I got busted!
Just got an email from PP:


Hmm, when they say receive money for free, wonder if they means no more fees.
Who wants to send me $5 to test it?

When you're receiving $5k a month in payments from people around the world all thanking you this Anraku or that Goga.....you are probably stretching the permitted use for "gift" payment.

The gravy train stops here!

... wait- does that even make sense?

Why do they take a percentage of every payment I receive? I'm not a business and the activity on my account is so extremely low there's no way they could mistake me for one.

i dont think i understand what a personal payment is

I believe if you've ever received a credit card payment for anything (eBay listing or whatever) they automatically convert you from a personal account to a business account. You can have them switch you back *once* but then you're permanently a "business".

In order to open a new PP account, you need a separate bank account and email address.

Kind of blows because I'll go in on birthday presents w/ people, pick up concert tickets as a favor because I'm near a place that doesn't charge TM prices, loan someone money, etc and have them paypal me but get dinged for that. If you have those people indicate "gift" - are you then free of PP charges? That seems like a legitimate use of "gift" - I'm talking less than $1000 over the year and maybe a half-dozen occurrences.

The best loophole paypal has for sellers. Sucks they caught you Joe. I hope I don't get that e-mail.

Personal payments are like sending money to a friend. There is no fee assessed on either end. Paypal began allowing these transfers fairly recently. This is different from whether you have a personal or premier/business account with PP.

The problem with personal payments is that you cannot file a dispute if the item is not received (because it assumes no item is being sold). A lot of buyers do not know this, and I have seen other sellers specifically asking for personal payments on this board.

Hi PayPal. How are you, besides evil? I'm fine, thanks. Take Meg back, please.

Anyway, you see, "Joe's Kaiju Shop" isn't really a shop. It's a charity. "Joe" sends toys to needy children around the world. The parents send "Joe" money so that he can buy more toys for the needy children. The parents are too busy to buy the toys for the kids, so "Joe" does it as a humane service to protect the needy family unit. I think it's terrible that you would threaten a charity. Would you act that way if you could see the joy that these toys bring to the needy? Stand down, PayPal. For the children. It's for the children.

Does this only apply as a penalty to the payment recipient? I know that once I've got a rapport with a seller, I like to pay as a gift so they don't get fee'd... usually they don't even ask, but I'm just that nice. For now.

Well, the seller is the party responsible for the fee, so I would assume the penalty goes to the seller as well.

I just include extra for fees, based on the 3% plus $0.30 formula... maybe I'm just stupid at this Internet money thing. ;P

It's late and I might be missing something but if it's sent as a sale the seller pays the fees, if it's sent as a gift the buyer pays the fees and as an aside screws any chance of compensation (so only use it with the good guys!) . . . but either way Paypal get the fees so why are they getting arsey about it?

I don't pay a fee to send money as a gift... unless I'm missing something.

Maybe it's an International foible or my account is different but I get charged the fee everytime.

Yeah I think the "no fee" thing is for within the US only. We who have yet to be freed get charged...

I guess making a kajillion dollars in fees simultaneously through eBay AND paypal was not enough for them, they had to make sure their profits stay on the up an up. I can't wait till all corporations burn and it's chaos in the streets.

A huge part of PayPal's business is people transferring money between countries. So yes, they are always gonna charge for that.

Is that anything like a kaiju-llion?

I just paid for some new stuff, but was sneaky and wrote 'Gift from Promethum5' in the header, instead of what I used to write. Gotta be coy!

Actually I just re-read the user agreement and I was incorrect.

Personal payments are only no-fee if it is (1) solely funded by your balance or bank account, and (2) made within the U.S. Otherwise, the sender can determine who pays the fee. Apparently some credit cards will also consider the payment a cash advance. Lame, but I guess I see the logic.

Section 8 of the Paypal User Agreement spells out the fee structure.

MOTHERF**K...... they got me too

I fear I will get caught next.

The first rule of Fight Club is...

Busted. Again.

clean up that inbox!

haha!

this happened to me during comic con when i muled and asked for gift payments.
i stopped for a while, but then started again, and no email....yet