The corporate greed took over when eBay aquired Pay Pal. My account was
automaticly upgraded to a corporate account so I have to pay the credit card
fee, even if a buyer pays with money in their Pay Pal account. I just sold
an overseas buyer merchandise worth $23.00. Shipping was another $43.00 so
I asked the buyer to pay and additional 3% to cover the fee, which he agreed
to. Pay Pal charged me 5%. I assume this was because there was an
additional currency conversion fee. What really got me was that if I want
them to send me a check there is an additonal two week wait and and
additional $1.50 fee. Of course they will do a direct deposit to your bank
account for free if you give them your account number. I refuse to do this
because if they can direct deposit, they will have access to your account.
I've heard some real horror stories about people who have provided them with
bank account numbers.
I know that eBay paid about $1,000,000,000 to acquire Pay Pal but they
quickly recouped it. When you consider that the 2 1/2 % fee is not just on
the selling price but also the shipping and insurance and that over 50 % of
the items sold on eBay are now paid for with Pay Pal, they are making more
on it than they do on auction commisions.
RMV
