How to avoid Paypal

[Norton1]

One of the members here and I are doing some business. I fell in love with his work and wasn't sure how to pay him without one of us incurring fees of some type. I bank at a Credit Union, Pioneer federal Credit Union to be specific, and in my online account is a feature to pay anyone anywhere without fees.

Paypal and the other money movers are a real PITA as far as I am concerned and I avoid them as much as I can. Since this deal is international and with the recent discussion on PayPal and their stranglehold I decided to check with my bank. It's a simple deal. So you all may want to check this out with your financial institution.

Be well,
Steve

[Norton1]

Well poop - apparently my credit union could not do the transfer. But Paypal only charged me $4.99 to send some money to the UK. Comes out of my bank direct to their bank.

Wish it was different -

Be well,
Steve

[Max-U52]

Usually if I send money to a friend, even in other countries, there's no fee with paypal, but they still nick you on the exchange rate. I have one trusted vendor in Australia that has a card number on file, but even then the Credit Card company makes sure to get a little slice.

It's like a dark cloud opened up one day ... and corporations discovered the word ... Fee (defined as: a good way to squeeze a few extra pennies out of a guy). The world has never been the same.

[jarndice]

Well if Pay-Pal and similar financial institutions did not make a charge for their services they would not stay in business for long and the Internet upon which most of us rely for many products (Not only this hobby) would no longer be a market place merely somewhere to exchange ones views.
As long as I am not being taken for a ride by these electronic Banks I willingly accept that there is a "sic" price to be paid.
Shaun.

[tomhugill]

PayPal's a damn sight cheaper than my bank for sending money over seas. Last time it was £20 from my bank!

[wibblywobbly]

I don't know if Paypal still operate the same way, but it used to be that if you sent money as a gift, rather than paying for goods or services, then there was no fee. The fee would appear to be a kind of insurance premium, which is why you get protection on good purchased. If its a straight cash transfer then there is little to no risk as far as Paypal is concerned.

Ebay on the other hand clobber anyone who sells via the site...

[43rdRecceReg]

I've just copied and pasted this from Paypal UK's site. If your transactions come from a debit card (and therefore your current account)..they don't charge you. That's been my experience. just make the payment a 'gift'. Crossing borders with ether-cash will attract some levy from PayPal; but given the speed, and convenience- it's a small price to pay.
My only issue is with security, but then banks boast cast-iron security that turns out to be very brittle sometimes. They're also lax with customer details; but when someone pinches your identity
banks are very quick to point to the very small print you didn't, or couldn't read...

"...PayPal Fees, Straightforward and No Surprises.
Shop on thousands of websites that accept PayPal and, unless your transaction involves a currency conversion, we won't charge you any fees.
Send or receive money between friends and family and we won’t charge you anything, unless the payment is funded by a credit card, involves a currency conversion or is a cross-border payment.
If you’re selling with us, you may be able to get competitive rates for your business..."

[wibblywobbly]

There is a very simple way to get immunity from identity theft. I used to design banking systems and the solution doesn't require a system at all. Open two bank accounts. Keep the bulk of your money in one, and use the other as your current account. Don't have any cards or even a cheque book on the savings account.

Then set up a low balance phone alert on the current account. When the alert comes up on your phone just transfer money from the savings account.

This way if anyone gets hold of your current account password, they can't access your savings account so there is a limit to how much they can make off with. In case anyone wondered, there is no risk with anyone getting your sort code and account number, it's printed on every cheque so its hardly a secret. The password is the key, and banks do provide additional security systems like card readers and secondary validation etc to keep things safe.

[Norton1]

"Send or receive money between friends and family and we won’t charge you anything, unless the payment is funded by a credit card, involves a currency conversion or is a cross-border payment."

From the US to the UK is a cross border payment. They now have an entity called XOOM that they do the transfers through. It was $4.99 for the service, and they do nick you a bit on the exchange rate, but all in all it was pretty inexpensive. And it was fairly quick. It took 2 days for everything to clear. I had read in their statement that from bank to bank was 2 hours but I may have misread it. XOOM was fairly up front about making a bit on the exchange rate but it was pretty minimal.

I have no beef with folks making a profit. I live in a country founded on the ideology of profitability and like it very much. I've been to the UK, Ireland, Germany, and several other places where that isn't utilized as much. No beef with it as it is their space not mine. What my complaint was is that my financial institution used to do these sorts of things as benefits for members. Now they can't, or won't, and I was operating under the supposition that they did.

So for Paypal/XOOM I was very pleased with the cost and the seller was pleased with it. We both were a bit apprehensive with the time factor though. I'd recommend them as a means of doing larger transactions between individuals as it is safer that putting the cashin an envelope and shipping it off! Paypal also has a section called escrow.com for really large purchases. I sold a car through them and the buyer paid the fees. But it was definitely safe.

Be well,
Steve

[Raminator]

we won't charge you any fees.

Emphasis mine.

They will always take their cut somewhere. It would be nice though if you could choose between how much you're sending or how much the other person is receiving (taking currency conversion and fees into account). It seems like it'd be a more honest and transparent way to go about it.