hotrod180
FRIEND
Port Townsend, WA
Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up about what happened to me recently.
I bought something from a guy on here --
we settled on a price of $700, and I paid him with paypal using my credit card.
It was a "sending a friend money" transaction, which I think used to be free,
but Paypal nicked me a $20 service fee & I was OK with that.
However, when I got my credit card statement,
the bank had hit me with a $36 cash advance fee, plus almost $9 interest!!
WTF?? I've sent other people money via paypal not too long ago, but wasn't charged a bank fee.
So I called the credit card outfit up, they said it's paypal's new policy to consider that kind of transaction a cash advance.
It's also the policy of another similar service, Venmo.
I guess they avoid paying a fee themselves that way.
There was a pop-up when I did the paypal thing which referenced possible bank fees,
but like a lot of people I figured it was just a boilerplate disclaimer so I just checked OK and finished paying.
I poked around on the paypal site a bit--
If you are "paying for goods or services" there is a 2.9% fee charged to the seller,
but I think that is considered a purchase not a cash advance so no bank fees later.
BTW the $20 (actually 20.80) service fee I paid to paypal works out to about 2.9%.
So the moral of the story is that if you want to pay someone or get paid online,
you should do a little research to avoid an unpleasant surprise later.
Paypal is so convenient & such a time saver, I hope I don't have to go back to mailing people checks,
but I'm not paying those exorbitant fees again if I can help it.
I bought something from a guy on here --
we settled on a price of $700, and I paid him with paypal using my credit card.
It was a "sending a friend money" transaction, which I think used to be free,
but Paypal nicked me a $20 service fee & I was OK with that.
However, when I got my credit card statement,
the bank had hit me with a $36 cash advance fee, plus almost $9 interest!!
WTF?? I've sent other people money via paypal not too long ago, but wasn't charged a bank fee.
So I called the credit card outfit up, they said it's paypal's new policy to consider that kind of transaction a cash advance.
It's also the policy of another similar service, Venmo.
I guess they avoid paying a fee themselves that way.
There was a pop-up when I did the paypal thing which referenced possible bank fees,
but like a lot of people I figured it was just a boilerplate disclaimer so I just checked OK and finished paying.
I poked around on the paypal site a bit--
If you are "paying for goods or services" there is a 2.9% fee charged to the seller,
but I think that is considered a purchase not a cash advance so no bank fees later.
BTW the $20 (actually 20.80) service fee I paid to paypal works out to about 2.9%.
So the moral of the story is that if you want to pay someone or get paid online,
you should do a little research to avoid an unpleasant surprise later.
Paypal is so convenient & such a time saver, I hope I don't have to go back to mailing people checks,
but I'm not paying those exorbitant fees again if I can help it.
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