Anyone have any words of wisdom when using Paypal on your website to accept payments?

I noticed they charge a rate of 1.9 - 2.9% +.30 for each transaction.

Thoughts? Advise?

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Mary Lou Locke
Lock-in Success with Locke Virtual Assistance
www.LockeSolutions.com:

I don't accept Paypal; the fees are too high. I accept cheque or Interac money transfer. I am going to speak to the Business Manager at the bank next week to see about getting set up for people to pay me through their internet banking.

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Julia

PayPal rates are pretty darn high, it's true. It's just so universally accessible ....

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

Hi Mary,

I'm responding to a question you posted on my website review thread about paypal:

"Is that supposed to link directly to a screen that shows your account information... I tried to click on the button to see where it goes and it didn't allow me to do anything."

I didn't link the PayPal logo to anything, it's basically just a logo to let potential clients know that I accept payments through PayPal. When I invoice my clients via email, they are able to click on a PayPal button in the email to be sent to the PayPal site to pay for the services. This solution seems to work well for me at this stage.

I agree with asthemoonclimbs, they are high, but it's accepted by everyone who uses their service.

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Perfecting Assistance Services
www.perfectingassistance.com
Allowing you time to PERFECT your Business!

I don't use Paypal yet (and may never), but I've been reading a lot of horror stories lately about chargebacks and the account being locked. It might be something to look into.

Pat Z.

I've used PayPal for years and have never had a problem with one of my clients. However, I had a problem with an ebay transaction. I was selling a GPS system for a friend and the guy who purchased it tried to swindle us. He bought the system for $600 and then said he paid $500 to have it installed and then it didn't work (which was BS), he filed a complaint with ebay and tried to get his money back. They locked my account and charged $600 back to my account. We sent ebay all the information about the transaction and PayPal decided that the guy should send the equipment back and his money be refunded. The guy never responded so they denied his claim, took my account off hold and removed the $600 chargeback, but I still had collections people calling me. I called PayPal and they said the account was in good standing but when they initially charged the $600 to my account the account balance was $0 which caused a negative $600 on my account, which automatically gets sent to collections. When the collection people called back I explained the situation to them and told them to call PayPal to update their information and that was the end of it. The whole thing took over 2 months which was irritating because I couldn't use the account during that time.

It's kind of irritating that someone could do that, but I guess they could do the same thing with a credit card chargeback or even a check if they cancelled the check. So, I don't think PayPal is any less secure than anything else.

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services

Wow Rebecka, that really must have been aggravating!

I have another question in regards to PayPal. How do you compensate or account for the fees incurred when it comes to accepting payments from clients? Meaning if you charged, for example, a client $10, they pay via PayPal, so PayPal takes their fee of, let's say, $5..., now the total amount you receive is $5. How do you compensate for that? Do you charge a PayPal fee to your client to cover those fees or do you chalk it up as an expense?

I am sure this can be handled many ways. I am curious how those that do accept PayPal handle this situation?

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Darlene Victoria Gonzalez
The Voice & Vision Behind Your Business

I do not charge my client for the fees. I just consider it a cost of doing business. It is standard practice for the supplier to pay for these charges. Anytime you use a credit or debit card the company who accepts it gets charged a fee, the company pays for that not the customer. Have you ever used your credit card or debit card at Wal-Mart and seen 2% tacked onto it because you used a card? No, and if you did you would probably be pissed, I would be. Obviously you are still paying for it, its just not apparent because it is figured into their prices.

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services

I have used PayPal and found it to be a great process. You can send an invoice with the PayPal link and the client pays from that.
As far as the fees, I believe they can be written off as a business expense. I would ask your accountant to confirm if this is fact.
If you are invoicing $10.00 through PayPal the fee would be about 60 cents. If you figure this is the way you will bill all your invoices you can estimate for the year and then factor that in when you are figuring out your rate.

Debbie

We passed Paypal fees on to the client because we were billing at crazy-low rates at the time - now that we've had a chance to rectify that side of the equation we are phasing out the Paypal fees - I agree that if it can be worked into the rate it should be but like the rest of you we had our own learning curve This happened to be one of them.

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