Paypal Rate Question

Did paypal raise thier rates for CC purchases. I see a lot of sellers in the BST ask now for +4% when used to be 3%.

International is 4%, IIRC. Don't understand why it would be 4% for within the US though.

JM-99

It's a set fee per transaction plus the %. For instance 30 cents plus 2.9%

I personally don't ask for the paypal fee. According to paypal, the buyer doesn't pay the fee, the seller does. By asking the buyer for the fee people are reversing the role of who should be paying for the service.

I won't buy from someone that has +3% after the asking price.
Why should I have to pay their fees? :thinking:

thezman said:

I won't buy from someone that has +3% after the asking price.
Why should I have to pay their fees? :thinking:

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It is a policy violation as well.

This has been discussed a million times over... sometimes, it's just a matter of 'wording'. Instead of $30 + 4% fees, the seller can just sell it for $32 flat, and now the cash paypal guy has to pay $2 extra too, unless the seller puts 'cash paypal discount of $2' (which is essentially just playing with words)

As you can see, a lot of us CPFers are already letting go lights at good prices on the B/S/T, and they just want to minmize other extra fees and let the buyer bear it. Most people don't really mind; I've even had numerous buyers give me the extra 4% when I don't ask for it.

It's when I see an overpriced light being sold and the guy is still asking for 4% fees, then I get slightly irked But then again, vote with your wallet.

LEDcandle said:

This has been discussed a million times over... sometimes, it's just a matter of 'wording'. Instead of $30 + 4% fees, the seller can just sell it for $32 flat, and now the cash paypal guy has to pay $2 extra too, unless the seller puts 'cash paypal discount of $2' (which is essentially just playing with words)

As you can see, a lot of us CPFers are already letting go lights at good prices on the B/S/T, and they just want to minmize other extra fees and let the buyer bear it. Most people don't really mind; I've even had numerous buyers give me the extra 4% when I don't ask for it.

It's when I see an overpriced light being sold and the guy is still asking for 4% fees, then I get slightly irked But then again, vote with your wallet.

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If it's a DEALER, selling for COMMERCIAL GAIN, then the rule of ethical business practice applies.

It's just like how you don't worry about sales tax at garage sale, but you still pay it at mom & pop stores.

Yeah, I guess if it's a hell of a deal even with the +3% added on, I'd probably spring for it.

But more so for me it's a matter of principle. You can have 2 Paypal accounts, one Personel and one Premier. The Personal account draws from your account balance and incurs no fees for cash deals. This is the kind of account I have, and I'll only accept cash payments for this reason. If you want to have a Premier account and let Paypal get 3% of your sale, that's your decision, just don't expect me to pony up the 3%.

Well, yeah, for dealers, I guess its a little bit of a different story. But they'll just jack up the price across the board to cover the fees and the cash paypal guy has to pay the extra too.

For individual sellers, I guess when we want to sell something, we just think of how much we would like to see in hand (less the shipping), and set a price for it, preferring to deal with paypal cash. The paypal CC option lets those without cash paypal have a chance to buy it, but they have to fork out the fees.

I guess its all a matter of demand of the item/s as well; if its hot stuff, people will pay anything to get it. If it's not, even if there's no 4%, nobody would give a damn.

LEDcandle said:

As you can see, a lot of us CPFers are already letting go lights at good prices on the B/S/T, and they just want to minmize other extra fees and let the buyer bear it. Most people don't really mind; I've even had numerous buyers give me the extra 4% when I don't ask for it.

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That's true, I don't mind paying a little extra becuase I know theres the fees involved. Even at 100 bucks, whats 3 dollars. So for on the things I've bought I offer 3%. I just wonder if there was a paypal rate change. Since I use my debit card it's no different than CC, but I guess sometimes when sellers say cash only paypal, CC paypal users like myself might feel placed out of a sale. What I have done when I really wanted something is PM them asking if they'd take the price +3% to see if that's kosher, so if the rate is now 4%, I can start offering that.

I believe the rate is still round about 2.9% + $0.30, so for low priced items, the $0.30 may actually be equal to about 1%, so the seller ups it to 4%. It's basically up to you as to how much you want to ask for.. obviously if you eat all the fees, it will be best for the buyers.

thezman said:

Yeah, I guess if it's a hell of a deal even with the +3% added on, I'd probably spring for it.

But more so for me it's a matter of principle. You can have 2 Paypal accounts, one Personel and one Premier. The Personal account draws from your account balance and incurs no fees for cash deals. This is the kind of account I have, and I'll only accept cash payments for this reason. If you want to have a Premier account and let Paypal get 3% of your sale, that's your decision, just don't expect me to pony up the 3%.

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It's ok to have two PayPal accounts. One for personal use. One for business use.

If you have two accounts specifically to cicumvent the fees, you're in violation.

This is called "selective reading".

Plenty of merchants do not thrive to excel. They only read the rules that works in their favor, but pretend to not see the ones that aren't, such as the no surcharge and no direction of buyers to different payment address based on method.

The ones that appeal to common practice of "everyone does it" is basically saying "we don't thrive for excellence. we're just a shop that's no worse than our competitors".

This topic has been covered ad-nauseum. It's all a shell game. For instance, a seller may decide to tack on an extra 3% to his price to cover the expense. Or he may just let paypal take 3% off what he gets for his merchandise. We can argue all about rules, violations, principles, yadayadayada but in the end, someone ends up paying for it. Personally, I hate paypal (for reasons that can be appropriately discussed in the Cafe) but until a better game comes into town, we're stuck with it.

CM said:

This topic has been covered ad-nauseum. It's all a shell game. For instance, a seller may decide to tack on an extra 3% to his price to cover the expense.

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Not quite. It's quite a difference, because prospective buyers have a selective view to lower conspicuous price. Think about when you're shopping for gas.

Consider the motivation for dealers who charge an exorbitionate amount of handling fee to cover the cost of setting selling price at near loss and charging "+$x.xx per additional item" that is clearly beyond incurred handling cost. If they can set the advertised price lower, they can get people to come in and see it.

If you increase the advertised price by the fee you wish to charge and dispaly it along with the cards logos, then offer cash discount inside at the register, it would affect the number of customer coming in.

The influence of setting a price is so much that it's more than a shell game.

It's pretty simple. If you're a DEALER or a MERCHANT playing the game for profit, you break the rule, you get reported/charge disputes.

My answer to the question "there's a 45 cent fee for using credit card, is that ok?" isn't "nah I'll pay cash". It's "no it's not ok. you won't drop it? fine I'll dispute it with PayPal/card issuer later"

I have two separate paypal account just for this purpose.

In any case, if you dont like the pricing set, just dont buy. No need to make life harder for either you (the buyer) or the seller by filing a dispute to PP.
After all, this is a community spirited board.

So what if you file a dispute with PP? Does anyone ever do this? what would you get out of it?


Following your example, if there are two sellers selling the same thing with different representation
1. the widget is $1 if paid cash PP, $1.03 if paid with PP CC
2. The widget is $1.03, but you get 3 cents discount if you pay using cash PP

Upon looking at the two choices, one can see that either statements are saying the same thing. Both encourages the use of cash PP. While statement 1 gives initial lower value, the second gives a "discount" imagery, so I believe either statement has an equal effect.

Buyers have 'fees' pretty much whatever method they use - take a credit card direct and it may be 2% - via Paypal 3% - it's easier if they just include the cost in their selling price rather than trying to get people to 'add on' a surcharge.

But at the end of the day if you don't like a price / terms etc. - just vote with your feet and don't buy... simple!

shiftd said:

I have two separate paypal account just for this purpose.

In any case, if you dont like the pricing set, just dont buy. No need to make life harder for either you (the buyer) or the seller by filing a dispute to PP.
After all, this is a community spirited board.

So what if you file a dispute with PP? Does anyone ever do this? what would you get out of it?


Following your example, if there are two sellers selling the same thing with different representation
1. the widget is $1 if paid cash PP, $1.03 if paid with PP CC
2. The widget is $1.03, but you get 3 cents discount if you pay using cash PP

Upon looking at the two choices, one can see that either statements are saying the same thing. Both encourages the use of cash PP. While statement 1 gives initial lower value, the second gives a "discount" imagery, so I believe either statement has an equal effect.

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I guess what Handlo meant was selling it at $1 nett, and if it was CC paypal, the seller should then absorb it and only get $0.97 out of it.

But I know where you are coming from because that's what I'm thinking too. People will just 're-write' their prices in that way.

I have Premier Paypal only, so it is convenient for those who choose to use a credit card to pay for items I sell. I adjust my price accordingly. If I had two accounts, one paypal cash, and one paypal credit, then I might want to charge more for credit paypal. I sell at decent prices so 1, 2 or 3 dollars can be significant , and buyer would get a better price using cash paypal.

This is trivial compared to the upcoming increases in Priority shipping, and Global Priority shipping. A flat rate priority box will cost $8.95, and Global Priority will start at $16.00. This effective May 14, 2007.

Bill