PayPal- anything i should know b4 i sign up? (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Scott]

as a casual ebay seller, i've resisted using Paypal in the past because given the things i usually sell are in the $5-10 range, the paypal charges in addition to the ebay charges seem to add up to substantial percentage.
but of course i wonder how many sales i may be losing, and dealing with waiting for people to get around to mailing out a payment can be a drag- so i think i'm ready to sign up and start using them

but is there anything i should be aware of first?
are users of the service satisfied with it?
how do you recieve payment from Paypal?- i could have sworn i saw another charge associated when they cut you a check.

any thoughts would be appreciated



(i would have thought this topic would have been covered before but a search didn't seem to turn up anything relevant)

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

I haven't had any problem with PayPal after a few years of use. I use direct deposit to a separate PayPal bank account, it is pretty fast (2-3 days to an international account), and free over a certain dollar threshold. Their pricing is reasonable compared with other payment services (and way less than I was being charged by another credit card service). I won't buy anything on eBay that I can't pay for with PayPal.

The only real concern when accepting payments is chargebacks, which can happen with ANY online service that allows credit cards. If you are selling to the US, just make sure your buyers are Verified with PayPal, and that you use delivery confirmation when shipping.

Like any transaction that is dealing with strangers, you have to use some common sense to protect yourself. Follow PayPal's seller guidelines and you should have no problems.

 

[Malcolm R]

Jeff nailed it. Set up a separate bank account which will be connected to your Paypal account. Paypal will electronically wire your money to your account for no charge. If you want a paper check, there's a fee.

I've also been using them for 4+ years and have never had an issue. I also will not buy anything that does not offer Paypal as a payment option.

Just be aware that if you want to be "in business" selling stuff, then you run the risk of incurring some "business-like" expenses, like chargebacks (I've never had one) and non-payment. Most people who complain about Paypal seem to me to want all of the perks but none of the risks (or expenses). That scenario doesn't exist in the world of sales.

 

[Bryan X]

I used to have PayPal linked to a savings account but switched to having the funds charged to my credit card.

My bank limited the number of electronic withdrawals I could make so I got hit with bank fees if I made too many purchases on Ebay during the month. Just something to check out at your bank.


As long as you don't accept Credit Card payments you can keep your account a 'personal' account and there are no fees.

 

[MikeH1]

Don't fall for the phoney emails that require you to change info. I get one of these every couple weeks.

 

[Kevin T]

yes. all official paypal emails will ALWAYS address you by name. all the phoney's same something to the effect of "dear valued member"

kevin t

 

[Carl Johnson]

I got one of those phoney emails today.......

----
------------------------------------------------------------
You've added an additional email address to your PayPal account.

If you don’t agree with this email [email protected] and if you need assistance with your account,

please click here to login to your account.



To make sure you can use your PayPal account the next time you make a purchase,

all you need to do is confirm or not your email address.

If your email program has problems with hypertext links,

you may also confirm your email address by logging in to your account.





Thank you for using PayPal!

The PayPal Team

----------------------------------------------------------------

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.

For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link located in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

----------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Paul_Scott]

i don't plan on buying things very often, so i guess i need to look into a seperate bank account tomorrow.

i am a little concerned about the potential for chargebacks-good suggestion about delivery confirmation.
i do see my shipping charges going up though, to cover this new ding, not to mention the rise in postal rates.
before i used to try to keep my shipping charges as low as possible, hoping that would be an incentive for people that might initially be turned off that i didn't take paypal, but i came to the conclusion that probably wasn't as a big a factor for many people as i thought.

one last question if anybody is still listening-
how have your sales been lately? i was going to sell off some stuff for Christmas, but never bothered anticipating heating bills were going to be a factor, and then after Christmas people are getting their Christmas related charges in, and then pretty soon tax time...or am i just over thinking this too much?

thanks for the info so far!

 

[Malcolm R]

Can't speak personally, I haven't sold anything since before Christmas, but I read somewhere where the winter months after the holidays were some of the busiest times.

Must be people surfing/bidding to escape cabin fever.

And I wouldn't let chargebacks worry you. As I said, I've never had one and I've been selling for years. You just have to understand that it is one of the risks of doing business.

 

[Elizabeth S]

I had not sold anything on EBay for a long time, but found out about a change in the interim. I have always had a Personal Account with no fees, and had always stated in my auctions that I could NOT accept any credit card/debit card funded PayPal payments -- only those from a balance or bank transfer (as well as money orders). According to EBay's new policy, if you mention accepting PayPal in your auction, you MUST accept credit card/debit card funded payments. In other words, you cannot say you take PayPal and limit the type of PayPal you accept. Just another way they are forcing you to upgrade to the Premiere account so they can take another percentage.

 

[Bryan X]

Elizabeth,

I noticed this too recently when I worded the 'no credit card' differently than I had before. I don't know if it got reported, or they just have 'bots' that scan for key phrases. But if it is just 'bots' then you just have to be careful how you word it.

I've put this phrase in my auction and they didn't catch it:

Paypal is preferred (no C*R*E*D*I*T C*A*R*D)

I think the rule stinks. Because once your account gets upgraded from 'Personal' every single transaction gets hit with a fee, whether it's a credit card transaction or not.

 

[todbnla]

I have had one for a few years too, no problems, just be weary of phising (sp?) IE: phoney emails pretending to be paypal and you will be ok

 

[Robert Marc]

Don't even get me started about this. I don't have a problem with paying a fee on cc transactions, but like Bryan wrote, they hit you with a fee on everything including simple paypal account money transfers when you upgrade to the "free" premiere account.
And don't even bother stating in your auction that you don't accept cc/debit card because of your account type. I put that statement in a huge, red, underlined quote and people still paid by cc. I denied payment and asked for a money order or a regular pp payment the first time it happened. What did I get in return? A nasty-gram from Ebay reminding me of the new paypal policy as stated in the above posts.
So I "upgraded" my paypal account since it was not worth the hassles and now pass the fees along to the buyer in the form of higher shipping. That's about all you can do. That's the end of my rant. Thanks everyone.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Caught this thread...

I use Paypal now and then and I must stress
what others have merely mentioned....

BEWARE emails asking you to update your
Paypal account. Don't ever respond to
these kind of emails -- this includes emails
that seem to come from your own bank asking
for you to update your account. In general,
banks never ask for you to make changes
via email messages.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Yes, PayPal (and ebay) are notorious for being spoofed via email, asking for personal info or threatening to close your account. Just ignore these messages. If you have any concern about your account, log in to the system from your browser (never from an emailed link, they are usually redirects) and check things out.

As for fees, these are clearly stated in the help section. The premiere account does incur fees on all payments, but these aren't that bad IMO. I'll be interesetd to see how my latest buyer complaint pans out. I had my suspicions before bidding on an ebay item, but when the seller becomes unregistered 3 days after payment is made, and after sending a bogus tracking number, it is not a sign inspiring confidence. No online transaction is without its risks though.

 

[Bryan X]

When you figure your getting hit by Ebay AND Paypal it does add up.

If you sell a $10.00 item your fees would be:

0.25 Insertion Fee Ebay
0.53 Final Sale Fee Ebay
0.59 PayPal Fee

for a toal of $1.37 which is nearly 14% of the final selling price. That's pretty damn high to me.

Yeah, it gets a little better if you sell more expensive items, but even a $50.00 item would have fees totaling from $3.99 to $4.94 depending on the starting price. That's 8 - 10% of the final selling price.

I've got no problems with PayPal charging for credit card transactions, but damn, don't force us to accept CC payments and then start slapping fees on previously free trasactions.