Allowed tenant to pay Paypal $675 but cost $19.88 in fees. How do I avoid this? refund, then ???

[neonguy]

I allowed my tenant to pay me via Paypal for his monthly rent... however, the fees Paypal is attempting to charge me are unacceptable.  I see a link to refund the money... but how can I use Paypal in this manner without paying egregious fees?

[sharpiemarker]

@neonguy 

PayPal is providing you a service. They should get paid for it. Cost of doing business. People who conduct business transactions through PayPal pay the fee for making a business transaction.

[neonguy]

You've got to be kidding me, right?  what happened to the send money for free?  How can Paypal compete against Zelle, CashApp and others?  (because after another blatant foolish answer like that, this is precisely what I will instruct my tenant to do, as it costs me nothing.  Even Walmart has a very easy way to transfer money for much less cost.)

[sharpiemarker]

@neonguy 

Why would I kid about this? Why should those of us who pay fees for our business payments subsidize your business payments? In that case we all shouldn't be paying fees then.

You were sent a commercial payment because you are a landlord accepting rent, a business transaction, not a friend and family member. Yeah, sending money is free for the sender but receiving isn't.

And, ever since May 7th 2019, PayPal is no longer refunding PayPal fees on refunds.

[neonguy]

@sharpiemarker  thank you for that, Sharpie. I appreciate the additional insight on such an unscrupulous practice (keeping fees when the service is rejected).  Now I get to inform the tenant they are paying the extra fees...  I wonder how much longer they'll be using Paypal?  As for me, I'll still accept Zelle and CashApp at no extra costs, so no worries on my part.  Just another rule I get to hand down to people on limited incomes and another letter I get to send off to my local state representative about rip-offs.  

As far as subsidizing commerce, there is a great disparity between housing needs and regular business commerce.  Housing is a life-necessity while the designer jeans and LED light bulbs you bought from merchants are much more easily priced "on the fly" to match marketing and sales expenses.  Only a fool could make that analogy, as virtually all housing costs are relatively fixed under term leases.  Some technology changes (and Paypal's policies can change) faster than lease rates (that are often for 6 months to more commonly, 12 month cycles) so not the best illustration... but I get your point.  My largest concern is the false advertising Paypal is engaged in, leading people to believe they can send money to one another for no charge, and then being duped into paying.  The lack of a refund further convinces me that government regulation is overdue and only thru legislation can consumers be assured of fair money transfer service fees for their most life needs.

[sharpiemarker]

@neonguy 

I just found out that PayPal supposedly has a moratorium or is holding off on the May 7th policy change on not refunding the entire PayPal fee so if you do refund, they only keep the 30 cents flat rate portion of the fee but refund the variable rate portion. 

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2019/5/1557363617.html

It has always been that receivers of payment pay the PayPal fee. Doesn't matter what area of business you're dealing in. From freelancing, to rentals, services, retail. You can charge a handling fee but can't say it is a PayPal surcharge:

"No surcharges

You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as a payment method. You may charge a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge and is not higher than the handling fee you charge for non-PayPal transactions."