On the same day I received two paypal payments for $12.00. One, a subscription, cost me $0.71 to receive, and the other, not a subscription, cost me $0.77. Why the difference in fees?

On the same day I received two paypal payments for $12.00. One, a subscription, cost me $0.71 to receive, and the other, not a subscription, cost me $0.77. Why the difference in fees?

Was one of them paid with a credit card and the other with a debit card?

Was one of them paid with a credit card and the other with a debit card?

That would be the reason :laugh:

haha...i think they charge more for credit card transactions. one of my customer did chargeback on me and paypal took my money away. I tried to dispute the charge and they said their investigation will take 120 business days, but they never ended up giving my money back or even contactin me. Paypal customer service isn't too great.

PayPal doesn't charge different amounts for credit cards vs. debit cards. For eChecks, there is a maximum fee of $5, but other than that, payments are subject to the same fees regardless of how they are funded.

Were the payments in US Dollars? I would have thought it was due to the cross-border fee for receiving a payment from someone in a different country, except it isn't quite the right amount:

Typical cross-border fee (3.9% + $0.30) on a $12.00 transaction = $0.47 + $0.30 = $0.77
Typical domestic fee (2.9% + $0.30) on a $12.00 transaction = $0.35 + $0.30 = $0.65


What I don't understand is why you were charged something $0.06 different from the regular rate.

Are you currently being charged 2.9%? You can check this by logging in to your account, then clicking on "Fees" in the footer. Click on the link that says "1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD" to see your current rate. If you are getting the Standard rate, it will say:

"Your account is enabled for Standard Rate. Based on your sales volume, you are currently being charged 2.9%."

If it says something different that might give a clue as to why it is a different amount. Or, if the payments were in different currencies, there may have been a different flat fee (instead of $0.30) for the payment.

I found out why there was the difference- one payment had a Cross-Border Fee, whatever that is? Even if it does cost Paypal more, you thought that they would just take less profit for themselves. I can't see 6c doing much to the millions they and ebay make each year!

Those pennies really do add up. For example, years ago when hand held calculators first became cheap, I bought one. Eager to test it out I grabbed a JC Penny bill to add up. At first I thought the calculator was broken because it was off by ten cents--in JC Penny's favor. Turned out that the same thing happened for the previous two months.

I phoned JC Penny's corporate headquaters and reported it to the head of security. About two months later there was a news piece on the evening news that Penny's had busted a computer guy who had over charged all of their customers by ten cents and funneled it into a special fund. There was something like 200k in the fund. Those dimes really added up!

I can see your point, but pp makes about $12million profit per year, and eBay predicted it would make between $4.47bn and $4.51bn this year. I don't think 6c would mean that the shareholders are getting that much less money!

I found out why there was the difference- one payment had a Cross-Border Fee, whatever that is? Even if it does cost Paypal more, you thought that they would just take less profit for themselves. I can't see 6c doing much to the millions they and ebay make each year!

Well, this is why fees are percentage based. So they only have to charge you 6 cents more on your tiny transaction, but on the other hand they actually get some money to cover costs of exchanging currencies on larger transactions.

You can always turn off accepting payments in other currencies, among many other options, from your profile once logged in.