Does paypal give you this kind of notice if you buy across the border?

It starts to give this to me:

I've been using paypal since eons ago and this is just in as of today. I did my payment yesterday (I think seeedstudio counts as international payment, right?) and didn't see this notice. Sellers are charged a percentage regardless the buyers pay with credit card or bank transfer. Then why does this transaction have buyer charge? I thought the seller pays conversion fee not the buyer. Maybe seeedstudio has a US$ account? Just a bit confused. So bank transfer has no charge? Or is it just cheaper for paypal?

This doesn't look like a "buyer charge", just a notice from PayPal that your credit card company may charge you (independently), most likely because you are making a payment in non-USD funds?

Having said that, PayPal definitely tries to steer people away from paying with credit cards and instead paying directly through them. If you are sure it's a USD transaction then I'd brush it off as a "marketing" tactic.

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The DIN Rail Mount kit for Arduino: quickly attach your Arduino to standard DIN rail

RuggedCircuits:
This doesn't look like a "buyer charge", just a notice from PayPal that your credit card company may charge you (independently), most likely because you are making a payment in non-USD funds?

Having said that, PayPal definitely tries to steer people away from paying with credit cards and instead paying directly through them. If you are sure it's a USD transaction then I'd brush it off as a "marketing" tactic.

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The DIN Rail Mount kit for Arduino: quickly attach your Arduino to standard DIN rail

I would rather find out if this is a tactic like you said to make more money for paypal :slight_smile: a bit evil isn't it? I'm asking the seller to find out their currency. May even consider to try the credit card and pay the $4 to find out if paypal is lying. Small price to pay to find out some truth.

In fact paypal was playing its tactics to direct me to transfer cash to them with my bank. I made the credit card payment and I didn't see additional charge on my card. The amount requested was in USD anyway, as the seller reminded me. Just look at their chart, 80 pixels for $142 and 66 pixels for $138. That ought to represent the actual 3% difference really well! Plus their lame color scheme trying to make you stay away from gray buttons. Shame on paypal.

liudr:
In fact paypal was playing its tactics to direct me to transfer cash to them with my bank. I made the credit card payment and I didn't see additional charge on my card. The amount requested was in USD anyway, as the seller reminded me. Just look at their chart, 80 pixels for $142 and 66 pixels for $138. That ought to represent the actual 3% difference really well! Plus their lame color scheme trying to make you stay away from gray buttons. Shame on paypal.

I've made at least a couple of two or four hundred if not more pay pal transactions over maybe 10 years? I use credit card maybe 80% of the time and direct withdraw from a linked checking account the other 20% of the time. I've never seen a transaction fee added by either PP, or my CC company, or the seller, but again I don't recall ever purchasing anything not stated in U.S. dollar amounts.

And yes PP has often made it a little more difficult or time consuming to select CC over linked checking account but that is to be expected because someone (the seller or PP or maybe both share) is definitely paying the CC a fee for the transaction. All in all I've been very pleased with PP and the service and convenience they have given me. I know there are a lot of PP haters out in the world but I think most of them are sellers that have more restrictions and rules to follow then simple purchases using PP have to deal with.

Lefty

I just poked into a few "big bank" credit card companies (Bank of America, Chase) to see what their fees were and both stated a 3% charge for an international transaction. PayPal also states in their user agreement:

3.12 Debit Card Processing. PayPal will process your debit card funded transactions through either the ATM debit network or the Visa/MasterCard network. If we process your debit card through an ATM debit network, we may provide you with the opportunity to switch to a Visa or MasterCard network by clicking the "Funding Sources" link on the payment review page. If you use your PayPal Debit Card for a payment that is not in U.S. Dollars, your transaction will be funded with your U.S. Dollar Balance, even if you have a Balance in another currency. Any required currency conversion will be performed by Visa, MasterCard, or a similar third party and may be subject to a fee by that third party.

I don't think they'd stick a marketing gimmick in their legal documents.

Personally I use a bank transaction with PayPal so I've never experienced this myself (nor would I be dumb enough to do business with a company like BofA).

Maybe you did read my last reply but the currency is USD, which is what I use too. Paypal always uses grey color for credit card payment button and have you go through 2-3 steps to do that. That has been for at least a decade.

liudr:
Maybe you did read my last reply but the currency is USD, which is what I use too. Paypal always uses grey color for credit card payment button and have you go through 2-3 steps to do that. That has been for at least a decade.

Not for me originally. When I first joined It was as a CC payment method only and so extra steps were not required, I didn't link a bank account to PP at all. That made me a 'non-verified' member and some rare sellers would only except verified PP members only but I didn't find that to be a practical problem. Of course PP would 'hound' me constantly about all the advantages I would get if I did become a verified member, but for the life I me could not find a thing about being verified that was indeed an 'advantage' for me personally. They even suggested that the period I could stay as a CC non-verified member would end, but when I would ignore their warning and 'proposed' due date, they would suddenly renew my membership as a non-verified member for another year or two. Finally after about five years I did indeed link to a checking account for other reasons and again I've never had a problem caused by PP.

Lefty

I was mostly OK as a buyer except for this time but as a seller I curse paypal for charging a lot for transactions. They milk small businesses hard.

liudr:
I was mostly OK as a buyer except for this time but as a seller I curse paypal for charging a lot for transactions. They milk small businesses hard.

That was my impression also. However small businesses being able to except CC charges directly also have to pay fees and abide by rules set by the CC companies, so I don't know if there is any pleasing all people all the time.

Lefty

Dwolla is where it's at for small businesses

Free for transactions under 10 dollars and 25 cents for transactions above that up to infinity dollars