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Paypal Quietly Adds New Fees to Personal Accounts

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As if Paypal critics needed any more ammunition, the online payment service has been assessing new fees to personal accounts since June, and you probably didn't even know about it. That's because the fees -- 2.9 percent on purchases marked "goods" or "services" -- were only announced in an email that said they had changed their Terms of Service (ToS), but you had to actually go read re-read the ToS page to be made aware of the fee change.

Sounds rather sneaky, doesn't it? But according to Paypal, there was nothing underhanded going on.

"We didn't want to make a huge formal communication out of this pricing change, because we weren't really adding any fees, and we were hoping it would be a more useful experience for people," said Charlotte Hill, Paypal's PR manager.

Take from that what you will, but we've heard slicker sales pitches on used car lots, and you probably have too.

Image Credit: makeyougohmm.com

 

COMMENTS:12
COMMENTS
avatarNo buying fees

well I read this and was surprized. So I went to my account and looked up a purchase I had PAID for 4 days ago and..... NO FEE.

I love maximum PC, but sometimes I wonder about this stuff. I mean the article is about something that was sent in an E-Mail over a month and-a-half ago, and yet it comes up now!? On top of that you would think one of the editors would have read this and actually had a paypal account and double checked it first. SERIOUSLY THERE WAS NO FEE.

So now I have to read because I am getting pissed at all the dissinformation and find this on the fee's page of Paypal.

"There is a fee to send money as a personal payment using a debit card
or credit card. The fee in the U.S. is 2.9% plus $0.30 USD of the
amount you send. For example, if you send $100.00 USD by credit card,
the fee would be $3.20 USD ($2.90 + $0.30). For personal payments, the
sender can pay the fee or pass it on to the recipient. "

So if your buying something from a website, and are stupid enough not to use your paypal debit card as a credit and get 1% cash back on your purchase it's pretty much your own damn fault for being stupid!

Lately MaximumPC has been putting out all sorts of dissinformation and the worst part is it's all old news that can be easily checked. I don't know if this, or the Geeksquad test is dumber!

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avatarI'm confused as to what you

I'm confused as to what you are saying there.   You are saying that there's no fee, but you verified on the Paypal site that there's a 2.9% fee as mentioned in the article?  

 

 

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avatarlook at the article.

The whole article is trying to say there are NEW fees for buying goods and services and is making it out to be a scary new cost. A person recieveing money through paypal has always had to pay a 2.9% fee! Your average person considers ebay a place to buy goods when this change does not apply to that.

Essentially any time you recieve money through paypal, expect a fee of 2.9%. If the reciever pays this fee, than the sender will not. I fail to see how this is new and a scandle. Now they just gave the option for non ebay transfers to choose who pays the fee. The sender used to never be able to pay the fee, now they can, OR THEY CAN FORCE THE RECIEVER TO PAY 2.9%. The reciever ALWAYS PAID 2.9%!

Again if someone found a way around the fee by marking product, outside ebay, as goods or services and was able to avoid the fee's, thats why this is in place.

One more time, YOU ARE STUPID IF YOU USE YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT RATHER THAN GET 1% BACK BY USING YOUR PAYPAL DEBIT CARD AS CREDIT!

In the end someone is going to pay 2.9%, but both parties will never pay this. and if you use your account for ebay only, you will never pay this, unless your a seller, in which case YOU HAVE BEEN PAYING THIS FOREVER!

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avatarLearn from Visa

I love when companies refuse to learn from history, good or bad.  Do you know why Visa has been so successful?  Because they don't charge the consumer -- they charge the merchant to be part of their "network".

If you make it more convenient and/or safe for a merchant to receive payments for goods or services, the merchant is willing to give you a small percentage of that sale (hey, that sounds like what Paypal was doing!).  If you charge the customer, he will just stop using your payment method.  You can already see this at places where they try to push all the costs on the consumer by charging 3% or $2.50 for all credit card transactions -- their customers will either bring cash, check, or directions to the nearest competitor.

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avatarthe email I deleted

deleted because Windows Mail determined that the originating address was suspicious. Funny, I never got that warning with any other true Paypal email message. Going to read the ToS and prolly cancel my account. I dont Ebay anymore either. since now they are the same company, the seller pays several times - to list the item, final value fee, and a percentage of the total amount if being paid via Paypal.

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avatar2.9% on pretty much all purchases from websites?

So, this mean pretty much anything you purchase from a website is going to get charged an extra 2.9%?  What a rip.  The only reason I used Paypal is so I didn't have to type in my credit card number when I bought something.  Now my bank lets me create alternate credit card numbers with limits as to how much can be spent using them and a time limit as well.

I still liked using Paypal because of the convenience, but this NEW fee is just a reason for me to start using my bank more instead of Paypal. I don't think Paypal realizes how much business this will cost them once people start becoming more aware of this fee.

EDIT: Now I"m confused, after visiting their website here: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside.  It says that purchasing items is free.  It says you are charged 2.9%+.30USD when you make a personal transfer from your credit or debit card or Paypal credit.  So does it charge me 2.9% on new purchases or not???

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avatarExchange Rates

This isn't a new fee for us Canadians because we've always been ripped off through the exchange rate anyways.

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avatarSo has this always been in

So has this always been in existence, or is this in addition to the
2.9% we already pay on goods sold?  Seems now they're charging the
buyer 2.9%, AND the seller 2.9%.  Can someone verify?

 

"Ass so fat that you can see it from the front" -- Mos Def

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avatarOutrage

I didn't receive an email about changing ToS.  Just deleted my paypal account though - credit cards work fine anyway. 2.9% is a ripoff!

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avatarThe Sleeze in Business Practices Continues

"We didn't want to make a huge formal communication out of this pricing
change, because we weren't really adding any fees, and we were hoping
it would be a more useful experience for people," Hill said.

Charlotte Hill is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with American business. Lying, deception and wordspeak will destroy us.

The cover up is usually worse than the mistake.  But nobody learns.

Adios, PayPal

via con diablo

 

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avatarUseful experience?

If adding a 2.9% charge isn't a fee... how does it create a more useful experience for customers???

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avatar well my bank account was

 well my bank account was kinda heavy

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