[Shop-talk] using paypal
Wayne
wmc_st at xxiii.com
Fri Oct 24 22:43:54 MDT 2008
john niolon wrote:
> I'm in the midst of a sale of wrenchs to a guy in New York State... I'm in
> Alabama. He wants to pay me by paypal... I have a paypal account I use for
> paying but never have used for receiving payment... how does it work ??
> dangers ??? fees ??? It's a reasonably large amount of money so I'm wary
I'd say, in general, it's "safer" than other payment methods. But you
will be hit with fees. I opened an account several years ago. You got
some very limited number (3/year?) of "free" transactions with no fees.
But that doesn't go very far if you ebay a lot. I sold a pair of
concert tickets for $400, and the buyer wanted to pay with a credit
card. To accept CC payments or get over the transaction limit, you had
to upgrade to a "premium" or something account. However, once you did
that, they started charging fees on *every* transaction.
I forget exactly how much they are, but it's like 3 - 5%. It's a
substantial hit if you're talking a couple hundred bucks. (Keep that in
mind every time you hand plastic to a vendor - the bank skims 2 - 3%)
Once the funds are received, you can leave them sit (which I'm sure they
are hoping for) or transfer them to a bank account. I did the later and
had them within a day or two. They offer fraud protection to the buyer
and seller, but tend to favor the buyer. People have complained about
funds being frozen by fraudulent non-receipt or damage claims, and
having to put up a large fight.
The only alternatives I would accept would be cash or a US postal money
order.
-Wayne
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