Ebay & Paypal Fees Are These Legal

thejewster

Hi

I have a computer business and also an ebay & Paypal account. I am concerned about the fees they charge. When you list an item on ebay they charge you, then when it is sold, they charge you, then when payment is made by paypal (which is ebay owned), they charge you, then when you transfer the money from paypal, the bank charge you. How the hell are you supposed to make a living in this country. I sold a games console for £200 and paypal charged me £7 for the money going into my paypal account. This seems an awful lot of money to charge for an electronic transfer. I wondered if someone from Moneysavingexpert had looked into the ebay & paypal fees and if not could they.

What do you guys out there think.

Cheers

Julian

custardy

they charge a fee for the services provided.
while they maybe high you get the benifit of a high audience.
sites like ebid are cheaper but you generally get lower sales volume/prices

soolin

Unortunately if you use a service then you need to pay for it. Yes I'm sure many of us would like lower fees but it is all to do with supply and demand and whilst ebay and paypal are so popular they can ask what they like and we have the choice to use the service or not.

As custardy has said there are other sites and there is a sticky thread at the top of this forum with some suggestions in the first post for other online marketplaces. If you are a trader you might also want to look into your own payment portal so you can take credit and debit cards direct rather than go through paypal, this is allowed BTW. However, that service is likely to make paypal look super cheap by comparison.

jarrod1

i dont agree with the high fees, there are alternatives to paypal but most people prefer to pay via paypal as it is much faster.
My last bill from ebay was £223 and that eats right into my profit, but i still use it as i dont know anywhere else that i can reach such a large amount of people around the world.
I have used amazon in the past but i find that ebay is much easier and user friendly.

jarrod1

ts_aly2000 wrote: »

HMost of the things on eBay you can buy in the high street anyway and have a face to face point of contact.

The high street is slowly catching up. Some things on eBay are even more expensive.

About 1/3 of the items i sell on ebay i buy from the high street and resell with good profit !!

Not everyone lives in or near a town and has access to a shopping centre.

soolin

yep I often buy from easily available places and resell on ebay as well. Also, i thought the figures show that after a slight downturn in 2006 sales and users were actually up on ebay, not down?

miketaylor

Don't use paypal then.

Skirt round ebay fees by using your own image hosting, and using HTML.

There are ways but you will always pay something. On my items (I'm a powerseller) I end up paying nearly 10% and they only sell for £20! Thats £2 profit gone - almost half the profit I would get without fees!

aeuerby

thejewster wrote: »

Hi

then when you transfer the money from paypal, the bank charge you.

Julian

If your bank is charging you to receive paypal money you need to find another bank. I use 2 bank accounts with paypal and never charged a fee to receive a paypal payment.

If you mean paypal charge you to withdraw money then yes they do but only if you withdraw under £50. Higher than that it's "free".

thejewster

Hi

TS and Jarrod I agree. As to the ebay fees, I can understand that it is a big marketplace and you have to pay for it but I still cant understand the fees that paypal charge for electronic transfers which is 3.4% + £0.20 This has got to be overcharging people.

miketaylor

Also on the subject of reselling stuff you can get from the high street, careful or at least informed looking at sites such as this and HUKD can lead to big resale opertunities.

aeuerby

Have you actually looked into how much a merchant account is?
With those you can have any or all of the following fees.

Set up fees, monthly fees and per card fees.

When you add them all up paypal is not that much if at all more expensive.