PayPal Surcharge


I have noticed alot of people add a (3% or so) PayPal fee to their items and I wonder if everyone is aware, that is against the user agreement. It seems that PayPal looks at sellers as "merchants". This is cut from the Paypal website:

-No Surcharges. Under Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express regulations and the laws of several states, including California, merchants may not charge a fee to the buyer for accepting credit card payments (often called a "surcharge"). You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as payment. This restriction does not prevent you from imposing a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services, as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge (in other words, the handling fee for transactions paid through PayPal may not be higher than the handling fee for transactions paid through other payment methods). Nor does this restriction apply to Pound-denominated transactions by sellers residing in the United Kingdom listing items for sale on a UK-based website.
dill

Showing 3 responses by sugarbrie

I would not get hung up on it. For a fixed priced classified or an auction, just build in the 3% if it bothers you so much. For a "or best offer" advert: if they offer a certain $$ amount and paypal payment, then that is their "best offer". Take it or counter offer.
I believe it has nothing to do with Paypal. I don't think any retail store can charge a surcharge on a credit card payment, period. It might be in the VISA, Mastercard, Etc, agreements that vendors sign....

The same reason some stores "don't take American Express" as the VISA advert goes. AMEX fees tend to be higher, and the stores cannot pass the extra cost on to the buyer.
To repeat..All credit card transactions have a fee, usually around +/-3%. The store pays it (deducted from proceeds). Has nothing to do with Paypal. If you accept credit card payments, you are no different than a store.

If you were to try to set up your own credit card account directly with VISA and Mastercard, the fixed cost alone would be a lot more than just paying PayPal.

PayPal has created a way for all of us to get the benefits of credit cards on very small transactions, with no up front costs. What is the problem here?