Just Received Notice Of Updates To Paypal Policies

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/m...?locale.x=en

I have not used PayPal as a seller, only as a buyer. Sometimes I use PayPal to make payments, other times I pay directly with a credit card. Doesn't make any difference to me w/r to cost, but I'm wondering whether there are other reasons why I should prefer or avoid using PayPal as a buyer when there is a choice.

Also, although many of these policy updates involve increases in fees which are never good for sellers, do those of you who sell regard these policy revisions as a whole to be particularly onerous?

In summary - for sellers, fees are going up if you use Paypal and receive payments from buyers outside of the U.S. Also you cannot tell buyers that you prefer payment in some other form if you accept PayPal. Updates tend to be dreaded, especially updates from ebay.

From the new PayPal update -

We are adding a non-discouragement clause for sellers that provides:
In representations to your customers or in public communications, you agree not to mischaracterize PayPal as a payment method. At all of your points of sale (in whatever form), you agree not to try to dissuade or inhibit your customers from using PayPal; and, if you enable your customers to pay you with PayPal, you agree to treat PayPal's payment mark at least at par with other payment methods offered.
We are changing the standard transaction fee for sellers selling goods or services online to buyers outside the U.S. from 3.9% to 4.4% plus the existing fixed fee based on the currency.
We are changing the standard transaction fee for in store transactions received from buyers outside the U.S. from 3.7% to 4.2%.

The one thing I did 8 years ago was get the PayPal Debit Card. I have no other cards that pay a rebate and PayPal pays 1% on all your purchases at the end of the month(actually about the 4th of the next month). It's tied to my checking account so it's a no-brainer to use.

Not all, only non-PIN transactions.

True. My fault for not specifying charge purchases. Which gets annoying at a few places like Walmart that will only accept it as a debit card below $50 I believe.

And you can even pay your ebay selling fees with the PayPal debit card and get 1% back on your ebay fees.

As a buyer I thought that using Paypal hides your actual card details from the seller. This is a major plus as far as I am comcerned I do not like having my valid card details spread all over the world with sellers that I may not have dealt with before and trusting nothing untoward happens to them.

AQ

I thought accepting Paypal was a necessary condition to sell on ebay, but I had one seller who wouldn't accept it and accused me of non-payment. It was not an awful lot of money, so I sent him a check. That settled it, but I am now more careful.

Don

I don't give my credit card to random sellers on ebay or elsewhere. I have dealt directly with a few large reputable firms, stampwise and otherwise, that also happen to accept PayPal

Eric Jackson, probably the biggest dealer in U.S revenue stamps and a major, long-time ebay seller, has never accepted Paypal. So I guess there is an option, at least for some sellers.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/acce...html#options

One must accept either Paypal, Credit Cards via a "payment gateway account" and/or "payment on pickup". This is for ebay.com, ebay sites in some other countries allow other forms of payment, such as bank transfer.

Non use of PayPal does have it's problems/consequences. Just look at Eric's negative feedback.

At the rate of increases between ebay & paypal in the long run they will put us sellers out of business. They already chew up a lot of my profits. Now we know why ebay and paypal split into two companies, so they could charge more fees. Its getting harder and harder to sell with high fees. Not happy!