Well, apparently the CC company I have associated with my paypal account has decided to charge CASH ADVANCE transaction fees when sending funds to 'Friends & Family' via paypal

In reviewing my current statement. I noticed they charged me a $10. transaction fee on a $31. purchase from another local World member

From now on, I'll add in the 3% fee the seller bears when accepting a paypal payment (up to a break-even point), instead of the using the 'F&F' method.

I either send from my pp balance or my debit card balance. Never any fees.
Is the cc company treating your payment as a cash advance?

PayPal has always charged a fee if you F&F with a credit card.

No fee if you use a PayPal balance or use direct withdrawel from a checking account.

Nope ... been sending paypal 'F&F' payments with that CC for years. It's not the minuscule fee that paypal charges, it's the CC company that's adding these new charges.

I just started getting stuck with these fees on my recent statement. I reconcile all my financial accounts in Quicken, monthly


This is going to change the way I do business from here on out.

It's clear the issue is with your credit card company, not PayPal.

And this is coming from someone that is decisively not a fan of PayPal (it has become a necessary evil).

Get a new credit card. They're all over the place. I think you can even get them from that gripper toy machine at Chuckie Cheese's ("The Claw! It knows!")

And I reconcile my Quicken accounts every other day. Been doing it since 1996. That's really no big thang, yo...

Of course it's the CC company that's imposing the 'transaction fee' ... that's what I was ranting about

I don't care to have a bunch of CC accounts, I think the better option would be to open another business account and just add funds as needed ... don't want PP associated with any of my other accounts

Not sure Id agree with that

I think that goes for everything Elon does...

Cheating a company out of a pethetic few dollars by skirting the rules while buying or selling to what is actually a stranger, NOT a true family member nor a true friend, is cheap and stupid. You're selling your word, bond and honor for cheap. One makes a liar of themselves EVERY time they engage in the behavior

I don't have a problem sending to friends, and often others consider me a friend. While I appreciate the gesture, I don;t get shipping info that way, so for the small percentage I don't mind. It's just a cost of doing business these days.

To set the record straight, I didn't mention who the World member I purchased the parts from was, but I do consider him a friend - one of the first local members that I met in person. If I didn't have candles burning at both ends, I would have driven to his house to grab the parts.

Again, it's not paypal that charged the $10. fee on a $30. purchase (of which at least $10. was the shipping charge) ... it is BofA, whom I will be ditching their card shortly.

If you feel it's appropriate to infer that I'm a liar and a cheat with no honor, Kevin, well, let me say you can go do something to yourself

And if there is a problem with the part ordered you have no recourse. If it were a legitimate business transaction you'd have the backing of PayPal. Do as others have suggested Mark. Use PP balance, debit card or bank account. Another 3% and you'll get shipping insured also!

Egads guys - apparently comprehension skills have flown out the window

Again, I purchased the parts from a local World member who is also a friend ... I knew exactly what I was buying and the condition the parts were in - what kind of recourse are you suggesting I would need?

Additionally, I paid a fee to paypal for using a CC to send the F&F payment anyway ... so there's NO CHEATING involved. The seller got the full $ amount - I paid the friggin' 3% paypal fee - so can the "I'm cheating paypal" mantra.

It's the CC company that recently started adding a cash transaction fee on top of it all.


Looks like it's time to reevaluate my surroundings

Well, I called the CC company (BofA) to find out what the fuch was going on. Apparently, some folks (commercial vendors and plain old regular folks) take the paypal payments as cash (how that's done is sort of interesting ... how do they get CASH out of a digital fund transfer ???)

In any event, BofA told me that the minimum 'cash transaction fee' is $10. - so it came out to over 30% on the $31. 'F&F' purchase from the World member.

Came to find out that they also charged me a $10. 'cash transaction fee' on an ebay purchase of $18.17 (for a previously-owned windshield washer reservoir for my Vanagon) - which came out to be a 52% fee


Needless to say, the BofA card will not be used any longer ... in fact, I will close the account as soon as possible. There's no way for a buyer to know if a vendor or other recipient takes the PP payment as cash (which still isn't exactly clear on how that works) - so buyer beware

That's terrible. Is the card the only biz you have with BoA?

It WAS. They're history now

cheating goes 2 ways - the huge problem with paypal is that a buyer might decide to file a "not as described" "didn't like it" or other ruse case upon which the paypal "investigation" always results in the money being taken back from seller, AND/ OR they might also file a case with their credit card in which case the card takes the money back from paypal & paypal take it back from you - this can be done up to 6 months after the item delivered iirc (ask me how i know this)


and too often your item & your costs to ship is gone forever - too many fraud "buyers" out there

we all tend believe everyone on a forum is an honest & honorable fellow; but the realities of electronic commerce are proving otherwise - and we really don't know that hail fellow whose handle appears on our pages do we?

some of us have been victimized by the scammmers working our forums which only adds to the paranoia (, but i learned from that)

UPDATE

(To paraphrase Joe Biden: ... So here's the deal. Apparently some paypal users set up their account(s) to receive CASH payments only, as opposed to receiving the payment as credit (still don't understand exactly how that actually works - cash doesn't pop out anyone's computer or phone as far as I know)

The problem is, a purchaser using paypal linked to a credit card isn't privy to how the seller/vendor set up their account (to receive cash only), so it becomes a surprise when the next statement shows up and there are 'cash advance fees' listed.

I'm not sure if all credit card companies engage in this policy, but I'll be asking that particular question of any new credit card companies that I may be interested in applying for. BofA is historically known for fucking its customers - but that's another story, for another time

Paypal also need to be up front with regards to how sellers & vendors have set their accounts up (if they accept cash only payments).

914 World members (or members of any other forum that hosts a classifieds section) should be up front on how they accept paypal payments as well. I have reverted to asking sellers if they'll accept a check or a money order for purchases, since I have no idea if I'll incur the 'cash advance fee' if I fund the purchase through paypal. Some sellers are OK with a check or a M/O, some aren't - and only accept a paypal payment

I’m not sure how all this has worked out for you but I’ve had paypal for 10 years or so, make thousands of transactions on both the buy and sell and never has someone mentioned this issue. I have no idea how my paypal is set up to receive funds but it works perfectly for me. I’m not trying to be callous but I don’t think this is an issue for most people. I just made a large purchase with a non automotive vendor through paypal. I doubt I could call into the company and talk to them about how their paypal is set up. My PNC card doesn’t charge me any fees when it’s used as a paypal backup.

I use friends and family all the time for purchase and sales but I wouldn’t buy something where someone required me to buy with f&f. I’d rather pay them the extra 3% (as I have done many times) than send money with no protection. If I buy something with friends and family but it never makes it to my doorstep, I’m screwed.
BTW- It’s not a double edged sword since I still would accept a return and cover a missing part if it was paid by f&f to me. I chalk it up to the cost of doing business and value the relationship I have with 914world members way more than the money they pay me.

Did you miss the part where I mentioned that I was charged a cash advance fee when I purchased an item from an ebay [business] vendor? ... it wasn't a 'F&F' payment, so apparently 'F&F' payment or not, it doesn't matter.

I too have been using paypal (associated with that BofA card) for purchases for over 20 years (Member since: Mar 21, 1999). In all that time, I never incurred any cash advance fees, be it purchases on ebay, businesses outside of ebay and purchases from members on different forums - both, 'F&F' and non 'F&F' payments. This just started happening a couple months ago.

You can't get blood from a turnip ... so how in hell do you get CASH from a digital fund transfer ???