New to ebay, question about a payment

oysterman · 11 April 2006 at 7:01PM

just started selling & have a querry.

I have stated that will only except paypal. Until i get used to ebay

Sold an item, just got notification about payment saying i have to upgrade my account to premier & buisness account to except payment. Mentioned pending credit card payment

Estimated fee for this item is 0.73, what does this mean?

Do i have to except this? or can i ask buyer to pay fee, i went for paypal because it was free or is it not worthwhile

mmm24v · 11 April 2006 at 7:27PM

Hi, that means your buyer is trying to pay you using either a credit or debit card and to accept their payment you will need to upgrade your paypal account to either a premier or business account (depending on how much business you do)

I assume that 73 pence they are talking about is roughly how much of the payment they will take from you in fees but I've never heard of paypal telling you upfront just how much they are taking for their troubles

hjb123 · 11 April 2006 at 7:29PM

This will have occured because the person that is paying you is paying by credit or debit card by paypal! Which means that you will have to upgrade your account in order to accept the payment and pay the fee as only the Personal Paypal accounts dont accept credit/debit cards

Why can't PayPal Personal accounts accept credit cards?

Only Premier and Business accounts are allowed to accept credit cards. This policy helps reduce the costs associated with credit card processing. Premier and Business accounts pay a nominal fee for each payment received in return for access to premium features such as the ability to accept credit card payments, listing management services, and PayPal's Seller Tools.

Personal accounts can accept payments not funded by credit cards, however, limits may apply to certain payment types.

soolin · 11 April 2006 at 8:44PM

If you ticked the 'I accept paypal' box then you will have to upgrade to accept this payment and unfortunately pay paypal fees on this and every payment, however funded, in future.

Soo

Contains_Mild_Peril · 11 April 2006 at 9:14PM

Oysterman, I'm afraid you've fallen into the trap eBay and Paypal have laid for sellers - tempting us to offer Paypal by telling us about all its benefits and that a personal account is free, but failing to make it sufficiently clear that if you tick the "I accept Paypal" box, you must accept any Paypal payment, and must upgrade to a fee-paying account if the payment is made using a credit or debit card.
You may not ask the buyer to pay the Paypal fees. You could try asking them very nicely if they could pay using another method since you don't want to have to change to a fee-paying account, but if you ticked the Paypal box when you listed your item, then the customer is entitled to insist that you should accept their payment. If you do "upgrade", you're allowed to "downgrade" back to a personal account afterwards, but only once, so if you were to "upgrade" again to accept another card payment, you'd be stuck with a fee-paying account.

mmm24v wrote:

I assume that 73 pence they are talking about is roughly how much of the payment they will take from you in fees but I've never heard of paypal telling you upfront just how much they are taking for their troubles

They do if they're advising you that you need to "upgrade" to accept a payment.

oysterman · 11 April 2006 at 9:54PM

Contains_Mild_Peril wrote:

Oysterman, I'm afraid you've fallen into the trap eBay and Paypal have laid for sellers - tempting us to offer Paypal by telling us about all its benefits and that a personal account is free, but failing to make it sufficiently clear that if you tick the "I accept Paypal" box, you must accept any Paypal payment, and must upgrade to a fee-paying account if the payment is made using a credit or debit card.
You may not ask the buyer to pay the Paypal fees. You could try asking them very nicely if they could pay using another method since you don't want to have to change to a fee-paying account, but if you ticked the Paypal box when you listed your item, then the customer is entitled to insist that you should accept their payment. If you do "upgrade", you're allowed to "downgrade" back to a personal account afterwards, but only once, so if you were to "upgrade" again to accept another card payment, you'd be stuck with a fee-paying account.

They do if they're advising you that you need to "upgrade" to accept a payment.

So if i downgrade what payment method should i stipulate if i sell something to advoid fees or is not practible to do so.

soolin · 12 April 2006 at 12:16PM

oysterman wrote:

So if i downgrade what payment method should i stipulate if i sell something to advoid fees or is not practible to do so.

The only free payment methods for a seller are cheques, postal orders or a direct bank transfer, but it is my experience that most buyers prefer the convenience of paypal and don't bother as much if they have to post a cheque and wait for it to clear.

Soo

smartie1976 · 12 April 2006 at 12:37PM

Ok, you're stuck with this now I guess.
What you need to remember in future is that paypal will take an amount of money off you for the pleasure of accepting your transaction, and try and cover this in your postage costs next time.
So if you sell something for £1, your paypal fee will actually be about 25p.
(Because paypal takes 20p plus 3.4% or something), so you factor the extra into the postage.
Don't forget to factor in the ebay Listing fee and the Final valuation fee too!!!

Eg sell at £1 MINUS - Listing fee 15p, ebay fee 5p, paypal fee 25p = 55p profit before postage. If postage is actually 32p, you could estimate the extra 40p for the fees (A lot of people do) and you charge them 72p for postage when you list your item.

Most sellers have a flat postage rate anyway.

Contains_Mild_Peril · 12 April 2006 at 10:26PM

Although you can't tick the "I accept Paypal" box if you have only a Personal paypal account, you can specify in your listing that you accept Paypal payments from a Paypal balance or bank account so long as it's not made via a debit card. If you do that, you will still get customers trying to make other Paypal payments sometimes, so it's a bit of a pain.
Bear in mind that with a fee-paying Paypal account, Paypal fees apply to the whole payment received, including p&p.

jackieb · 12 April 2006 at 10:32PM

I've just started selling on eBay too. Why are some payments made by echeque? I thought that the whole point of Paypal was that it would be quick. Now I feel guilty about not posting my item to the winning bidder before the echeque has cleared! It's going to take ages. I will post it as soon as payment has cleared and I know it's not my fault but i still feel bad.

New to ebay, question about a payment

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free