A lot of sellers ask that the buyer pay the 3% paypal fee. I'm ok with that.
Though, I just purchased a D300 from a FM member and I paid the paypal fee. But I thought - how do I pay it? I mean if I took the price of the item, say $100 for a round number, my initial reaction was to paypal the seller $100 + 3% = $103. Right? Well then I thought, gee, he will have to pay 3% on that - defeating the purpose. So I paid the item price in one paypal transaction, then gifted him the 3%, so he wouldn't have to pay 3% on that.
I've been accused of not being the brightest bulb in the pack, but how do y'all handle paying the paypal fee?
mtdydobe wrote:
So I paid the item price in one paypal transaction, then gifted him the 3%, so he wouldn't have to pay 3% on that.
That's a smart way to do it without any confusion.
ontime wrote:
Isn't that against the PayPal ToS?
Yes. I don't understand why, but this is the only forum I visit where sellers are regularly adding the 3% (even though they are only charged 2.9%). Although, most of the other forums do have a sticky on top of their forum reminding people of the TOS with PayPal that they agreed to when they signed up.
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/UserAgreement_full&locale.x=en_US 4.6 No Surcharges. You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as a payment method. You may charge a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services, as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge and is not higher than the handling fee you charge for non-PayPal transactions.
mtdydobe wrote:
So I paid the item price in one paypal transaction, then gifted him the 3%, so he wouldn't have to pay 3% on that.
Hadn't thought about your approach but it should work. As an alternative, I usually strike an agreement with the other party on the final price including fees, shipping, insurance, etc.
You're worried about the seller being charged 3% on the 3%??
You do realize on a $1000 payment you're talking about 90 cents, right? As a seller I'm not going to be too concerned about $.90.
Actually adding 3% isn't the correct method of determining the fee. It short-changes the seller ever-so-slightly. What you should be doing is dividing the cost of the item by 97%.
100 x 1.03 = 103
103 - (103 x .03) = 99.91 (seller loses 9 cents)
100/.97 = 103.09
103.09 - (103 x .03) = 100 (seller gets all of his money)
Its against the Paypal Terms of agreement as well as some state laws and all credit card agreements. A stiff fine can be issues by a credit card company, which will be passed on by PayPal to the violater.
FM should really just ban members from selling if they are willing to violate rules and laws.
If I use a credit card to buy something, the seller is not allowed to charge me a fee.
I was lookiing to buy a camera this morning, but every one available wanted a 3% fee or a paypal gift. I won't even consider a seller openly violating the PayPal rules.
scalesusa wrote:
Its against the Paypal Terms of agreement as well as some state laws and all credit card agreements. A stiff fine can be issues by a credit card company, which will be passed on by PayPal to the violater.
FM should really just ban members from selling if they are willing to violate rules and laws.
If I use a credit card to buy something, the seller is not allowed to charge me a fee.
I was lookiing to buy a camera this morning, but every one available wanted a 3% fee or a paypal gift. I won't even consider a seller openly violating the PayPal rules....Show more →
These are person to person exchanges on a forum, your argument sounds pretty silly. Sellers add the 3% only so they net something closer to the amount they are asking. Should sellers of used photography equipment also offer you a 30-day no questions asked return policy? If you don't want to pay any "fees", go to the camera store and pay a higher price.
The fee is 2.9% + $0.30. To do the exact calculation, here is the formula:
total amount = (amount wanted)/0.971 + $0.30
So, if seller wants $100, the amount that buyer needs to pay is $100/0.971 + $0.30 = $103.29. If the amount the seller wants is $10,000, the amount to be paid is $10,298.97.
You can notice that it's higher than 3% (from the buyer's viewpoint) when the amount is low and it's lower than 3% when the amount is high. Further computation will show that it'll be exactly 3% at about $2,240.77. Anything lower than that amount will be higher than 3% and lower otherwise.
scalesusa wrote:
Its against the Paypal Terms of agreement as well as some state laws and all credit card agreements. A stiff fine can be issues by a credit card company, which will be passed on by PayPal to the violater.
FM should really just ban members from selling if they are willing to violate rules and laws.
If I use a credit card to buy something, the seller is not allowed to charge me a fee.
I was lookiing to buy a camera this morning, but every one available wanted a 3% fee or a paypal gift. I won't even consider a seller openly violating the PayPal rules....Show more →
I agree with you. If you're going to use a service, then pay for it. Likewise, if you don't want to pay extra, don't deal. My first buy was darn pleasant. Great price on an iPad with no fees and shipping included. Or at least split it half like I've seen one FM did. After all sellers are benefiting from the service just as the buyers are.
www.dwolla.com needs more exposure. Just .25 cents a transfer for any amount greater than $10.00.
scalesusa wrote:
Its against the Paypal Terms of agreement as well as some state laws and all credit card agreements. A stiff fine can be issues by a credit card company, which will be passed on by PayPal to the violater.
FM should really just ban members from selling if they are willing to violate rules and laws.
If I use a credit card to buy something, the seller is not allowed to charge me a fee.
I was lookiing to buy a camera this morning, but every one available wanted a 3% fee or a paypal gift. I won't even consider a seller openly violating the PayPal rules....Show more →
OK then don't deal with sellers that charge you the fee. Almost all sellers here are priviate and not like big companies that can absorb the fees.
Using the B&S isn't exactly like using a store, so the Paypal TOS can be an awkward fit. I tend to list items with all fees included (and sometimes shipping as well) and it gets around this problem. In the B&S there tends to be some negotiation and naturally if a payment method is proposed that costs me less, I'm more likely to accept a lower price.
CVickery wrote:
Using the B&S isn't exactly like using a store, so the Paypal TOS can be an awkward fit. I tend to list items with all fees included (and sometimes shipping as well) and it gets around this problem. In the B&S there tends to be some negotiation and naturally if a payment method is proposed that costs me less, I'm more likely to accept a lower price.
