Czech Republic -> USA Individual Payment Fees

[voyagerfan5761]

I'd like to clarify the fees charged on international payments.

Someone in the Czech Republic sent me US$50, and PayPal's fees took it down to US$47.75, working out to a total fee amount of 4.5%.

By my understanding of PayPal's fee structure, I should be charged a $0.30 flat fee plus 1.0% for a cross-border transaction, so the fee was a lot more than I was expecting.

This is a transfer between individuals, or at least it should be. I will ask him if he used the "Personal" type instead of "Purchase", but for now I'll assume it was a Personal transaction.

How should my contact send me money so we are both charged a minimum of fees?

Additional information: The email address I use ends in .es even though I am in the US; would that affect anything?

[sandypurins]

For Personal Payments, the fee depends on the Payment Method (credit/debit card, PayPal balance, bank account) used. Additional fees apply if you are sending or receiving money to or from a country outside the United States, or transacting in a foreign currency.

The "Fees" section of PayPal's User Agreement has all the details...

https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/UserAgreement_full&...

According to the "Fees" section, the International Personal Payments charge for a credit/debit card funded payment from the Czech Republic would be 3.9% plus 30 cents...

$50.00 - 47.75 = $2.25 fee charged

$50.00 x 3.9% = $1.95 plus 30 cents = $2.25