Unexpected PayPal fee, no warning

[BelieverDW]

A family member transferred money to me to pay for a trip we are taking.  Everything I read about paypal fees on personal accounts said there would be no charge.  They even went to the trouble of connecting their bank account so the payment from them to me would not flow through a credit card.  After all this I still got charged a 2.9% fee.  I can find no way to reach PayPal to have them explain this charge to me.  I can't file a dispute because my issue isn't with the other party, it's with PayPal.  My family member later found out there may be a fee for large transactions (which this was), but nowhere were we warned about this.  I "invoiced" them for the amount to make the payment easier, and it didn't tell me then nor when the payment was placed at the other end.  Now I'm out a good chunk of change.

[kernowlass]

@BelieverDW

You paid a FEE because you / they didn't use the friends / family option which would have been free.

A 'money request' is not a friends/family payment its a goods/services payment.
An 'invoice' is not a friends/family payment its a goods/services payment.
'Send money > goods/services' is not a friends/family payment its a goods/services payment.
A 'business account paypal.me' is not a friends/family payment its a goods/services payment.

A 'send money > friends/family payment is a friends/family payment.
A 'paypal.me personal account' is a friends/family payment.

[BelieverDW]

Thanks for the detailed information... do I have any recourse, any way to actually bring this to PayPal's attention and get the fee reversed?

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@BelieverDW

The only way would be for you to issue a 'refund' then the % part of the fee is refunded as part of that full refund and you just pay the small cents amount.

However paying a large sum 'to and fro' may trigger paypals internal security and it may put the whole amount on hold for a 'security review'.

If you do go ahead make sure you click on the transaction and use the 'refund' option and NOT the send money option or you won't get the fee back.

Also if you refund ok, I would give it a few days to send again to reduce the risk of the review.

[BelieverDW]

In case anyone else looks at this thread, and FYI... I was able to refund this payment and reverse the fees.  The only twist was that since I had already transferred the money from PayPal to my bank account, PayPal is going to pull the money back from my bank account to fund the refund transaction.  Fortunately I have the cash to fund that.  This whole reversal will take almost a week to process, but once it's done I can have my relative re-pay me through the Friends and Family option with no fees.  A hassle maybe, but worth getting my money back.

[kernowlass]

@BelieverDW

You would still lose the 30 cents part of the intial payment fee when you refund.