Paypals fees when buyer sends payment. How much are they ? 1 August 2022 at 5:28PM edited 2 August 2022 at 9:55PM in Ebay, auctions, car boot sales, post & parcels 4 replies 82 views

TOP_CAT

Im selling a item via gumtree which will be sent via royal mail the buyer wants to use paypal  after being told  payment is by bank transfer, the text pingpong has taken a week so far just to get to this point .
Which is abnormal 

I said pay by bank transfer or they could use paypal friends and family as it has no fees .

If they pay via paypal making a private purchase what is the fee and percentage used to calculate the total fees ?

Spoonie_Turtle

Goods and Services has protection for you as the seller, as well as the buyer.  Last I checked the fee was 2.9% + 30p.

(If they use friends and family, no fees but no protection for either of you.  They can reverse the transaction and you'd be left high and dry.)

TOP_CAT

Could you explain the reversed transaction senario ?

Spoonie_Turtle

TOP_CAT said:

Could you explain the reversed transaction senario ?

I've never quite been 100% sure (soolin might know more) but as far as I understand they can claim unauthorised activity and have it refunded.  PayPal seller protection says it covers such a scenario as long as you have proof of postage.
https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/seller-protection

soolin

TOP_CAT said:

Could you explain the reversed transaction senario ?

It’s a very rare scam but we have had an instance on here and I’ve seen it on other sites. Buyer goes to bank and claims they didn’t make the transaction and PayPal must have been hacked (or some similar excuse) bank recall the money from PayPal and PayPal recall it from seller. Obviously this can happen regardless of whether payment was made for G and S or as F and F . The difference is seller is protected with g and s as long as they can show item was posted within 7 days to the address given by PayPal - I’ve had several g and s claims over the years and have won every single one with proof of postage. For a f and f payment seller has no protection as there is no address given , so seller not only loses money but pays £14 for the privilege of PayPal dealing with the claim. As I said a claim for fraudulent use is very rare, and even rarer on a f and f payment , although last year there was a whole series of threads in different forums of this happening.

Also asking for a f and f payment or a bank transfer is often seen as the mark of a scammer and on virtually every group and forum I sell on it is not allowed (although buyers can offer and many do) . So just be cautious if asking for these payment methods. One last point is that if something gets lost then I would hope any genuine selelr wouldn’t care how buyer paid and would be looking to refund even without the threat of a case being opened. 

However , I would reiterate it is not a common scam.