Paypal fee = payment received

[poli]

Hi,

This has happened to me twice in the last week. I've tried to receive small amounts of money as donations from friends and the net total I've recieved has been $0.00. For example here:

Amount received:   $0.20 USD

Fee amount:   -$0.20 USD

Net amount:   $0.00 USD

I have a US currency and I'm receiving the money in US dollar so why is the fee so high? Also why is it even possible to send $0.20 if the entire amount is engulfed by Paypal? Surely there is absolutely no reason to want to send $0.20 if the recipient won't receive anything!

Is this normal? If so then I need an explanation. Thanks,

Elliot

[snowshoe]

As you are accepting the funds as Donations, the standard processing fee is 2.9% plus $.30 per transaction.

So if someone sends you $.20 the fee wipes out the amount.  Suggest accepting a minimum amount to prevent your current scenario.  PayPal is a transaction processing service, it's how they make their money.  If someone sent you a $1.00, you would get $.67 cents.  As you can see, you should have a fixed or minimum amount.

Also be aware of accepting donations if you are not a non-profit as the rules have changed.

As stated by PayPal.

"This button is intended for fundraising. If you are not raising money for a cause, please choose another option. Nonprofits must verify their status to withdraw donations they receive. Users that are not verified nonprofits must demonstrate how their donations will be used, once they raise more than $10,000."

So. what's work a around for another option. One option is to use a Buy Now item button. You can code it so an amount can be entered right on the PayPal Screen. You can also use the the Shipping Overrides so as not to charge any shipping if you have a shipping method setup for other purposes. Using a Buy Now type button allows people to give you funds without having a PayPal Account. Note, you would still pay the transaction processing fees same as would for selling any item and you have to have either a Premier or Business Account, a Personal Account won't work.

Another option would be to have people use the send money feature. Of course they would have to have a PayPal Account and if they send the funds as a gift assuming they don't use a credit card, there would be no fees.

[poli]

Firstly thank you for the response, I would just like to clarify that I haven't set up a donation button, I simply meant that I'm not selling any goods or services.

Also I understand Paypal need to make a profit, but are you saying that if 20 people decide they want to pay $1 as donations to a non-profit organisation that $20 is sent but only $13.40 will go to the cause? This is money which is only meant to go towards fund raising? That's crazy. The fact that Paypal allows you to send amounts less than $0.30 is ridiculous, surely there should be at the very least, a warning stating that the receiver will receive nothing. Seems like a cheap tactic to make money from smaller transactions from people who don't understand the fees, or does Paypal believe that some people want to donate $0.00 to non-profits?

[profdata]

They need to send it as a gift and fund the Paypal payment from a bank account or paypal balance.

Paypal charges no fee when done this way

[profdata]

"The fact that Paypal allows you to send amounts less than $0.30 is ridiculous, surely there should be at the very least, a warning stating that the receiver will receive nothing. Seems like a cheap tactic to make money from smaller transactions from people who don't understand the fees, or does Paypal believe that some people want to donate $0.00 to non-profits?"

Well the Paypal user agreement , you know the one you read , spells out what the fees are.

Also true non profits set up with Paypal help have can have different lower fees or no fees at all.