paypal: any catches?

[Alex]

just started doing some ebay business lately and it seems awfully convenient to use paypal... i have a CIBC checkings account and no credit card, is it really worth it? im just somewhat skeptical but i dont want to pay for a money order every time i win anything...

also its totally FREE right no catches or anything...?

thanks!

-frang

 

[luquidwrym]

It is free to send money.

But if you want to receive money it is not free. The fee's aren't too bad and lower than many online merchant accounts. Some people have had problems with paypal. But I have used it scince it came out and have been happy with it. Its not perfect but pretty good. My recomendation would be to never send money over sea's or recieve it from over sea's with it though, it seems this is where much of the problems people have comes from.

If you are new to Ebay watch out for people charging $$$ for shipping. It is a common practice to charge a low starting or buy it now bid and rake in the cash on S&H.

 

[Looney]

I'm in Canada, and have used it to send and receive money. Have easily done over $10k worth of transactions (most of it receive) over the years, and haven't had a single problem.

 

[imported_jediknight]

Catches? Oh, hell yes.
1) It's not free to receive money (on the one occasion I needed a partial refund from an e-bay purchase, Paypal took an 11% cut.. )
2) It's not free to send money from Canada (it gets converted to American dollars first.. and Paypal takes a cut from that)
3) (con't 2) If you cancel a transaction, Paypal will take even MORE fees to convert your money back into CAN $.

In all, I really despise Paypal. It's not that they charge fees for transactions that bothers me, it's that they deceive and try to hide these fees. It says right on the homepage that Paypal is "Free to Send Money".. which is NOT the case. The transaction fees for receiving funds are obscenely high.

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by: jediknight
Catches? Oh, hell yes.
1) It's not free to receive money (on the one occasion I needed a partial refund from an e-bay purchase, Paypal took an 11% cut.. )
2) It's not free to send money from Canada (it gets converted to American dollars first.. and Paypal takes a cut from that)
3) (con't 2) If you cancel a transaction, Paypal will take even MORE fees to convert your money back into CAN $.

In all, I really despise Paypal. It's not that they charge fees for transactions that bothers me, it's that they deceive and try to hide these fees. It says right on the homepage that Paypal is "Free to Send Money".. which is NOT the case. The transaction fees for receiving funds are obscenely high.

wow is this really all true? thats exactly what i was scared of...

 

[zCypher]

I am also in Canada and using PayPal. I have never had any problems. In fact, my last employer uses PayPal for all of their eBay sales, and also for other online sales. They also have never had any problems and they do thousands of dollars worth of transactions per week in PayPal.

Don't convert to Canadian Dollars. What's the point? Just leave it in US Dollars and everything works just fine. In fact, you can even use the PayPal ATM debit card free of charge. I've made several purchases in stores and restaurants and I even get the 1.5% cashback every time I use it as a credit card.

I've never been unjustly charged by PayPal either. I would say go for it, whether you're in US or Canada either way...

edit: I wouldn't call the transaction fees "catches". It's very clear that there will be fees when there are. Maybe people should just read more carefully and better understand the content of what they're reading. It is free to own a PayPal account. It is free to make certain transactions and not free for others! For those that are not free, it's clear what percentage or number of $ that is taken.

 

[FoBoT]

win? what is this "win" thing?

you are winning money? you are gambling with paypal?

 

[zCypher]

Originally posted by: luquidwrym
It is free to send money.

But if you want to receive money it is not free. The fee's aren't too bad and lower than many online merchant accounts. Some people have had problems with paypal. But I have used it scince it came out and have been happy with it. Its not perfect but pretty good. My recomendation would be to never send money over sea's or recieve it from over sea's with it though, it seems this is where much of the problems people have comes from.

If you are new to Ebay watch out for people charging $$$ for shipping. It is a common practice to charge a low starting or buy it now bid and rake in the cash on S&H.

I have to agree with what this person is saying. I've sold a lot on eBay and it's true. People will put a starting price that sounds attractive, and most of the time it ends up more expensive because of how much they charge for shipping. However, I've never had any problems even sending and receiving money over seas.

 

[PingSpike]

They will require your first born child.

 

[HonkeyDonk]

paypal is and has been completely free for me ever since...oh 1999.

As long as you are a standard account holder and NOT a premiere account, you will be able to send/receive money for free as long as the money is not a credit card payment.

Since you stated that you have a checkings account w/ a bank and no CC's, then you'll be a standard paypal account member and there will be no fees involved. (At least not in the US).

You will have a limit on how much you can receive though. $1000/month receiving limit.

 

[imported_jediknight]

Originally posted by: franguinho

Originally posted by: jediknight
Catches? Oh, hell yes.
1) It's not free to receive money (on the one occasion I needed a partial refund from an e-bay purchase, Paypal took an 11% cut.. )
2) It's not free to send money from Canada (it gets converted to American dollars first.. and Paypal takes a cut from that)
3) (con't 2) If you cancel a transaction, Paypal will take even MORE fees to convert your money back into CAN $.

In all, I really despise Paypal. It's not that they charge fees for transactions that bothers me, it's that they deceive and try to hide these fees. It says right on the homepage that Paypal is "Free to Send Money".. which is NOT the case. The transaction fees for receiving funds are obscenely high.

wow is this really all true? thats exactly what i was scared of...

All true. Clarification on #2: the payment was in US dollars. The exchange rate, however, was most unfavourable (compared to xe.com/other currency sites/ .. even EBay's conversion!)

 

[imported_jediknight]

Originally posted by: zCypher
I am also in Canada and using PayPal. I have never had any problems. In fact, my last employer uses PayPal for all of their eBay sales, and also for other online sales. They also have never had any problems and they do thousands of dollars worth of transactions per week in PayPal.

Don't convert to Canadian Dollars. What's the point? Just leave it in US Dollars and everything works just fine. In fact, you can even use the PayPal ATM debit card free of charge. I've made several purchases in stores and restaurants and I even get the 1.5% cashback every time I use it as a credit card.

You must use their (unfavourable) conversion if you're buying something in non-Canadian funds. AND, when I cancelled one such purchase.. Paypal automatically converted the funds back into Canadian dollars (again, at a loss for me.. ) and then credited my CC that amount (NOT the amount they originally billed me). They did NOT give me the option to leave the money in my paypal account (as would be preferable, instead of suffering Paypal's exchange rate).

I've never been unjustly charged by PayPal either. I would say go for it, whether you're in US or Canada either way...

edit: I wouldn't call the transaction fees "catches". It's very clear that there will be fees when there are. Maybe people should just read more carefully and better understand the content of what they're reading. It is free to own a PayPal account. It is free to make certain transactions and not free for others! For those that are not free, it's clear what percentage or number of $ that is taken.

The transaction fee on currency conversion is a catch, IMO. (At least at the time when I first realized this) the only information about this was buried in legalese in their user agreement (which I only read after I complained and got an - essentially - "f*** you" response from Paypal). And the transaction fees for receiving money is excessive. As I said above, for a refund for e-bay goods that weren't in the condition indicated, it cost me 11% of the money I was to receive.

 

[imported_jediknight]

Originally posted by: HonkeyDonk
paypal is and has been completely free for me ever since...oh 1999.

As long as you are a standard account holder and NOT a premiere account, you will be able to send/receive money for free as long as the money is not a credit card payment.

Considering that (at least, until recently) the only way you could open a paypal account in Canada was with a credit card..

 

[HonkeyDonk]

Originally posted by: jediknight

Originally posted by: HonkeyDonk
paypal is and has been completely free for me ever since...oh 1999.

As long as you are a standard account holder and NOT a premiere account, you will be able to send/receive money for free as long as the money is not a credit card payment.

Considering that (at least, until recently) the only way you could open a paypal account in Canada was with a credit card..

oh really? i did not know that. I'm in US and used a checkings account to fund my paypal stuff.

 

[isekii]

Sign up for BidPay.
It's much better.
Senders get hit up with the fee not the receiver.

 

[Kelemvor]

Just don't get a premier account and it is totally free. Sending receiving etc. No charges at all. But you can't accept credit cards then. The user has to fund their payments through a bank account.

 

[Alex]

thanks for all the feedback guys! ok well its a 4 dollar US transaction so im not that worried about getting ripped off with exchange rates really i think i might set the account up to make it easier to pay people outside of canada, i dont really think i'll be making that many transactions on a regular basis on ebay anyway...