Re: Q: Adding 4% for Paypal?

tony wrote:
> The problem is that sometimes charges are deducted by Paypal, and sometimes not.
>
> If the payment to Paypal by the buyer is made using a debit card or an 
> outstanding Paypal balance, there is no charge.
>
> If the payment is made using a credit card, Paypal charge quite a high percentage.
>
> The first time this happened to me was quite late on, so as a seller I suddenly
> found my 'take' reduced.  I would have put up a higher starting bid
> if I had realised.  I therefore sympathise with vendors who wish to charge extra for
> a credit card payment - it costs them money.  After all, it is not uncommon
> to see extra charges by vendors made for foreign personal cheques.

That is not the way that it works in the US.  Nor either, I believe, in 
the UK.

If you have a personal Paypal account then you can only accept payments 
funded from sources other than credit cards, such as a person's paypal 
balance, bank transfer and, perhaps, debit cards.  If you receive a 
payment funded by a credit card, you have two options: reject it or 
"upgrade" your account to a type that can accept credit cards.

An account that can accept credit cards get charged for receiving any 
and all payments, regardless of whether a particular payment was funded 
from a credit card or not.  The charge is not really that high when 
compared to what small businesses are normally charged for credit card 
payments, but being charged for non-credit card payments really, really, 
bothers a lot of people.

On the other hand, note that being able to use Paypal saves the buyer 
the cost and bother of mailing payment, so may induce him or her to bid 
a little higher.  And the buyer protection from Paypal and the credit 
card may make him or her more likely to bin in the first place.

= Eric