Its down to how the payment was SENT to an account.
1. If sent using money > goods / services option then paypal would see the recipient as a seller and would also charge a fee.
2. If sent using the send money > family / friends option then the recipient would have the payment instantly (as long as it wasn't an echeque pending with a clearance date) with no fee if funded from a bank account or balance (a fee if you use a card). (However that option is not available in every country).
Advice is voluntary. Kudos / Solution appreciated.
It turns out that in Israel, PayPal won't accept family payments, so they convert it without telling you -- or at least it was not clear to us -- to a merchant payment (which was one possibility that you mentioned). The recipient (if he uses the cheapest option) pays up to around 7.5% including the fee for receiving and an enforced disadvantageous conversion rate.
Anyway, it is good that we made this $10 payment precisely to see what PayPal might do. We'll look around for other options.
Which is why I put in bold that the f/f option is not available in every country.
And you're welcome to my time voluntarily given to help you, kudos would have been nice.
As for alternatives have you looked into xoom or google will give you a list of payment processors, I always used western union a lot when i had to send funds to a travelling son.
Advice is voluntary. Kudos / Solution appreciated.
