Paypal levying £3 charge on some payments

born_again

davidkentman said:

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.

In which case it is a cash transaction. You can not buy good using this method. Only send in effect case to the other party.

Charge is triggered by the catsic code used by PayPal.

km1500

It is not just RBoS

If paypal report the transaction as 'cash' and the linked card is a credit card then your  card will treat it as a cash advance and you will pay accordingly

Exactly, I suppose, like if you used a credit card to make a donation to a charity collecting in the street

Nebulous2

I've a Barclaycard and have linked it to PayPal. I occasionally make a donation if one of my friends is fundraising online, generally through something like justgiving. 

I've always been surprised I don't get charged. I even get cashback on the payment. 

WillPS

The £3 charge relates to RBS, who are charging it because PayPal are sending a different Merchant Category Code (MCC) to Mastercard when processing Friends & Family transactions; meaning RBS treat it as a Cash Advance now and didn't before.

username

Gerry1 said:

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.

It certainly feels like a bit of swizz - I wonder how unevenly enforced it will be?

Presumably this is topups made via the automated phone line or something.

If it's done in a phone shop then how will the credit card company know it is a topup, unless they're all very advanced and the POS can use a different MCC when processing it? But I suspect it will go as electronic goods or whatever the store's main MCC is.

blue.peter

Alternatively, you might consider making your donations directly from the credit card, and not via PayPal. I've often made such charity donations that way, and never (yet) been stiffed for cash advance charges. (Admittedly, I've never had a NatWest or RBS credit card.)

molerat

davidkentman said:
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...

Likely a misunderstanding in terminology.  It will not be Paypal making the charge but a change in Paypal procedures that causes the charge.