Fees to send money from UK to US

[Thumbell]

So whenever my mom sends me money from the UK it says how much it is in GBP and USD as well as the amount that is sent and a confirmation of how much will be received by the recipient. When I receive it, the amount has fees deducted from it but those fees are not displayed to my mom. When I was in the UK sitting at her computer she showed me and sure enough, it stated that the recipient (me) would receive $116.32 but when I got it, a $5.22 fee was deducted. Is there any way to find out what the fee is going to be for a certain sized transaction and is there any way to avoid paying that fee? How can a fee be charged that is not communicated to the sender?

[sharpiemarker]

@Thumbel1 

I was just reiterating policies in general. That doesn’t make the other info wrong.

Senders can indicate whether a payment is “goods and services” or “friends and family” when they send money.

If sender sent you money as goods and services (domestic or int’l), you’ll see what is listed as “fee” in the transaction details in your end. This is the commercial rate fee for goods and services payments. The sender doesn’t see this fee. So your mom may have been sending you goods and service payments instead of friends and family.

[Thumbel1]

It’s not wrong, per se just not addressing my case. When someone comes on a forum having exhausted all other avenues, it’s annoying to see the cut and paste info about general policies that don’t apply and miss the point of the post. Kind of like if someone asked me “how to I get to downtown from the beach” and I said “you can get to the mall from the grocery store this way”. It’s not wrong but it’s not what was asked or needed so it is not correct information. I had thought I’d been clear in my post that it was international and friends/family and my personal account. I’ve had a lot of trouble with the replies quoting the same information I already have access to and referenced as not answering my question. I.e does the 5% fee apply to international, personal account, friends/family payment? It happens whether my mom pays in £ or $. Each time on my end I get 5% fee deducted after the currency conversion and poor exchange rate. I don’t have a problem paying the 5% (or choosing not to use PayPal for the transaction) if it’s clear that it’s a correct fee, it’s just nowhere gives me a straight answer as to whether it is correct. And it seems everyone in the forum is as confused as me. So I was hoping someone on here would have practical experience of having send personal account friends/ family payment internationally and could vouch for whether there is a fee and maybe confirm how much it should be. I’ve only tested it with low amounts but if my mom wants to send me $500 then I really don’t know if it’s going to be even more than 5% because neither of us get to see how much the fee is when sending the payment. Which seems wrong.

[Thumbel1]

I also know it wasn’t sent as a good/ service payment because we tested it when I was visiting her over the holidays and we walked through it together and it definitely was a personal, friends and family payment but I still got charged a fee.

[sharpiemarker]

@Thumbel1 

If you are sure a friends and family, not goods and services payment is sent to you and are charged an additional 5% upon receipt then it is very puzzling/not normal and should have PayPal review the transaction (or transaction(s) if this has been happening to multiple transactions) and get refunded. You’re not supposed to be charged an extra 5% upon receipt of int’l personal payment because as per the UK policies, the sender pays “5% of the transaction amount” to send money, and “The minimum fee is GBP 0.99 and the maximum fee is GBP 2.99“ for sending int’l personal payments. 

On the US fees page, it says to receive friends and family payment is free except for applicable currency conversion fees. Business accounts can no longer receive personal payments so account type is irrelevant. Other than goods and services fees being charged from being sent a goods and services fee in error, some bug triggering it, and this is really scrapping the bottom of the barrel: the option where the sender chooses the recipient to pay the fees if that is still available to the sender, I can’t think of why you’d be charged an extra 5% on top of everything.

[Thumbel1]

So going off of the information you have there IS a 5% fee. Regardless of who is paying for it (it is me the recipient not my mom the sender for whatever reason) the fact that a 5% fee is charged even for friends and family and personal accounts is the information that I needed and wished PayPal was clear about.

[Thumbel1]

Also can you see how the quotes you are providing are confusing? The maximum fee of $2.99 is actually a separate fee in addition to the 5% of the overall transaction (so for $100 it would be $107.99). It is worded in such a way as to suggest that no one would pay more than $2.99 in fees to send/ receive personal funds ($102.99). Which is not true.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @Thumbel1, @kernowlass, and @sharpiemarker,

Thank you all for your posts! I'm sorry that there's been confusion and a disagreement, and I'm happy to provide clarification. @kernowlass and @sharpiemarker have provided correct information.

A payment that is sent as a personal payment may incur a fee to the sender. If the payment is sent using a credit card, there is a fee. If a payment has a currency conversion, there is a fee. However, these fees should not be visible to or paid by the recipient. I believe there may have once been a way to indicate that fees should be paid by the recipient, but I do not believe that has been a selection possible for a very long time. 

A payment sent as a Goods and Services payment would have fees payable by the recipient, and not by the sender. There may have once been a way to assume the fees at the sending of the payment, but I do not believe that has been a choice for a very long time.

If what has been stated here is not what you are seeing, I suggest taking screenshots of the pages leading up to the payment and then note which payment results from that process. Then contact Customer Service and let them know what you're running into. If there is a technical issue, they can look to see if it's been reported by others and add your account information to an ongoing investigation, or if it's new, they can begin a new investigation in case it becomes something more people experience as well. You can find your contact options by clicking Contact at the bottom of the PayPal website.

I have turned off replies for this thread. Please review the Community Rules and Guidelines, linked at the top of each thread and again here. We absolutely value your participation, but interpersonal disputes are not permitted. I hope that you'll continue to participate in the Community Forum, with the guidelines in mind. Your experiences are helpful to others!

I hope this information helps!

Olivia