which PayPal account?

[deschek]

At least there is full PayPal service in Poland, and my question is, which account is most popular in world? I got two to choose, personal and special, special has possibility to get money from CC and bank transfers as I remember, is it popular?

[carbon_unit]

I just used the personal one until I had to switch because someone had used a Credit Card to pay me.
It used to be that the personal account did not incur fees to receive money but the special account did incur fees to receive money. That may have changed by now.

[marcos]

In fact, is better to have both. It is allowed by paypal to have one personal and one premium account:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?c ... d=16777224

You will use premier to get payment from people that will be using a credit card, or you are unsure.

And use personal when the sender does not use a credit card(bank account in the US, or funds available for all the rest).

Premier account are always charged when receiving money, there was a slighty smaller fee for echecks, now this appears to have been removed too.

[deschek]

Ok, I have register personal account and I have another question, is it necesery to register CC on paypal (i don`t have it yet), i would like to donate it (paypal) only from other paypal accounts and transfer from my paypal as many money as i have on it, is it possible?

[marcos]

I'm not sure to understand your question. What I can tell you, if you send money (using a credit card) between two accounts of a same person, paypal will send you an email, warning that is not allowed. The transaction however completes.

[jdhurst]

I just used the personal one until I had to switch because someone had used a Credit Card to pay me.
It used to be that the personal account did not incur fees to receive money but the special account did incur fees to receive money. That may have changed by now.

I guess I haven't spent enough time to understand this. I am a purchaser (I don't sell anything at this point), and I use PayPal because the majority of vendors I deal with want PayPal.

So why do you care as a seller if I use a Credit Card to fund my PayPal purchase? If you pay a fee, well, that has been the way of the credit card world for 40 years or more. The seller pays the fee; the purchaser does not.

What is the core issue here?
Thanks, ... JD Hurst

[marcos]

JD, here's the core:

The premium account pays fees on receiving money, typically 2.9% (In USA, more in other countries). The personal account pays no fee but cannot receive payments funded with a Credit or debit Card or paypal credit. Recent change, US personal account are now allowed to 5 credit card payments per year at the whopping charge rate of 4.9%.

For individuals especially the desire to save on fees can be understood. So I ask my payers if they can fund without using a credit card, and direct them to my personal account whenever possible.

When you make a payment, you can choose how to fund it. paypal default is fund available first, then bank transfer, then credit card. So in many cases, they charge rates similar to card card without one being involved !
If you force the payment to be credit card by having other choices, you basically waive your paypal buyer protection and will be covered by your credit card policies only.

These are the basics...

[carbon_unit]

Also when the Paypal payment is funded through a credit card it can take a while to clear. Bank transfer payments clear immediately. When someone pays with Paypal they expect immediate shipment because they think it is an instant payment.
Personally, I'm not shipping until the payment clears and with a CC involved it is not instant. I have seen payments pending for up to 5 business days. Paypal "floating" the money, flakey CC, who knows??

[jdhurst]

@marcos and @carbon_unit - Thanks.

The 2.9 percent for a premium account is somewhat in line with regular Credit Card charges. The charge for a personal account is outrageous. I surmise that the business I purchase probably have premium accounts.

I only fund my PayPal account via Credit Card. I am willing to waive PayPal's support (I deal with reputable vendors) but I am not willing to provide any access to or information about my bank (in Canada) to a foreign business.

Also, the banks I use in Canada for Credit Cards are very large National banks. Charges from PayPal show up on my Mastercard bill usually within about 36 hours.

Thanks for the info - I appreciate it. ... JD Hurst

[marcos]

carbon_unit,

actually, it should be the opposite way. Credit Card payments clears immediately, bank transfer will take a while. Why is that, credit card is immediately processed by paypal with an authorization, while there is no way for them to know if there are funds enough in the bank until the transfer actually succeeds. This is reflected in the eCheck and the related waiting time.

However, when you have both Credit Card and bank account in your account, paypal does the smartest thing, that is what is called Instant Transfer. They approve the payment immediately and initiate the bank transfer. In case it is refused, they will take the funds from the credit card.

This way, as I said before, they can charge credit card-like fees without one being involved, still the can grant instant payment clearing to the recipient.

JD, I haven't checked this fully, but it is possible that because you do not have a bank account linked to your paypal, you retain full buyer protection even if using a credit card.

[carbon_unit]

carbon_unit,

actually, it should be the opposite way. Credit Card payments clears immediately, bank transfer will take a while. Why is that, credit card is immediately processed by paypal with an authorization, while there is no way for them to know if there are funds enough in the bank until the transfer actually succeeds. This is reflected in the eCheck and the related waiting time.

That sounds right to me but what I know is that once I waited 5 business days for a payment to clear and the buyer wanted to know what the holdup was. I told him i was waiting for payment to clear and he said he used a CC for funding. Maybe they lied?
Every other time I got paid through PP it was instant.

[marcos]

carbon_unit,

I don't know, perhaps a problem with your buyer account. You can look into the transaction details, and if it says payment type instant, either there were funds available, or a credit card was used. Else, it would say payment cleared, and type is eCheck.

[carbon_unit]

I don't know. I looked at the details but everything looked OK. There must have been a problem with his account.
So maybe the statements i made earlier about credit card funding being slow are incorrect.

[brentpresley]

My BIGGEST beef w/ Paypal is this:

If you upgrade your account to accept a CC payment, then EVERY payment after that (CC or NOT) gets charged the 2.9%+0.30c.

It's highway robbery that they charge you that fee if the money is already in their system.


So I have setup 2 accounts. A Personal and a Business.

I tell people that IF they insist on paying w/ a CC, they can tack 3% onto the charge to cover the cost of the CC processing fee.

Just my 0.02 (and a rant )

[jdhurst]

<snip>
I tell people that IF they insist on paying w/ a CC, they can tack 3% onto the charge to cover the cost of the CC processing fee.

Be cautious. Such is illegal in Canada (don't know about the States). ... JD Hurst

[tomh009]

<snip>
I tell people that IF they insist on paying w/ a CC, they can tack 3% onto the charge to cover the cost of the CC processing fee.

Be cautious. Such is illegal in Canada (don't know about the States). ... JD Hurst

Is it actually illegal? I was under the impression that the credit card companies forbade it to the merchants.

Of course, either way, that doesn't stop companies like Canada Computers from offering cash discounts ...

[rkawakami]

So I have setup 2 accounts. A Personal and a Business.

Which is exactly what I did last week. My normal PayPal for buying or selling small items on eBay (personal), which I've had for years and a new account for accepting large payments and/or CC-funded ones (Business).

I tell people that IF they insist on paying w/ a CC, they can tack 3% onto the charge to cover the cost of the CC processing fee.

As JD points out, I believe this goes against most, if not all, credit card company rules about adding a surcharge for credit card purchases. My understanding is that you can offer a cash discount, but not a "fee" for CC. Best to check your local rules and/or bank accounts. I don't believe it's illegal in the strict sense of the word; just not within the bounds of Visa/Mastercard merchant rules. But I'm no expert...

[jdhurst]

<snip>
Is it actually illegal? I was under the impression that the credit card companies forbade it to the merchants. <snip>

You are probably correct. I went looking in the Bank Act and did not readily find it. So in the strict sense, it is probably not illegal. Thanks, all, for the followup and correction. ... JD Hurst