PayPal and other fees - your view?

[consumed]

First of all: Long time lurker here, just registered!😀

I just wanted to hear your view on this matter. PayPal is probably the most common way of paying for items on the net, at least when it comes to sales between two persons.

More and more often I come across ads where the seller says "PayPal accepted if you pay the fee". I know eBay specifically forbids this, and hands the bill over to the seller. I'm about to sell off some high price items ($1000-$4000), and I'm not sure how to do this. I live in Denmark, so to illustrate, the fees for selling a $2000 lens quickly adds up:

Price: $2000
PayPal fee and currency conversion fee: $118 if sold here in Europe, $128 if sold to the US

Now, that is quite a bit of cash. But how about taking it to eBay? Well, then you get the eBay fees also. Yikes, another $50 or so.

All in all, the $2000 sale is now turning into a $1822/$1832 sale.

And now, for the real question: If you were given the option of buying the item for:
- $1870 if paid directly through bank transfer or other method which would incur 0 fees for the seller, or
- $2000 if paid for with PayPal

Would you:
1) Pay $1870
2) Pay $2000
3) Not buy the item at all - PayPal fees are the responsibility of the seller, and differentiated payment schemes like this are rubbish.

 

[sleepyhead]

Hello. First of all, I would try to sell your gear here on RFF first, keep it within Europe, and ask buyers to pay by IBAN bank transfer.

Regarding Paypal fees, outside of Ebay, it's the sellers right to ask the buyer to pay the extra fee if they won't pay by IBAN, nobody is putting a gun to the buyer's head and forcing them to go through with the transaction. If I'm a buyer, i just figure the 4% into the cost of the deal - either the (total) price works for me, or it doesn't.

Having said that, I've sold quite a few things here on RFF and I NEVER ask the seller to pay my Paypal fee, 4% of a few hundred dollars isn' t that much compared to the convenience and speed. If it were a few THOUSAND dollars, then I would strongly encourage IBAN.

BY THE WAY, I'm in Denmark (Valby), and flush with cash at the moment, send me a private message, or post here what you have for sále, if it's something that interests me then you can get paid in Danish kroner 😉

 

[sleepyhead]

...or just send a message to say hello - it's nice to meet a "local" - there are a few Danish RFFer's out there!

 

[kshapero]

IMHO, always go for the RFF classifieds first. It almost always works well, unless the item is just plain unsalable. I always add the Paypal fees to my cost, so the buyer doesn't have to "add" in an extra cost.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

I think Fred has it right. I am in the US. For a long time I sold items for a personal check (had to clear first) or US or International Postal Money Order. In practical terms, buyers bore the costs of those payment methods. The last time I sold something 98% of the potential buyers asked if I took Paypal; one or two were actually offended that I did not. I view Paypal as primarily a convenience for buyers and one way or another they should pay the fees. Recently I completed a transaction with someone in Japan. Because of Japan's banking/postal system it is very challenging to pay for something as an outsider. Paypal saved the day, in that case, and I was happy to pay the fees to have the transaction go smoothly.

Ben Marks

 

[EmilGil]

Using Paypal is often a convenient method of payment but not necessarily the best. It does include some kind of insurance for the buyer but why is the seller to pay for the buyers safety? Usually the insurance policy is paid for by the person covered, in this case the buyer. If the (split) fees are a part of the deal, either take the extra cost and go through with the deal or drop it. If it's not worth it when fees are included in the final price, then don't go through with it.

I can very well see why a seller wants to split the fees; as you say, on a $2k item it's quite a lot of money. As for the insurance, I'm not sure whether it applies to buyers east of the big pond. Inside Europe, IBAN is the easiest solution but does often incur a cost for the buyer and less chance of recovering the money if something goes wrong. The choice is yours!

 

[consumed]

Thank you all. To me, it all boils down to two things:

1) I can hide the cost of doing the transaction with PayPal, and name a price with the fee included.

2) I can name the price, but offer a discount for those willing to go through with the IBAN thing.

3) I can name the price for those willing to use IBAN (or similar), but accept PayPal if the buyer wants to pay for the fees.

Lately, I've seen a lot of #3, and I'm not sure if I like it. The worst examples are those were the seller states "PayPal only, buyer pays fee" (yes, you find these in the classifieds here as well).

 

[laptoprob]

Yep, I prefer method 3 as well.
Simply because it is up to the buyer to decide between the - possibly - faster way through paypal instead of the - free - method of IBAN transfers within Europe. However, banks in some countries like the UK don't always understand the free of charge IBAN method.
Still, I consider it like shipping cost. I prefer to let the buyer decide and pay the actual cost.

 

[pfoto]

Merchants don't explicitly ask buyers to pay credit card fees, so I don't see why I should ask one of my buyers to pay a PayPal fee.