Paypal levying £3 charge on some payments

davidkentman

I now see several £3 charges (and interest) on my (RBoS) credit card statement in respect of donations made to charities through Paypal (PP). On querying this, I was told by the RBoS that PP began levying this charge, treating payments to charities as a cash transaction, in February.
However, when I telephoned PP,  they firmly denied it, and I see no mention of this on my PP transaction summary.

Has anyone else had this £3 charge made?

p00hsticks

I donlt beleive it's actually Paypal levying the charges,  it's RBS - as listed here, they apply a minimum charge of £3 for 'cash advances' plus interest. 
Credit Card fees and charges | Royal Bank of Scotland (rbs.co.uk)

What may have prompted the change though, is Paypal changing the MCC Merchant code whcih it reports to the credit card issuer to one that indicates that it should be treated as a cash transaction rather than something else - whether that is correct or not for a donation to charity and what else it could/should be categorised as I couldn't say. 

davidkentman

Many thanks. Is it only RBS making such a charge? I wondered if I could escape this if I changed the card I use on PayPal?

cymruchris

davidkentman said:

Many thanks. Is it only RBS making such a charge? I wondered if I could escape this if I changed the card I use on PayPal?

With charities you're giving them cash to do what they need to do - so it's possible you'll get hit by other 'credit' cards as it's a cash transaction. Depending on the value of your contributions - it might be better to have them taken from a debit card where no fee will be charged. If you're not comfortable about using your main debit card - set up a secondary account, such as a Monzo account, put a limited amount of funding in it, and have them debit from there.

born_again

Are they being sent as Friends & Family payments? 

HillStreetBlues

I would be making a complaint.

https://www.rbs.co.uk/credit-cards/existing-customers/fees-and-charges.html


You never received any cash, any credit or paid off a debt.

So with their own terminology it does not fit as a "cash" transaction.

davidkentman

Many thanks.

The problem is that RBoS are shifting *all* the blame on to PayPal who deny any responsibility. I have telephoned both with no success. RBoS are insisting that my payments to various charities constitute a cash payment and insist Paypal are treating them as such. PayPal on the other hand seem baffled by this. RBoS told me Paypal started doing this in February, but again, PayPal deny this, and there's nothing on the internet about this alleged new condition this either.

I have today added a bank account (with a debit card) to my Paypal account and now have to wait for PayPal to make a 1p payment (in the next two days) into it which will include a code that I have to give to PayPal to prove it's my account;. PHEW!!!

davidkentman

Are they being sent as Friends & Family payments? 

Yes they were. I wondered whether that triggered the charge: RBoS implied it did but PayPal denied it.

p00hsticks

davidkentman said:

Many thanks. Is it only RBS making such a charge? I wondered if I could escape this if I changed the card I use on PayPal?

From my time working in card processing (admittedly a couple of decades ago now), both Visa and Mastercard rules say to charge interest from day 1 on credit card transactions deemed to be 'cash advances' - I'm not sure about charging a fee for the transaction.

I seem to recall these included not only withdrawals from ATMs but also certain 'pseudo-cash' transactions such as exchanging currencies in foreign exchange bureaus and also placing bets on gambling sites. As per my previous post, whether a transaction is included will depend on the MCC (Merchant category Code) assigned to the merchant by the card issuer.  
Merchant category code - Wikipedia

Paypal wasn't much used them, but I could understand how making monetary donations to charities could be considered a similar type of transaction and incur similar charges. 

Debit cards won't incur the same charges.

Gerry1

Seems a bit of a scam to include mobile phone top ups.  You're not receiving a cash equivalent, you're just paying for phone calls in advance.

davidkentman

Firstly, many thanks for the help here. Much appreciated.

Well, I got the Paypal code on my bank account so I was able to register it, and it's now included on my Paypal account: and I will use this from hereon rather than the RBoS credit card.
I've always had a positive opinion of RBoS, but this is now changed with being told it was Paypal making the charges when it clearly was not. I was even told Paypal had started making this charge in February, and yet I couldn't understand why I couldn't find any mention of this anywhere on the internet.

Very unsatisfactory service...