Paypal Eliminates Free Paypal Friends and Family Transfers

[sahai1]

I think kind of relevant, since so many international exchange here...  Yesterday was quote $4.99 flat rate plus the exchange spread to send $60.  It was funded by my paypal balance.

Wanted to get some seeds.. so what will we do now... has everybody else been paying the merchant fees, is that how business is done on this forum, or has everybody been doing f&f transfers.

check it out here  https://www.paypal.com/en/webapps/mpp/ua/upcoming-policies-full
just went into effect the other day.

There are alternatives, perhaps admin can design sticky for standardized payment terms, transferwise.com looks like a cheaper alternative, but no buyer protection, but if you doing Paypal F&F there is no buyer protection anyways.

Note, this is just for international, exchanging money within US by bank or balance is still free by Paypal.

[sahai1]

Thank you for contacting PayPal Customer Support about a fee.

I understand that you are seeing that you will be charged of a fee of $4.99 fee when sending money using your PayPal Balance,

If you are sending the money (gift) to a PayPal account holder which is not based in the US, you will be charged of $4.99 USD fee as the transaction is considered International.

For your reference, please go to https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees to know more about about PayPal Fees.

I am pleased to have this clarified.

Thank you for being part of the PayPal community.

Sincerely,
Venus
PayPal Customer Solutions Support Specialist
PayPal

[zands]

Paypal can take money from your-
credit card
bank account
Paypal balance

Try paying someone by letting paypal take the money out of your bank account. It might still be free, might be free to you and the person receiving your payment. Under paying family and friends.

[spaugh]

To be honest the fee is pretty minimal.  It's a few percent and then you can print shipping labels at a discount when doing regular "goods and services" transactions.  Seems like not a big problem.  PayPal provides a good service.

[cmichael258]

To be honest the fee is pretty minimal.  It's a few percent and then you can print shipping labels at a discount when doing regular "goods and services" transactions.  Seems like not a big problem.  PayPal provides a good service.

Nope. Just used bank account and they still charged me $4.99

[sahai1]

To be honest the fee is pretty minimal.  It's a few percent and then you can print shipping labels at a discount when doing regular "goods and services" transactions.  Seems like not a big problem.  PayPal provides a good service.

Nope. Just used bank account and they still charged me $4.99

Yes, for international this is almost standard, a few countries are $2.99 flat rate now (even on a $1 transfer)

At the beginning of the month funded by balance was still free, and funded by a bank account was only 0.05%, which was very cheap.

When everybody catches up to this story, and believes me, perhaps we can discuss more?  Anybody ordering seeds from Borneo soon?  You will find out, a $10 seed purchase is now $14.99 with the added $4.99 fee for Malaysia.

I do not know about the merchant fees, usually I think international used to be 4.49% + $0.30 or something, I am not sure what it is now.  This would be cheaper than F&F gift transfer if those rates are still the same.

So if sellers in Borneo are asking for gift transfer, the transaction costs more than a merchant invoice.  Let's keep the discussion going.    Why pay a greedy company more for nothing.

[sahai1]

By the way, besides the new fee, paypal still takes a hefty profit from the currency exchange. 

For Thailand they always give 1 baht less than what the banks give. It works out to about 3.1%
So the real commission Paypal takes from an international merchant transaction is 4.49% + 0.30$ + 3.1% 

not reasonable in my opinion.