My first paypal sell

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navycop

Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
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Virginia Beach, VA 23454
I just sold some pens to a friend in Ohio. I have used paypal to buy thinks but to never sell. I charged her $95.00. But I only got $91.94 in pp. How did they take $3.06? It's not much, but will start to add up if I keep losing $3.00. Can I avoid this fee in the future? If I'd known I could of had her send me a check (does anybody use those anymore??).
 
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Did you have Paypal send it to your bank account? if so I think they charge you for that transaction. The way to avoid this is leave it in your Paypal account and use that money to shop with. Other then that I know if you request money and mark it friends and family it's free. But if you mark it goods and services the seller gets charged a fee.
 
You can have friends / family send you a "gift" which is free of any fees if I'm not mistaken. The buyer does not have (any?) protection though.

Robert
If memory serves, the buyer pays the fees in such a case, but either way fees are assessed.


absolutely correct. the fees will be paid on any transaction it just depends on who pays them if you send a gift, you can choose to let the recipient pay the fee or pay it yourself. it is like the fee on using a credit card. when you buy something with PayPal you dont see the fee but every vendor you buy from is paying the fee. still very reasonable for the convenience in my book. one just has to remember that fee and calculate it into their prices etc.

the bank account has nothing to do with the fee. that just gives PayPal a place to go get the money when you buy something and do not have account funds enough to cover the purchase. i think if you want to put money from your account into your bank account you have to tell them to do it. it wont be done automatically. that is why i got the PayPal debit card which allows me to get the money from any ATM machine. when i use my PayPal Here account for credit cards at shows i can go straight to an atm after the show and draw my money out if i wish to. they charge a $1.00 fee for the withdrawal. of coures you pay whatever the ATM charges as well. i love it and prefer it over all of the other card machines, Square, Intuit Go Payment, etc.
 
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Paypal, Square, Visa, MasterCharge, Amex. all make money by charging transaction fees. You get your money faster (most of the time) make more sales and everyone goes home happy. Most have a base transaction fee plus a percentage of the total amount.
You can do it as a personal transaction but if your a business you need to watch the amount of free transactions you do. Yes you can take a check. If the wait time to get it in the mail and the time and money it costs to take it to the bank are not an issue than by all means do that. No transaction is without risk. Will the check be good, if they charged it will they return it and have the charges reversed? You can be scammed on many levels no matter which way they pay. Even cash can be counterfeit.
 
its a small price to pay for the convenience. as long as your not selling stuff at the 5 and 10 dollar range. but i will be worth it when you can simply look at a potential customer and say "sure i take visa/m/c, etc"

not sure how much experience you have with paypal but play around with it. i really like it. you can process itemized invoices and print or send them to customers. (looks very professional) and it also keeps these in your history so you can go back and refer to them later.
 
PayPal takes 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction that you list as "Selling/Goods". The only way to get around this is if you list it as "transferring money between friends and family" Like someone said you do not get any protection this way, but it does work.
This is not what I do though because for the customer it will look more like an actual sale doing it with the fees, because PayPal will process it like an order.
 
PayPal is a business not a community service.

The fees are all close for various services.

I'm almost positive that the friends transfer is free if the sender is using a back account or PayPal balance. Fee for cc.

Get the debit card and the money's ready to spend anywhere. :-)
 
Clarification on "Friends and Family"

If you send money with friends and family using your bank or paypal balance there are no fees or cost to either party. If you use a credit card then the sender pays the fee.

Either way, there is no buyer protection built in.
 
You can have friends / family send you a "gift" which is free of any fees if I'm not mistaken. The buyer does not have (any?) protection though.

Robert
If memory serves, the buyer pays the fees in such a case, but either way fees are assessed.

Not if the funds come from PP balance or bank transfer (aka "Instant Transfer"). If they (buyer) use CC they will pay the fee. They have no protection though. And this can be seen as "fee avoidance" (against the terms) if you ask them to do it. They can get funds stuck for a while or lose your account if caught.
 
It is known as the cost of doing business. All of the credit card processing charge some type of fee. I use square now because the money is available in 1 to 2 business days. If you swipe the card it is 2.75% plus 0.15 charge. If you hand key it is 3.25% plus 0.15 per transaction. When pricing you work make sure you capture all of the expenses.
 
If you swipe the card it is 2.75% plus 0.15 charge. If you hand key it is 3.25% plus 0.15 per transaction.

No $.015 fee with swipes. Just the 2.75%

From square.com:
2.75% per swipe or online sale

Swipe or sell $100 online, see $97.25
deposited into your bank account. All swiped
transactions, all online sales, all card types, all
ticket sizes, all devices.
3.5% + 15¢ per manually
entered transaction


Key in $100, see $96.35 deposited into
your bank account. All manually entered
transactions, all card types, all ticket
sizes, all devices.
Pay only when you sell

No sign up fees, no monthly fees, no
cancellation fees, no chargeback fees, no bank
routing fees, no commitments, no minimums,
and no surprises.
 
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