Pay Pal

[bradleyy]

I am new to ebay and have a few things I want to sell and buy. Should I use Pay Pal? How does it work and is it safe?

[johntheplamf]

I use paypal all the time, It's a secure site which deals directly with your bank account(Transferring money to and from your account), and saves having to wait for cheques to clear. If two people are selling the same item, dependant on feedback of course, i would favour the one who offers paypal.

[dodgyshirt]

The main drawback though is if selling,you will have Paypals exorbitant fees to pay on top of Ebay`s selling fees. Do not be tempted into trying to pass these on to the buyer as some sellers do as this is strictly forbidden by Ebay and is reportable. Having said that, I agree with the previous answer that given the choice as a buyer, I would always choose the one offering Paypal as an option for the reasons he mentions.

[MargeB]

It's much safer than a cheque. If you don't use it, on a high value item, it can save the seller a FORTUNE!!!!
It can cut down on fraud, often (and Paypal 'insure' buyer and seller), but it can result in fraud if you send to certain asian countries or to non-verified addresses.
i offer other online payment options as well, its cheaper, and buyers can pay by credit card without an account on these sites.

[MargeB]

just read 'dodgyshirt'.
It's becoming common practice to stick the paypal charge into your post and packing....

[wizard]

Not sure if its been mentioned already but becasue PayPal is an eBay company, when you trade using them you have a certain amount of insurance. If things go sour, eBay will refund your money in full as they have records of what has and hasn't been transferred.

[dodgyshirt]

Just a couple of further comments on subjects brought up by MargeB.
1.At the present time, Paypal will only verify US addresses.
2.Items that have unreasonably high postage charges tend to attract lower bids than similar items that don`t. (swings and roundabouts)
3.Paypal cannot force a bad seller to return monies paid for unsent or faulty items and their insurance does not cover postage or the first �15 of a claim, so for low-value items its of no help.
The following site might be of interest to you:- http://www.paypalsucks.com/

[Oneeyedvic]

I don't believe it is illegal to stick a surcharge (adding 4%) on your end price if you are selling the item in the UK - surcharging for credit cards is illegal in America, so I assume this confusion occurs when people from the US have complained.

If you are selling the items available only to the UK, then charge Paypal fees - if you are looking at selling abroad, you charge any postage rate you want, so you can add the paypal charges into that!

 

I have used Paypal (i'm guessing here) aroung 70 times for both sending and receiving payments - no problems so far (touch wood).

They are also regulated by the FSA (Financial Services Authority) in the UK so there is someone else to complain to if you have problems with them

[dodgyshirt]

We seem to be talking at cross-purposes here due to the use of the word `verify' in relation to addresses as first mentioned by MargeB. In fact Paypal will verify one`s status, but will only confirm addresses of US members which was the point I was trying to make
Regarding the charging of fees to the buyer, this is against Ebay`s rules and if reported by the correct method through this page:http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-surcharges .htmthey do take action over it. Obviously they can do nothing about it if it is not reported to them!
As regards deducting money from a defaulter1s account,how many people keep a credit balance in their Paypal account, I certainly don`t and I have come acrss scams running into thousands of pounds where multiple sales have taken place of non-existant goods over a very short period of time. By the time anyone has realized they have been victims, the perpetrator has cut and run.

[MargeB]

I think the first paragraph in the last dodgyshirt post accurately reflects the situation (Paypal say that they cannot confirm 'most' uk addresses because of the way 'most' card issuers work here).
The paypal procedure for action against a seller is that they need to provide proof of postage to Paypal if the seller says it isn't received. If they don't receive this, they will take the money from your account. If you do it repeatedly they will find you and they will block you from Paypal (effectively thus from ebay). Thankfully ebay's feedback system means that it's not in many sellers interests to run up huge sales, generate high feedback, and then cut and run on one buyer. I keep this in mind when purchasing high value. Which I do very rarely on ebay. LOTS of scammers out there.
Oh yeah, and I think buyer psychology is worth keeping in mind. I think people get *****ed off, no matter what the final cost is, about buyers profitting from the postage charge. To a certain extent, this applies to revealed paypal charges being passed on too, most sellers take the hit, why should buyers work with someone who doesn't play ball?
I think buyers psychologically see post/packing and passed on fees as 'costs without value'.

[dmsjps]

All the previous replies have valid points (I've been trading on eBay and making/receiving PayPal payments for several years) but the thing to bear in mind is that providing no fraud takes place (I have no experience of this, so I can't comment), despite the eBay and PayPal fees, you will still make money on things you were only going to bin or send to the next jumble sale anyway. eBay's quite exciting sometimes, because if you have something a bit different from the norm to sell, it attracts a lot of attention - and if you want something a bit different it's there!

 

I would say go ahead and register, try it on a few smaller value listings to begin with and see what you think. It's a bit daunting registering bank account and credit/debit card details online with a company you don't know, but in this instance you can rest assured that they are a kosher company (PayPal and eBay are sister companies). If you feel uncomfortable using PayPal once you've tried it, you can always delete your details and close your account.

 

Good luck.

[dashpole]

A couple of responses to what has been posted earlier.

Wizard:

Using Paypal doesn't guarantee you to a full refund, only if the item qualifies for 'Paypal Buyer Protection' will you be guaranteed a refund, and then only if certain conditions are met (ie item must be a physical 'thing', so some of the typical scams such as link sellers on phones / ipods would not be covered). If no Paypal buyer protection then they will only refund what they can recover from the sender's account, also you are limited to 3 such disputes a year

 

Many Seller's won't take Paypal these days as the odds are stacked in Buyers favour, in order to be covered in the case of chargebacks then the sale first needs to be eligible for Seller Protection (which you don't know until after you've received the payment), + various other requirements.

 

In general Paypalis fine for Buyers,but as a Seller take Nochex instead you are GUARANTEED you won't lose money to chargebacks + its hell ofalot cheaper

[purplefish]

i wouldn't use paypal, my boyfriend has recently been selling computer games on ebay and getting paid through paypal, the people buying the games asked for the cd keys to be emailed so they could play the game online before they got it, he emailed them and then they reversed the payment, others also claimed their accounts had been hacked into and they hadn't bought the games, so all his money was frozen while they investigated it, he was told a number of times he would get all his money back, but has he? has he f*** not only have they given all the money back to the buyers, they're also charging him the fees, when he phones up and explains hes been told he would get all the money back, they basically say they don't care. if you decide to use paypal i would have a good read of the terms and conditions, but i wouldn't use it.