posted on July 15, 2005 12:23:58 PM new
I don't think this had been posted here yet. It won't affect me as I already have a Premier account and accept all forms of Paypal payments (whether from an account balance or credit card), but it may be of interest to some of you.
"Use of PayPal on eBay
Notice Date: July 14, 2005
Effective Date: August 19, 2005
Beginning August 19, 2005, if you sell on eBay and offer PayPal, your PayPal account must accept all forms of payment including payments made via credit card, regardless of whether you display the PayPal logo with credit card icons. You must have a Premier or Business PayPal Account or be willing to upgrade from a Personal PayPal Account to a Premier or Business Account if you receive a credit card payment. You may not communicate to eBay buyers (e.g. via your eBay item description) that you only accept, or will not accept, specific forms of PayPal payment."
(Copied & pasted directly from Paypal site from their Policy Updates page)
posted on July 15, 2005 02:15:55 PM new
translate: basically, PayPal wants to make the "personal" level of accounts unusable/phase them out, since they don't generate fees and PayPal doesn't get a slice of the pie like they do with premier and business level accounts on every transaction. don't you just love how companies can come out with some "edict" that's magically effective retroactively?
doesn't affect me, since i upgraded years ago. tried a "personal" account briefly and it was a real headache - people trying to pay me with their credit cards and so forth via PayPal and me saying "sorry, i don't want your money in quite that way." lost a few sales in the confusion created over what i would and would not "accept."
much easier in the long run to have a premier or business account and just accept the credit cards. imagine it will tick off some sellers, though. which actually works out nicely for me i always get a kick anyway out of the sellers who say NO PAYPAL in their auctions. to me, they're excluding a large percentage of buyers - moi included - who, given the choice, will pick an auction that takes PayPal any day, for the convenience factor.
posted on July 15, 2005 02:25:59 PM newmuch easier in the long run to have a premier or business account and just accept the credit cards. imagine it will tick off some sellers, though. which actually works out nicely for me i always get a kick anyway out of the sellers who say NO PAYPAL in their auctions. to me, they're excluding a large percentage of buyers - moi included - who, given the choice, will pick an auction that takes PayPal any day, for the convenience factor.
It sure is great to make everyone aware of your superior knowledge and experience with PayPal. I'm sure that this will sway me to start using PayPal even though I handle $500 items versus $5 postcards. It takes only one time, pal. But you'll take the $$ from persons with personal accounts that buy only?
posted on July 15, 2005 02:30:14 PM new
not meant as any superior knowledge, just what works for me. i seldom sell an item for as little as $5, btw. have sold many expensive collectibles as well, into the hundreds of dollars per item.
i take any type of PayPal payment from a buyer. period. much less confusion that way. 99.99% of my customers have been honest. have gotten two cold checks over the years, both made good by the buyers. one PayPal complaint resolved in my favor.
why would anyone NOT want to make purchases as painless as possible for the buyer? get a grip.
posted on July 15, 2005 07:30:01 PM new
touche', Jack! I love good humor.
I guess the agreement to disagree about PayPal continues.
And maybe in the long run, it won't matter since antiques and collectibles have depreciated, for the most part, and will never be at the levels we've seen over the last 4 decades. (yes, there are some exceptions to the rule).
posted on July 16, 2005 02:06:44 AM new
Toy - is there some particular reason that you feel that PayPal owes it to you to offer free financial services to your business?
Do you regularly donate your time and services to other businesses or do you feel that this obligation only goes one way?
I'm just curious. I've never quite understood the mindset that allows one to find it wrong when a business actually charges to perform their primary duty.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
No, I'm saying -- I'm merely -- I'm saying what I'm saying. I don't know why I'm always having people say, are you trying to say -- you know what you can do if you want to know what I'm saying is listen to what I'm saying. What I'm saying is what I said ...
I don't disagree with your main point, but I do think it would be more reasonable if PayPal took a smaller slice out of large payments. Close to 3% on a $1000 payment is excessive. They're entitled to do it, but I reserve the right to grumble.
The credit card companies have a more reasonable rationale. They're the ones that get stuck if the card holder defaults. As far as I know, PayPal has no credit risk, just a moderate fraud risk that they have to underwrite... and I'm sure that they're not paying a hefty merchant's fee either; with their volumes, they must be paying a few basis points.
posted on July 16, 2005 06:53:48 AM new
paypal has no credit risk??????
you better brush up on merchant account and what kind of riks Paypal has??
Paypal dicount rate is probably a little over 1 %,but AVS fee is extra ,and then there is customer service in India and US and the cost of maintaining a piece of complex software .
Fenix,
the reason individual sellers want freebies or cheap fee is that these days,the margin is very thin.If an item is sold for 5 dollars,the paypal fee,the ebay fee just eat up the profit.
and the profit from the items sold will have to pay for the listing fee of those which are not sold and what is the sell thru rate now on ebay??
I see Chinese and HK sellers listing zillion of items with starting bid of 3.99,they make money on shipping if the item sell,but whatt if most do not sell?and there are lots of items at 3.99 which get no bid??
and they are paying US dollars to Ebay,and the exchange rate is 7.8 HK dollars to one US dollar and 8.2 Chinese dollars to one US dollar.
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
[ edited by stopwhining on Jul 16, 2005 06:55 AM ]
[ edited by stopwhining on Jul 16, 2005 06:57 AM ]
posted on July 16, 2005 10:33:37 AM new
stopwhining,
I believe that PayPal has no credit risk, but only fraud risk (which is not insignificant). If a cardholder files for bankruptcy, the card issuer eats that, not PayPal. Fraud is a different matter.
I don't question their right to charge 3% on a transaction, but think that it would be good to have graduated marginal rates that decline as the value of the payment increases. Many transaction costs are fixed rather than variable, and I think PayPay could easily do business with a model that was, for example, 3% until $500, 2 1/2% between 501 and 1500, etc.
Claude
PS Thanks for the ?????? and the suggestion to brush up on merchant accounts. It is always a pleasure to be responded to in a friendly and constructive manner.
posted on July 16, 2005 11:42:43 AM new
Fraud risk is part of credit risk.
Paypal does have more favorable rates for those who do 100,000 dollars or more transactions per month.
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
posted on July 16, 2005 12:38:21 PM new
Well, where I worked (2 international banks for 20 years), fraud and credit were considered two separate risks, but that's just a taxonomy difference I guess.
Actually, PayPal will reduce rates for less than $100k, or at least did a while ago. When I was regularly doing more than $25k per month, I had a reduced rate (IIRC, the reduction was 40 basis points).
posted on July 16, 2005 08:06:58 PM new
I remember when PayPal was free....anyone else? I like it though, about 80% of my buyers pay the same day the auction ends, makes my life easy. I upgraded when I got the first credit card payment, sort of had to in order to get the money and never looked back.
posted on July 16, 2005 10:51:16 PM newis there some particular reason that you feel that PayPal owes it to you to offer free financial services to your business
Why does PayPal feel it is OK to charge you to simply accept cash payments? If you get cash or a check paid into your bank account, you are not charged a fee for it.
Good thing that my merchant account is cheaper and safer than PayPal. This new policy does apply to me as I only accept credit cards via our merchant account. Beginning August 19th, I can state, "Due to the greed of PayPal, I will no longer accept any paypal payments.
As it turns out, over 75% of my payments received are via Credit Card anyway, so the new policy will not truely effect our business anyway. The other 25% can either do the credit card thing or send a check.
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Alive in 2005
[ edited by stonecold613 on Jul 17, 2005 09:43 AM ]
posted on July 18, 2005 06:24:57 PM new
OK I ve had a personal account for years and take in 1-3K per month on it. I take all credit cards etc. Is there any benefit to upgrade my account? Will I get a smaller % taken from me? Will paypal slap me with higher fees? Whats the scoop?
Some months such as Feburary have almost not volume. Will this be a problem?
I just updated my new website - give me your feedback on it. http://gotflag.com
posted on July 21, 2005 03:13:16 PM new
This new policy will if anything reduce the number of sellers accepting PP on eBay. It's good news for sellers that accept credit cards through merchant accounts (and have better protection and communication with card processors) and the rest of us that use direct bank transfers (which are usually free if you deal with good banks), cash, money orders and the like.
posted on July 21, 2005 03:23:01 PM new
stonecold said,
Why does PayPal feel it is OK to charge you to simply accept cash payments? If you get cash or a check paid into your bank account, you are not charged a fee for it.
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Paypal has bills to pay,there is no free lunch whether it is credit card or ACH.
Your bank has your fund,it is getting some benefits by having you as a customer.
I dont understand why people will use a service and then whine about fee??
If you dont want to pay,then dont use the service.
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
[ edited by stopwhining on Jul 21, 2005 03:23 PM ]
Good post.