Question About Paypal And Fees

[Username Hidden]

What is the easiest way to do a paypal transaction between two people, and what way will incur the least amount of fees? I've seen people on this forum request a "gift" payment through paypal. What are the advantages of doing this rather than setting it up as a sale/ transfer of goods??

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Username Hidden]

A gift will avoid fees in most cases, but if there is an issue with the transaction the buyer isn't given any form of protection.

I do believe Paypal gives you a certain number of transactions per year fee-free, but I don't know if they've done away with that for a more sinister policy.

 

[Username Hidden]

Most people here are trustworthy, however if you don't trust or had any business with other party, ill dish out the fee's for the protection. I believe its a 3%

 

[Username Hidden]

If you do enough gift transactions PayPal will flag you and lock your account for 30 days. Ask me how I know.

I do hundreds of transactions with my PayPal account yearly and when they saw I wasn't paying fees they took notice. So be warned, that's why I always ask for the 3% now.

As a buyer you also get no protection on a gift transaction, so God forbid you get ripped off or the package gets lost along the way, there's no way to get your money back and the seller doesn't have to refund you.

 

[Username Hidden]

anyone one exactly how many transactions before they lock you out for 30 days? ive been doing some transactions lately so i wouldnt want that to happen.
also do they send you an email with a warning or something? or just lock yo out completely?

 

[Username Hidden]

afaik, there's no specific # of transactions before you get your account locked. i would guess that frequency has something to do with it. i got a warning last year when i sold a lot of stuff on another board and received all payment via gift. i still use the gift option from time to time when the amount is small or i trust the person i'm sending the money too. another tip is that leave the message box blank. some people when sending you payments via gift would put their shipping info on that message box and that's an easy red flag for paypal for you to get audited.

 

[Username Hidden]

yup, i knw about the message box, or put in something like good luck on the move, so it looks like your helping your friend or something who lives far away

 

[Username Hidden]

another option is to just send it in as payment owed instead of gift.

 

[Username Hidden]

another option is to just send it in as payment owed instead of gift.

will they take the fees too? or does this option work like the gift option?

 

[Username Hidden]

will they take the fees too? or does this option work like the gift option?

No fees too, same as gift but just in case you get audited, you can contest it and say that you're just sending money to someone you owe it too. Just don't use it all the time like the gift option.