Paypal fees

[leighroy]

This is a question for the british member; have any of you sent money to the US through paypal and if you have what are the fees? I understand about the exchange rate but things seem to be a little sketchy as far as the fees are concerned. I'm also a little concerned about hidden fees?
I've used paypal through ebay but I've never sent money directly to someone so I'm not 100% sure on what it will cost me exactly.

 

[global_dev]

I think if you go through with the transaction up to hitting submit paypal will show all fees.

 

[dlmedley]

If you go to the PayPal website and type "fees" into their customer support/help pages, you'll get a complete rundown. Also, keep in mind that PayPal is a financial institution therefor it is beholden to all the rules, laws, and regulations that any financial institution is under the Gramm Leach Bliley Act.

I use PayPal a lot and like it.

Regards
DL Medley

 

[smalltank]

If you sell something for $105usd...they take $4.40

 

[Go West Young Man]

I believe that if you mark it as a personal transfer of money there's no fees.

 

[dlmedley]

Select "gift".

 

[jwcarlson]

I believe that if you mark it as a personal transfer of money there's no fees.

Select "gift".

Doesn't work any more, FYI.

 

[AABCDS]

I believe that if you mark it as a personal transfer of money there's no fees.

Select "gift".

Doesn't work any more, FYI.

It does still work, FYI. If you use a bank account to fund the personal payment, there are no fees unless there is a foreign currency exchange. In that instance, the fee is 1%.

However, if you send money as a personal payment but use a credit card, the standard 2.9% fee will be applied plus $.30 per transaction, just like if you were sending a payment for goods or services. Although, you can decide if you or the recipient will pay the fees.

I got all of this information from personal experience and from the PayPal fees information page.

 

[mretzloff]

Doesn't work any more, FYI.

I do this all the time. I have two bank accounts and transfer money between them using PayPal.

 

[jwcarlson]

I sent funds or sold something awhile ago and even selecting "gift" took money out. But maybe the buyer was using a credit card... My impression was they nipped that in the bud but apparently not.

 

[jd_1138]

I have a friend who was given a Rolex watch, but he decided to sell it on eBay. And it went for like $4000, and the buyer paid with PayPal. My friend shipped it with delivery confirmation, signature requirement, etc.. But the guy claimed he never received the watch, even though the USPS showed it was delivered and signed for. So my friend lost the watch and had to give the guy back his money. And there was no recourse. There are a lot of gotchas and fine print built into PayPal.

 

[Ron991]

Pay pal, and ebay. Well one is synonymous with the other,is becoming more, and more buyer oriented. Good, bad or indifferent thats a fact.

 

[mretzloff]

I sent funds or sold something awhile ago and even selecting "gift" took money out. But maybe the buyer was using a credit card... My impression was they nipped that in the bud but apparently not.

That must have been it. If you use PayPal funds or money from a bank account, there are no fees.

 

[AABCDS]

I sent funds or sold something awhile ago and even selecting "gift" took money out. But maybe the buyer was using a credit card... My impression was they nipped that in the bud but apparently not.

If you sent funds, wouldn't you then be considered 'the buyer'?

 

[The Provost]

I have a friend who was given a Rolex watch, but he decided to sell it on eBay. And it went for like $4000, and the buyer paid with PayPal. My friend shipped it with delivery confirmation, signature requirement, etc.. But the guy claimed he never received the watch, even though the USPS showed it was delivered and signed for. So my friend lost the watch and had to give the guy back his money. And there was no recourse. There are a lot of gotchas and fine print built into PayPal.

That is outrageous. I've heard so many of these stories, I totally quit selling on eBay. Luckily, I've never lost a lot of money, but buyers started to get really difficult and demanding and I decided it wasn't worth it anymore.

Did your friend ever consider any type of legal action? I'm not sure how to go about that, but for $4,000 I would definitely look into it.

 

[AABCDS]

I have a friend who was given a Rolex watch, but he decided to sell it on eBay. And it went for like $4000, and the buyer paid with PayPal. My friend shipped it with delivery confirmation, signature requirement, etc.. But the guy claimed he never received the watch, even though the USPS showed it was delivered and signed for. So my friend lost the watch and had to give the guy back his money. And there was no recourse. There are a lot of gotchas and fine print built into PayPal.

That is outrageous. I've heard so many of these stories, I totally quit selling on eBay. Luckily, I've never lost a lot of money, but buyers started to get really difficult and demanding and I decided it wasn't worth it anymore.

Did your friend ever consider any type of legal action? I'm not sure how to go about that, but for $4,000 I would definitely look into it.

I know that signature confirmation is now required for anything valued over $250.

http://pages.ebay.com/paypal/seller/

I believe this rule was started several months ago. Did your friend sell the Rolex before or after this rule was in effect?

 

[dlmedley]

I have a friend who was given a Rolex watch, but he decided to sell it on eBay. And it went for like $4000, and the buyer paid with PayPal. My friend shipped it with delivery confirmation, signature requirement, etc.. But the guy claimed he never received the watch, even though the USPS showed it was delivered and signed for. So my friend lost the watch and had to give the guy back his money. And there was no recourse. There are a lot of gotchas and fine print built into PayPal.

This had to have been some time ago. Even then, it would be very anomalous. I know for a fact that, now, if that scenario occurred it would be very unlikely to go that way. PayPal would certainly hold the money while it was investigated by eBay, but with delivery confirmation the seller is going to win that and eBay would most likely tell the buyer to take it up with the delivery service. Hopefully, your friend had it insured when he sent it.

 

[jd_1138]

That is outrageous. I've heard so many of these stories, I totally quit selling on eBay. Luckily, I've never lost a lot of money, but buyers started to get really difficult and demanding and I decided it wasn't worth it anymore.

Did your friend ever consider any type of legal action? I'm not sure how to go about that, but for $4,000 I would definitely look into it.

The fine print states that PayPal doesn't get involved with buyer to seller problems. Their hands are totally off.

 

[jd_1138]

This had to have been some time ago. Even then, it would be very anomalous. I know for a fact that, now, if that scenario occurred it would be very unlikely to go that way. PayPal would certainly hold the money while it was investigated by eBay, but with delivery confirmation the seller is going to win that and eBay would most likely tell the buyer to take it up with the delivery service. Hopefully, your friend had it insured when he sent it.

The USPS insurance wouldn't pay because the USPS showed that they had delivered to the recipient at the correct address, so they don't want to pay for an item that was rightfully delivered. The insurance doesn't cover dishonest buyers. And PayPal never held the money. He spent half of it and then like a month later is when he was notified that he had to pay the buyer back. Even though the USPS showed that the item was signed for by the recipient/buyer, the buyer said it wasn't him who signed for it, and PayPal isn't going to open themselves up for a lawsuit so they just pass the buck and make the seller pay up. The buyer claimed that someone else must've signed for the watch. But the Rolex watch was delivered to his house, so unless the thief had the Rolex buyer tied up in the back room or something, the buyer was probably most likely the one who was the thief by lying about the Rolex not arriving.

With pricey items, it's probably best to go through some sort of escrow service or only sell locally and collect cash.

eBay lets these buyers get away with a lot of crap. eBay won't let you keep zero feedback bidders from bidding on your stuff. Which is ridiculous. So if you have a nice $300 watch or something, some fool with zero feedback on a phony/throwaway account could bid on it and rip you off. Sure, you can stipulate in the auction that bidders must have feedback to bid, but eBay doesn't formally allow you to disallow such bidders, so you may have to cancel a lot of bids by zero feedback bidders and cancel an auction when it's over. Let these zero feedback buyers pop their cherries on $5 items. The people selling inexpensive stuff can allow such bidders, but the ones with pricier stuff should be able to stipulate that a buyer have at least 20 or more feedbacks. I've had to relist numerous items due to phony zero feedback bidders winning my auctions and not paying. Or if they pay they might lie and say the item is not as described and thus get their money back.

 

[dlmedley]

I can guarantee you; from personal experience, if you sell an item, even a high value item, on eBay, and you send it with tracking and delivery confirmation, that if the buyer claims that it did not arrive but it was signed for at the address that is on file as the primary shipping address eBay will side with the seller (how's that for a run on sentence). What eBay will do in a case like this is side with the seller and advise the buyer to open a case with USPS for a stolen parcel.

Now, there are some caveats with this. For example, if the buyer opens up an "item not received" case and the seller does not respond in a timely manner, eBay will side with the buyer. This will usually happen with new sellers. Many people think they can quickly open up an account, slap up a listing, and sell away. They don't inform themselves to make sure all the ts are crossed and is dotted. Nowadays, eBay has seller limits for new sellers to help avoid these pitfalls.

Also, for lower value items, in the scenario above, eBay will side with the seller but go ahead and reimburse the buyer. They do that to the tune of millions of dollars every quarter.

I do agree that it's very easy for a buyer to simply file an "Item not as described" case (SNAD) and eBay will most likely side with the buyer and have the them send it back and the seller refund after they receive the item.

As far as buyers not paying, one simply has to open up an "Unpaid item case." If they don't pay for the item the seller get's their seller fees back and the buyer receives a strike on their account. Doesn't take many of those to lose buying privileges. Also, sellers can restrict buyers with unpaid item cases opened against them to prevent them from bidding or buying. But I agree that people not paying is a real pain in the keester.

The thing that makes eBay work is the buyers. If not for buyers, there could be no sellers. If they allowed sellers to restrict new buyers then new buyers would stop coming to eBay. Not exactly a growth model.

Trust me, the scenario you described is very anomalous.

Regards