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PayPal raises fees for most domestic transaction types to 3.49% + $0.49

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Re: PayPal raises fees for most domestic transaction types to 3.49% + $0.49

#101

Post by Scoundreller »

dessant wrote: post #7

PayPal is awful for small transactions, I regularily get donations for my projects that are literally 0 USD, because all of it is eaten away by PayPal fees, and even for a 5 USD donation you end up losing around 15% of the transaction amount. Do you know of any other service that is suitable for microtransactions, besides cryptocurrencies?

I doubt it’s a common thing, but if I can send cash in the mail, I just do that. I always have extra stamps and cash is king. Can be zero paperwork for the recipient if they just pocket it (ok by me when it’s a solo project).

Sometimes works out really well if I have spare US$ or EUR sitting around (I’m in Canada).

Maybe some donations get lost or stolen, but zero-fees makes it a net benefit in my mind.

Re: PayPal raises fees for most domestic transaction types to 3.49% + $0.49

#102

Post by tofukid »

I still use PayPal because it has the best global coverage and least friction for consumers. Their new checkout form also seamlessly accepts credit/debit cards and does subscriptions.

Many of my customers are in countries that aren’t supported by Stripe, so it’s not much of a choice from a business perspective.

Re: PayPal raises fees for most domestic transaction types to 3.49% + $0.49

#103

Post by dr_dshiv »

Reason077 wrote: post #98
kolinko wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, in Poland it’s similar. Since ~2001 we’ve had wire transfers that take up to a few hours to arrive (or instant) and cost 0-0.25$ to send, regardless of the amount. It made PayPal or Venmo kind of pointless over here.

People use PayPal, Venmo, Revolut, etc mostly for convenience. You just need a phone number or email to send a payment, compared to a bank/wire transfer where you first need to obtain the account number you’re sending to. All of these services (including PayPal) charge no fees for personal payments. Just to merchants for commercial transactions, which often come with buyer protection, free credit/payment plans for th…

My bank app, ING, lets me send a payment request link as a text, via whatsapp, etc. Which is a nice way of not needing account numbers to send money.

Re: PayPal raises fees for most domestic transaction types to 3.49% + $0.49

#104

Post by doikor »

2ion wrote: post #88
brnt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this, and all that other Silicon Valley financial infra, because direct bank tranfers are (presumably?) not known or difficult or impossible. From my northwestern European perspective, it's weird this straightforward solution that we've had since, well, the fifties? is overlooked.

- direct bank transfer = debit. When you send money using SEPA you have no right at all to charge the money back, as it's always a voluntary authorized transaction. The marchant got you by the balls. - In DE at there are fast "instant" payments called paydirekt or giropay, which make "checkout" using your giro account fast and simply. However, it's debit again. Balls grabbed. - Your checking account usually receives…

About the charge backs if one is mainly shopping from local companies there is really strong consumer protection laws instead.

Basically you can demand a refund and if they don't give it to you it is a really simple process of just sending a bill to that company for your money and initiate bankruptcy process if they fail to pay.

Re: PayPal raises fees for most domestic transaction types to 3.49% + $0.49

#105

Post by hocuspocus »

londons_explore wrote: post #20
brnt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this, and all that other Silicon Valley financial infra, because direct bank tranfers are (presumably?) not known or difficult or impossible. From my northwestern European perspective, it's weird this straightforward solution that we've had since, well, the fifties? is overlooked.

Address books in phones don't store people's Bank details, making it a pain to pay someone. Many people don't have their own bank details memorized either. Being able to send money to someone just knowing their phone number is the real value-add.

> Many people don't have their own bank details memorized either.

In the era of ubiquitous smartphone usage, nobody needs to memorize bank account numbers.

But even 15 years ago I would copy/paste my IBAN into an email.

Re: PayPal raises fees for most domestic transaction types to 3.49% + $0.49

#106

Post by stephen_g »

Reason077 wrote: post #90
dr_dshiv wrote: post #59

When I moved to the Netherlands, I was at first irritated that my credit cards weren't accepted anywhere. But as the debit (maestro) card transactions are often free [1], paying 3%+ to a card service does seem exorbitant. For online payments, the Dutch use the IDEAL system, which is even easier than online credit cards. This also prevents vendor lock-in, like Amazon. And, the banking apps make it super easy to send m…

Merchant fees for both debit and credit cards are significantly lower in all EU countries (and UK), compared to the US, thanks to the interchange fee regulation (IFR) that caps interchange fees at 0.2% for debit card and 0.3% for credit cards. This translates into much lower merchant fees. Even a tiny startup with zero transaction volume can easily get less than 2% on their physical card transactions (using something…

Interesting. In Australia you can charge a surcharge, but only what the interchange fee cost you. So airlines especially used to charge large fees, like $12 or something, and now can only charge a few dollars.

Re: PayPal raises fees for most domestic transaction types to 3.49% + $0.49

#107

Post by stephen_g »

Reason077 wrote: post #98
kolinko wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, in Poland it’s similar. Since ~2001 we’ve had wire transfers that take up to a few hours to arrive (or instant) and cost 0-0.25$ to send, regardless of the amount. It made PayPal or Venmo kind of pointless over here.

People use PayPal, Venmo, Revolut, etc mostly for convenience. You just need a phone number or email to send a payment, compared to a bank/wire transfer where you first need to obtain the account number you’re sending to. All of these services (including PayPal) charge no fees for personal payments. Just to merchants for commercial transactions, which often come with buyer protection, free credit/payment plans for th…

Yeah, the banking regulator and the banking industry alliance added that as a feature with the New Payments Platform in Australia. You register a ‘PayID’ with your bank (can be a phone number, email address, company number etc.) and then you just share that with people to do free real-time transfers (between basically any Australian banks).

Re: PayPal raises fees for most domestic transaction types to 3.49% + $0.49

#108

Post by patentatt »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #99
tinus_hn wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with iDeal is that there is 0 consumer protection. If you pay for an order using a credit card and it’s a scam, you do a chargeback. If you pay for an order using iDeal and it’s a scam, the money is gone the moment you pay. There is no way to get the money back.

I love how Americans are totally fine with paying a tax on every transaction they make in order to protect random people from occurrences of financial fraud, yet are vehemently opposed to exactly the same system for healthcare. I mean, rationally you would expect the opposite: people typically don't do $10k+ transactions using credit cards, so a worst case consequence of fraud you're not protected from is quite small…

Oh, you’re giving us Americans too much credit, credit card fraud happens all the time. It’s like a constant thing you have to watch out for, and I’d estimate happens once every couple of years for most people. Either straight up fraud and theft, or just a recurring charge that will not stop no matter what. So the system is super broken and relevant to individuals, which is why people accept all the fees maybe. It’s not a sign that Americans are ok with a communal approach to anything, we’re just as selfish as always with this one. Sometimes it does feel like a third world country.

Re: PayPal raises fees for most domestic transaction types to 3.49% + $0.49

#109

Post by damsta »

PayPal is awful and I am not talking about the fee. The developer experience is so disgusting. Their developer portal is completely useless, it does not show any data. They have 5 different documentation pages about one thing, each one is more outdated than the other. If you want to onboard merchants on your platform you will have no way of seeing the connected accounts. Their button that you can integrate on your website is super heavy, it wastes so much data just to show the div, do not try to click on it if you do not want to lose a few megs of data.

Re: PayPal raises fees for most domestic transaction types to 3.49% + $0.49

#110

Post by tjpnz »

Tried to send some money using a long dormant account, after logging in and updating my password some automated process kicked in and froze my account. Never bothered to do anything about it because there are now more dependable and hassle free options. I was relieved to not have anything in my account. I'm even more relieved I'll never have to use their product again.
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