payment. I figured he'd understand. He seems OK, but probably a little impatient. I don't know how he'll respond to my last email. I could chance it and send him the DVD assuming his check is good. It's only $9.50, but I figure I'll see if he's OK with waiting for his check to clear - standard business practice. I don't want bad feedback. I'm 100% right now. 🙂