Paypal, who pays their fee, us or renter?

[Mountain Goat]

Musetta - maybe an airline thing? A couple of months ago I was charged extra by Blue-something Airlines out of JFK when using a credit card.

Credit card = gives you credit
Charge card = pay on receiving their statement (most flavours of Amex, NatWest Gold and siblings).

MG

[Musetta]

thanks for the explanation

don't get me started on airlines (!) I'm sure if there's a way for all the US carriers to charge extra for different payment methods, they will do so everyone seems to be going alla RyanAir lately to try and cut costs.

anyway...I don't like it...so I'm not going to do it to someone - will just build it into the rate (but I do understand those who are tyring to be competitive and not do so)

[harcourtv57]

We ask those who choose to pay via Paypal to pay the fees - this is because just like others who have posted above, we offer several ways of paying. And if you book any holiday and pay by credit card there is an extra charge - we recently booked flights to Mallorca, paid by card and were charged for using a credit card. My bugbear is the amounts banks charge for international transfers - both the customer and ourselves are charged for this and surely in this electronic age it can't be any more complicated for the bank than a internal transfer?! If we return the £100 security deposit via bank transfer, which I am about to do today to some German guests, we lose £20 - £28 each time. However, if Paypal was our only payment option I would absorb the costs.

[Hells Bells]

If you use Paypal, it doesn't cost you anything to refund the guest, as PP refund the fees you were originally charged. Even if you don't offer it as a method pf payment, it may be something to consider as a method of receiving your damage deposit.

[harcourtv57]

Thanks Helen - I discovered this recently thanks to another thread on this forum - and am now using this method for the security deposit for international guests which is brilliant - however, these guests booked and paid many months ago so it was too late for me to use Paypal in this case. We have a so called business account, but banks are just not sympathetic to small businesses - they didn't want to give us a decent overdraft, charged us for going overdrawn when they can see from the account that the money going in is variable (the next day I paid in over £1000 in rental cheques received), charge for every cheque paid in and every transaction - it would actually be cheaper for us to run it as a personal current account, but I think that the customers like to see the business name on the account and write cheques to Harcourt Homes, rather than an individual. Sorry, got off the subject!

[Nightowl]

Tiny teeny thing to be aware of in Paypal - I recently refunded a security deposit which was only taken about 2 weeks ago and the guests came back and queried it, saying they paid more than I refunded.

I'm assuming it's to do with the euro /sterling exchange rates which have gone a bit mad recently...

[Hells Bells]

Thanks for the tip off Nightowl, I will look into it before I refund again, but I suppose that could be the case with any transaction refund which crosses borders.

[Hells Bells]

Just sent myself some money to my French Paypal account (long story) using my English one. I have done this before using echeck, but this time made a personal payment which attracted no fees (YES, NO FEES) at either end. Exchange rate was 1.2257, not the best, but no bank fees. I haven't noticed this option before.

[Mountain Goat]

Rough calculations show that using PayPal it would be cheaper than our UK bank (£25 a kick) to make a transfer up to a £1000 Sterling, which could be really useful. And, of course, avoiding the hassle of having to go to our UK bank in person.

Looks like I'll have to set up an Swiss eBay account....thanks, Helen.

Is it an instant payment or does it take 3-4 days?

MG

[Hells Bells]

Mg, it was an instant payment. I was quite shocked when I wasn't charged any fees in my French account

[Mountain Goat]

I was quite shocked when I wasn't charged any fees in my French account

Mmm, well, don't make a fuss, it may spoil it!

Actually it could be even more than a grand, as I was looking at the mid-rate on xe.com which the bank wouldn't match.

But downside is that the transfer from UK bank to UK PayPal and then Swiss PayPal to Swiss bank would be at least 6 days (we don't keep much in PayPal routinely)?

MG

[Hells Bells]

I transferred some money to France from my PP account on the 18th, it was in my account yesterday.

[Mountain Goat]

So around 3 - 4 days, as I thought, for each bank transfer. I would have to add another 3-4 days to get it into PayPal, but that has to be worth the saving. I'll try and get a Swiss PP in action and report.

MG

[Hells Bells]

But the payment from your UK PP account to your French PP account is instant, so a total of three days.

[Nightowl]

yes, paypal have changed some of their terms and if you send money you can mark it 'personal' and I think the way it works is that there are no fees the other end. I haven't quite got my head around how this can be used to our advantage in receiving money - presumably we should just ask people to send it to us at our email address, marked 'personal'.

But it would therefore only be available to people who already have a paypal account I imagine.

I tend to invoice guests so that all they need to do is to click on the link and pay - so those without a paypal account can use a credit card or whatever. When using that method I pay fees to receive the money. Although if they use the e-cheque option it is cheaper to receive it. I don't think people paying a paypal invoice raised by me can mark it as a 'personal' payment so invoices always incur fees.

I'm not sure if paypal would pick up on a lot of receipts from different people marked 'personal' and decide that it wasn't allowed or not.

When I invoice guests, I point out that paypal fees are 4% of the amount recieved and I charge them 2% separately which is marked 'contribution towards paypal fees' (this is pointed out way advance on the booking form and I give them other options to pay - ie bank transfer into a euro or UK account as well). I also say that if they use echeque I will refund the 2% charged because I will then only be charged £4.50 which I can easily absorb.

so as many of them do choose paypal and know in advance that I will ask them to share the fees, no one has queried it in the event and all who use paypal seem to stump up. I think a lot of people accept that there are charges everywhere to transfer money these days.

I do now insist on using paypal for security deposits though, because it doesn't incur fees on the refunds. Previously it was costing me £20-£30 to return a £100 security deposit to a foreign account. ouch.