Who is responsible for PayPal fee?

WhyTheFace

Hi,

I am renting my apt to somebody for a two week stay. The person requested to pay by PayPal. He also requested I draw up a basic contract which we both signed.

He wired the money which was €1,100 in total including deposit. PayPal however deducted a fee of €50.

Seeing as he chose to use PayPal (he said bank transfer was hassle) is he responsible to pay fee or do I absorb the cost?

Thanks in advance

Peregrinus

We don't know. It depends on what was said when you agreed to accept the paypal transfer in settlement. If you organised this through a third-party agency or website, there may be standard terms which address this.

punisher5112

Why not say I'll take the hit on half.

In future write this up in your terms.

50 isn't a whole lot when you have the rest.

WhyTheFace

punisher5112 wrote: »

Why not say I'll take the hit on half.

In future write this up in your terms.

50 isn't a whole lot when you have the rest.

That's what I was thinking, split it as a goodwill gesture.

CIARAN_BOYLE

From my point of view you agreed €1100, he should be responsible for ensuring you get €1100.

He may have sent €1100 but he chose a method whereby you only received €1050.

Make sure you contract mentions that you need to receive €1100 next time.

kupus

on something like this have clear evidence that he paid in full and also issue him with a bill from paypal. and keep a record of all transactions.
It is very easy for him to do a chargeback and you will find yourself out of pocket in a few weeks time.
so just be careful thats all.

Stone Deaf 4evr

kupus wrote: »

on something like this have clear evidence that he paid in full and also issue him with a bill from paypal. and keep a record of all transactions.
It is very easy for him to do a chargeback and you will find yourself out of pocket in a few weeks time.
so just be careful thats all.

you can also ask that they pay you via paypal as 'transfer money to a friend'

Chargebacks cant be done on that, and the cost of the money trasfer is applied to the person who is sending the money.

WhyTheFace

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

you can also ask that they pay you via paypal as 'transfer money to a friend'

Chargebacks cant be done on that, and the cost of the money trasfer is applied to the person who is sending the money.

Never knew that! Thanks a million.

Wabbit Ears

Anyone who agrees to pay using the transfer to a friend option is a fool. Its a really well known scamimg metbod as you cant get your money back. Asking anyone to use that option identifies you as a complete chancer.

Its also well understood by folk that regularly use paypal that the seller pays the paypal fees. Its considered really bad form to ask for aditional money to cover the costs and usually people who accept paypal have the costs built in.

So basically the person who sent you the money acted in the normal fashion and its really not cool to go back chasing paypal fees, it shows you dont know what youre doing when it comes to an extremely widly used and established method of payment.

Paypal will not take your side on this and few people who use paypal would agree to your requests for additional money to cover your costs.

TheChizler

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

From my point of view you agreed €1100, he should be responsible for ensuring you get €1100.

He may have sent €1100 but he chose a method whereby you only received €1050.

Make sure you contract mentions that you need to receive €1100 next time.

He did ensure he got €1100, it got as far as the OP's Paypal account and then Paypal billed the OP for €50. Similar to a bank who charge you for processing incoming payments or cheques, only the fees are bigger.

Unfortunately in my opinion that when they (the OP) agreed to Paypal without any discussion of additional charges, or requesting that they use the friends and family facility, they were automatically liable for any fee Paypal charged them.

OP if you refund the other person and get them to redo it via friends and family (this should be free for them if the money is already in their Paypal account) you should be refunded the fee and only be liable for a much smaller processing fee. Friends and family in this case might be against Paypal Ts&Cs though.

redbel05

PayPal's T's & C's changed recently, in that you now cannot penalise buyers paying through PayPal over other payment methods.

Fees are something that definitely should be thought about before you get to this stage in the transaction, but chalk it up to experience for next time. Friends + family payment is not really supposed to be used for this type of transaction.

Your options for the future are:
1.)If you plan on giving the option of using Paypal, add the fees into the overall price for everybody, just in case.

2.) Take the hit for the fees yourself.

3.) Flat out refuse to use Paypal (What I probably would have done in this case... You obviously were a bit blindsided by their request to use Paypal, and I do feel that its unfair that you had to lose €50, just because they couldn't be bothered going down to the bank...)

WhyTheFace

Great to see two sides of the argument.

I might suggest we split it and if he says no then I'll chalk it down and learn from my lack of experience and take the hit.

Lesson learnt

NinjaTruncs

redbel05 wrote: »

3.) Flat out refuse to use Paypal (What I probably would have done in this case... You obviously were a bit blindsided by their request to use Paypal, and I do feel that its unfair that you had to lose €50, just because they couldn't be bothered going down to the bank...)

It may not be a simple as that, if the other person's account isn't in Euro they may not be able to make a Euro transfer and as such Paypal is the easier option.

WhyTheFace

NinjaTruncs wrote: »

It may not be a simple as that, if the other person's account isn't in Euro they may not be able to make a Euro transfer and as such Paypal is the easier option.

He would just transfer an equivalent amount of dollars to me if he went to the bank I would think.

CIARAN_BOYLE

WhyTheFace wrote: »

He would just transfer an equivalent amount of dollars to me if he went to the bank I would think.

That would also have fees, a lot of banks charge for doing a different currency transfer and he may not know what the charges are.

rock22

WhyTheFace wrote: »

Great to see two sides of the argument.

I might suggest we split it and if he says no then I'll chalk it down and learn from my lack of experience and take the hit.

Lesson learnt

I can't believe you would do this after getting paid in full.
Your customer is not responsible for your banking or paypal fees. If i received a request like this i would report to paypal.

listermint

Ehhhh it appears a number of you can't read. The person requested to use PayPal. Not the seller.

3DataModem

Be careful accepting PayPal for rent. Easy to chargeback.

Thoie

WhyTheFace wrote: »

Great to see two sides of the argument.

I might suggest we split it and if he says no then I'll chalk it down and learn from my lack of experience and take the hit.

Lesson learnt

If you split it, and he gives you another €25 via paypal, will paypal take another fiver of that? Or some amount?

NinjaTruncs

Thoie wrote: »

If you split it, and he gives you another €25 via paypal, will paypal take another fiver of that? Or some amount?

Sure they can split that fee too...

kupus

Bitcoin maybe? I am seriously thinking of doing that next year for my property. However it's up and down so by the end of the summer it may be worthless

Johnboy1951

I suggest you take the hit this time.

If you get a request to use PayPal in future refuse to use it, thus avoiding fees and the possibility of a charge-back.

TheChizler

listermint wrote: »

Ehhhh it appears a number of you can't read. The person requested to use PayPal. Not the seller.

And the OP by accepting the request was responsible for the fees unfortunately. It may sound harsh but they should have said no.