Credit Cards Through PayPal

The Office Business
1

Hey everyone,

I just signed up with PayPay (yeah I know, finally) as I feel this may be the easiest way to get paid faster by some clients this year.

I’m just wandering about other peoples experiences with PayPal so I have the following questions.
[LIST]
[]What method do you use most to get payment? Link from site where they can make a payment as indicated on their printed invoice? E-mail a PayPal Invoice? Or use the virtual terminal (Has a monthly fee but it’s just like swiping the card in a store)
[]How often do you transfer funds from your Paypal account to your own bank? Is there any benefit in doing it less frequently?
[]What problems or snags have you come across and how were they solved?
[]Do you add anything to the invoice to cover PayPal commissions?
[*]For those of you who have decided to sell window cleaning related products (ie:e-books, or any physical items) are you selling this/these under your window cleaning company or through another company setup or personal account?
[/LIST]
Please feel free to answer any of these on the forum or through PM.

Thanks in advance.

2

I think emailing the paypal is the easiest way.

I transfer funds whenever I feel like it. There is no fee to transfer funds, but it does take 3-4 days.

none, really

No, but I’ve thought about it, it does add up!

I’m Selling the SEO Crash Course under another company name.

3

Thanks for those quick answers Doug.

What about foreign currencies? I read that there was a basic percentage plus conversion fee?

4

I’m not sure about foriegn currency. So far I have just collected USD. There is a fee to collect payment from a customer but not to transfer to your bank account.

5

Hey Mark!

There’s one problem that I’ve encountered:

I can’t seem to avoid using the “donation” feature if the client has control over the amount being paid into my paypal account.

It is processed as a “donation”.

A couple even called to make sure they weren’t just donating :slight_smile:

Overall, I’m a big believer in paypal. I lose 3% in fees, but that’s the sting of using credit cards. Gotta live with it.

And for my books, ebooks, memberships, etc, they go through my company’s paypal account, but it can easily be changed to reflect something else. And you can withdraw and transfer into whatever account you wish.

K

6

I didn’t get the donation think Kevin, do you mind explaining that a little further ?

I’m keeping an eye on this thread since my website is in the works now and want to add this once I re-launch it

Thanks

7

Thanks for your response Kevin. I remember you saying a while ago that you were using PayPal and I too notice that PayPal used the term ‘Donation’ on the secure payment page. I’m sure there’s some way to change it to ‘submit payment’ or something similar. Maybe a call to their customer support could fix this up.

8

I have never had any problems with Paypal and I have been using them since 2003. I email my Paypal invoices and share the fee with the client. You don’t have to transfer your money, I just use my Paypal debit card and get 1% back on any purchases, even gas, that helps off-set my half of the Paypal fee.

9

Sean, that debit card can be used to withdraw via ATM right ?

10

You can withdraw $ from any ATM but there is a ATM fee & Paypal fee.

11

I like my paypal set-up as well, but I just wish that I had more customers to use it!

12

Do your customers not have credit cards and access to the internet?

13

I was just making a wise-crack about how I don’t have many customers. Also, most of them really opt to just write a check. Don’t know why? Paypal is extremely secure.

With my paypal setup, you don’t even need to have a paypal account. They just need to have an internet connection and a credit card. It’s that easy. The ones you have used it, like it.

On a side note. I cleaned a guys windows last month who started a company called merchant anywhere. I’m tempted to use his service because all you need is a blackberry, iphone, or some kind of phone with an internet connection, and you plug-in your receipt printer and you let them slide the card. The customer immediately gets a smaller sized receipt on the spot. He charges $25/month flat fee + 1.69% per transaction. If I did a lot of volume it would sure beat the 2.99% that Paypal charges.

14

Spring is just around the corner. Soon you’ll be too busy to wise-crack. :wink:

Accepting credit cards is a must for me now. When a store manager gives me a choice between sending the invoice to head office and waiting 30 days or take our credit card and get paid today…well it’s a no-brainer.

15

Then I would try to find a mobile merchant service like I described above. With a lower transaction cost than paypal and a $25 flat fee per month, you break even with about $2000 worth of transactions.

I couldn’t imagine it being easier than wipping out a sweet iphone and a card-slider and printer in one. (just the card-slider and receipt printer in one, not the iphone- just clarifying)

16

Well, after chasing a huuuuuge company for payments dating back to Jan and Feb I finally got fed up and demanded payment via credit card. Processed it today through Paypal and all is right again in the world of window cleaning.

Ahhhh…I guess I’m just saying that for the small one-man-show, Paypal is a very easy payment solution. easy to set up and implement. :slight_smile:

17

Is it legal to “share” the fee with clients? Or for that matter to acknowledge any form of a “fee” for credit card usage?

18

I have different currencys in paypal. You can now save it in the original currency processed or change it all to dollars - it’s up to you. Say you had 3 currencys in your account - you could use them all up on one payment for an item & take their exchange rate.

19

Has anyone looked into Credit Card Terminal, or other iPhone apps for credit card payments on spot? I am interested in that.