WARNING..DO NOT UPGRADE FROM PAYPAL PERSONAL --> BUSINESS ACCOUNT

[chinman75]

Although it might seem like a free upgrade, the
fine print says otherwise. I had to learn the hard way. They charge you 1.9% for every paypal payment received. You don't get charged for sending paypal payments.

The only reason I upgraded was because there is
no toll free support number for personal accounts anymore.

Just a heads up =)

 

[emanon]

Others may bitch that this is not a "hot deal", but I think it belongs here. A friend had already warned me of this - the daily "sweep" into your checking account seemed enticing, until the 1.9% fee was mentioned.

Thanks for keeping us informed!

 

[403Forbidden]

well this is for business right? for business use i think this is ok because sending a business payment to a "personal" account looks cheesy

 

[AaronWilson]

Just to throw my 0.02 in I sold something for my father and he wanted the money right away so I read through the site and saw that they would sweep it into his checking account at midnight everyday the only problem is you still have to wait the 5 days it would take for them to do it in the personal account so the only ones that benift from the "free upgrade" is PayPal

Hope this stops some people for falling for this like I did

 

[Dan]

Sometimes procrastination pays off. Thanks for the heads up on this one!

 

[chinman75]

Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 12:13:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: chinman75
Subject: charges on my account
To: business@x-.com

To Whom It May Concern,

I just received 2 charges on my paypal account.

My name is xxxx. My email address is xxxx. My phone number is xxxx.

My address is: xxxx.

When I called, the rep told me that there was a 1.9% charge on payments received because I had upgraded to a business account.

Grant it, I did not read through the fine print carefully before upgrading from a personal to a business account, there should have still been a way for me to

either:

1. Downgrade back to a personal account ONLINE or

2. Reverse the charges or

3. Have the sender of the paypal payment to cancel their payment.

In this manner, I would have have incurred those charges.

The sender of the payment should not be able to reverse a charge ONLY WHEN:

1. The recipient does not have a paypal account or

2. The sender of the payment sent the payment to an invalid email address.

I feel that having to call customer service, wait 2-4 days to downgrade, and incur the 1.9% service charge in the meantime is very unreasonable and unfair to the customer.

I would greatly appreciate if you take my suggestion into consideration and reverse my charges if possible.

I like your service overall and want to continue using paypal.

Please email or call me if you are going to do anything to rectifiy this situation or not.

Thanks,
chinman75

 

[sammy g]

It's not really in the fine print. It says it pretty clearly in the literature. You can't expect them to upgrade your service for no charge can you?

 

[SuperSix]

Fine print? I didn't miss it when I signed up. You may need to pay better attention when doing such transactions. Don't expect them to give you something for free.
Not meant to be a flame..

 

[arib0nd]

Yea.. the charges are pretty clearly listed..
I am also thinking of upgrading to a business account just coz it looks more professional.. and doesn't really cost much at all..

But yes, I had emailed their support asking that if I upgraded to a business account, if I could downgrade back to a normal account, I still haven't recieved a reply from them.

Seems that there is no easy way to downgrade is there? other than calling them up and waiting for them to process the whole thing?

hmmm

 

[Xtremist]

I posted this in the For Sale forum to this same topic, but just noticed one here as well. And I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet... Here's the post (it's geared more towards the other thread where a lot of them hadn't noticed the 1.9% charge):

I don't see how you guys actually missed that 1.9% fee thing. I mean, if you read about ANY of the differences between the two types of accounts, it's listed right on that screen. In a very easy to read and understand table... or so at least I thought. And what are a couple of the benefits of a business/premier accounts? Let's look:

Accept direct payments on your website (Web Accept)
Accept unlimited credit card payments

And for that, they charge 1.9% on all money you receive. The main "draw" for the business account is that you can accept credit card payments directly on your site. Essentially, you can use your PayPal account as a merchant account that will handle CC transactions on the fly. Normally you'd have to get a bank or some other institution to do this for you. And if I'm not mistaken, they generally charge between 1.5-3% Sometimes even as high as 4%. When I talked to my lawyer last when I was considering setting up a merchant account, he told me anything about 2.5% is too much, between 1.7 and 2% is what you should settle for. They charge 1.9%... That's right on par as far as I'm concerned. Plus it's extremely convienient.

I dunno, I just find it funny that people are warning about these "charges" when in reality you're getting a fairly good deal. Granted, you might not have a business that needs to accept CC's online in real-time, but if that's the case, why do you need a business account in the first place? For the tech support number? Has anyone really had to call that before? I mean, I'm sure SOME people have, but I know me and at least 4 of my buddies haven't ever had a problem with PayPal, let alone to the degree of severity that we'd actually need to call them about it.

If the 1.9% is too much don't upgrade, that's a simple concept. Of course, if the 1.9% IS too much, you probably shouldn't even NEED to upgrade in the first place.

"the fine print says otherwise." Heh, you mean that nice table describing the differences between the two accounts that's in the size font as the rest of the site? Damn those sneaky little bastards!

 

[Default Location]

BTW - about sweeping your account every night at midnight: it's identical to you just going in and withdrawing your money every day at midnight. if you check your account at least once a day, then it's pointless for you. it's meant for businesses who receive many transactions a day, and an easy way to just withdraw everything at once.

I also remember seeing the 1.9% clearly listed for the business account. I can't see how one would miss it unless you were in a big rush to jump on the bandwagon or something.

 

[arib0nd]

their services seem perfect for anyone who needs online real time credit card processing (US cards only though)

I wish they would expand and start accepting credit cards from other countries too.. since that is a major limitation in their services right now.

 

[AaronWilson]

Default Location I understand that I was simply trying to warn anybody thinking they might get there money faster that way like I did not complaining at all about paypal they are a great srevice and for the benifits of the business account it realy is not that much to pay and yes I read and understood about the fees the only thing that bugged me was not getting my money right away I could of stuck with the persona; account and not been charged and recieved my money in same amount of time.

 

[me3d]

thing is that i'm kinda afraid of paypay in that i can't find a single line about insurance on their site. looks like the way they make their money is that the use whatever money in your accounts and puts it into the market to make interest on it. this is very risky, and without insurance it's just that much more risky.

 

[PolaroidPaul]

At least in either case, you are reasonably assured of getting some money.

Buy something through Paypal and they give you no help at all! They are eager to send your money anywhere. They even record your auction data for you. But it means nothing!

Read more of the fine print! They guarantee nothing! Sent your money to a scam artist? Tough luck Charlie! Makes all internet private sales seem risky, even if most of them are from decent honest people. :|

Make sure you use something guaranteed. If you keep a personal account, don't leave any funds in it or you may be sorry later.

 

[acedaddy323]

well if you get the real credit card acceptor thingy. to accept visa. you would be paying like 5 percent. consider yourself lucky.

 

[Xtremist]

me3d,

Here's a link to where they say your account is insured. I have NO idea how credible they are or anything, just posting for information's sake:

http://www.paypal.x.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/travelers-outside

And I believe that the X Finance is insured by FDIC or whoever Cheers!

 

[403Forbidden]

Don;t know what you guys are complaining about...

Paypal money is insured up to $100,000. So unless you're buying a Mclaren F1 from some dude in Wyoming, you're good to go.

Also, I think this business account is a great idea...for small businesses. Like the other guy said, in order to accept CC normally, you have to fork over like 5-8 percent to the CC company. With paypal it's only 1.9 percent. Thats $19 for every $1000. I am about to propose it to my employer.

 

[403Forbidden]

Don;t know what you guys are complaining about...

Paypal money is insured up to $100,000. So unless you're buying a Mclaren F1 from some dude in Wyoming, you're good to go.

Also, I think this business account is a great idea...for small businesses. Like the other guy said, in order to accept CC normally, you have to fork over like 5-8 percent to the CC company. With paypal it's only 1.9 percent. Thats $19 for every $1000. I am about to propose it to my employer.

 

[Xzaver]

-=-

 

[vinnyracer]

I'm worry about giving paypal.com my bank account #. I just use paypal to send money using my CC.

What if someone had stolen my "username" and "pw", they could start sending to their account.

 

[Tylerdave]

some of you people really do like to complain about everything that's not totally free don't you? it seems like every "deal" lately involves playing the stupid card. (btw, chinman75, it's "granted" not "grant it&quot

 

[Xzaver]

-=-

 

[Default Location]

You'd think all you were new to this or something (?). PayPal has been around for a long time (in the internet world). I have used them to transfer a couple thousand $$ both ways (send and receive), and they've been great. They ARE insured just like any other bank account you have (through "X".com, since they merged). The only thing you have to be weary of is sending money to someone for payment on an online auction service, but in that case you have to be careful no matter HOW you send the money. If they want to get their ill-gotten money OUT of their PayPal account, they need a valid credit card and valid verified street address. If this person is unscrupulous, they will be found for sure, and prosecuted for credit card fraud and a host of other felonies.

BTW - everyone can accept credit cards through PayPal, that's the point of PayPal (I do it ALL the time). It's not just the business account, it's the personal account also. What is the confusion here???

 

[Xtremist]

Well according to their site you can only accept direct payment from a website with a business account (the accepting credit card thing) and you can also accept unlimited CC payments only with a business account. Hope that cleared the "confusion"?