eBay For Charity & Paypal Fees

[nelsonscolumn]

I've been trying to find an answer for this question for some time. I am selling a number of items on eBay donating 100% of the item sales to charity, some of which we had included free postage on.

When the money hit my Paypal account standard fees were taken at 0.34% + 20p transaction fee. These were taken irrespective of whether there was a postage amount included in the listing, so clearly were taken on the total value of the item.

I had thought that when Paypal giving took the money from my Paypal account and donated it that the fees would be refunded for the item amount and would show on the invoice, however again this doesn't appear to be the case - or not obviously apparent.

While this is not a major issue on smaller lower cost items as the cost of the fees can be absorbed into the postage just, I have recently sold some more expensive items, which when including the fees that Paypal takes means that I would be seriously out of pocket.

For example a £100 item with £3 postage would be subject to £3.70 worth of fees, meaning I end up 30p out of pocket just on the cost of the item, this doesn't include the actual costs for packaging and to post, assuming it costs to post what the postage charges are then I would end up £3.30 down, multiply that out over 100 items, and it would be £330. This doesn't seem right that PayPal would take the fees for the transaction when it is for Charity.

The only way around this would be to charge over the odds in postage, which means to price the items accordingly would mean that the charity actually ends up with less money as I would be then selling something for £90 with £13 postage, which most people will think is ridiculous even if I explained this in the listing.

Hoping that someone can give me a definitive answer on this, I've previously called eBay support who say that the fees should not be charged on a charity auction, I have tried to get in touch with PayPal just giving but never recieved a response or a phone call

[kernowlass]

@nelsonscolumn

When the money hit my Paypal account standard fees were taken at 0.34% + 20p transaction fee. These were taken irrespective of whether there was a postage amount included in the listing, so clearly were taken on the total value of the item.

You are paying paypal to receive payments from buyers including card funded payments. What does the postage have to do with it? You pay fees on the total amount that the buyer paid you.

I had thought that when Paypal giving took the money from my Paypal account and donated it that the fees would be refunded for the item amount and would show on the invoice, however again this doesn't appear to be the case - or not obviously apparent.

Its an ebay auction so its an ebay transaction and ebay donate the funds, nothing to do with paypal as they are separate companies. You only get a fee refund if you are a ''registered UK charity'' and have registered this with paypal and applied for the lesser fee.

Ebay are the ones that give you a fee credit on your listing and final value fee if you register to donate an amount to charity on their auctions.

[nelsonscolumn]

Its an ebay auction so its an ebay transaction and ebay donate the funds, nothing to do with paypal as they are separate companies. You only get a fee refund if you are a ''registered UK charity'' and have registered this with paypal and applied for the lesser fee.

eBay and Paypal are linked here, because of how the process works. http://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebayforcharity/sell.html

In the guide The 1-2-3 of selling for charity - I'm giving 100% which gives all the fee credit back on the eBay fees - no problem there, however that page states "Three weeks after your item sells, PayPal Giving Fund (eBay's partner charity) will automatically collect the donation from you" 

Therefore have no control on the amount donated, as I'm picking 100% to donate (no eBay fees) the full 100% gets taken, despite the fact that fees have been charged when the money comes into my paypal account. Which means at the end of all this I'll be donating more money than is in my Paypal account....

[ChrisHerman]

It's quite sad that Paypal makes money of charity donations. While ebay is doing the right thing by waiving all fees when you donate 100% and portions when you donate less, PayPal charges us in full. Quite saddening scheme to reap profits off altruistic causes.

[kernowlass]

@ChrisHerman

eg So you sell an item for a charity on Ebay but don't accept paypal but take direct credit card payments.

Would you expect your credit card company to process the payment for you with a discount for your charity.

Or you ask buyers to send you a cheque, would you expect your bank to provide a discount?

[ChrisHerman]

debit card transactions are free. So I would recommend to use places like gumtree to give away the item for free and encourage "buyers" to donate directly. I would also expect ebay to create transparency by stating CLEARLY that "while ebay waives/reduces fees, PayPal will still charge you more n full for this transaction"

[nelsonscolumn]

You are paying paypal to receive payments from buyers including card funded payments. What does the postage have to do with it? You pay fees on the total amount that the buyer paid you.

I should have been clearer here - I was selling items that had "free postage", I was expecting not to get charged on any items where 100% of the funds was being given to charity. I could understand if the charges applied were just applied to the postage costs of the items as this was not being given to charity - and I would have no problem with this.

The buyer isn't paying me - the buyer is donating their money to charity, I'm just a middleman in this transaction, yet I'm going to be the person losing money.

[kernowlass]

@nelsonscolumn

It does not matter if its free postage or postage included, you pay to accept a buyers payment and whatever that buyers payment is or how it is made up is irrelevant.

Did you also read this ??? The last line is the relevant bit.

http://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/managing-your-ebay-charity-donations

• Credits
• If your eBay for Charity item sells, you're eligible for an eBay fee credit. We'll credit a portion of your basic selling fees (insertion and final value fees) back to you according to the level of your donation.

For example, if you donate 50% of your item's sale price to charity, we'll give you a 50% credit on your basic selling fees. For charities selling items, we'll credit 100% of your basic selling fees back to you.

The feeccredit will appear automatically on your first eBay invoice after the item sells. 

Keep in mind:

• This credit doesn't apply to fees for any optional features, such as listing upgrades or setting a reserve price, or to PayPal fees.

[nelsonscolumn]

Interesting. Thanks. I had read that page many times, but I guess I must have missed the bolded part given that it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack of information I'm not greatly surprised.

So in summary by using eBay to sell for charity and by donating 100% of the funds to charity I end up out of pocket, so it would be better to sell privately and then actually donate the money later, but in turn I lose the whole point of listing for a charity on eBay.

Shame.

It would be so simple to flag charity auctions so that only the postage is subjected to fees, or to refund the fees when the money is removed from my account and donated via PayPal Giving (like when you refund a standard buyer transaction), or to just donate the amount left in the account after the fees have been taken out.

Who'd have thought donating to charity would be such a hassle to work out! Guess i do have to keep my spreadsheet of running totals after all so I know where I am at the end of it.

Thanks for the answer - shame it has to come from the community, not from Paypal themselves!

[kernowlass]

@nelsonscolumn

You could compromise ie list items with cash on collection only??

I do a lot of that for items i am selling within the home and i accept cash on collection only so no paypal fee.

It would cut down your customer base but it would mean you won't be out of pocket.

OR car boot or garage sales are good fund raisers.

Good luck, whats your charity if i can ask?