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Calculate PayPal Merchant & Seller Fees
 

While many business owners integrate PayPal into their payment system, very few of them are aware of PayPal’s merchant and seller fees.

By clicking on this article, you’ve proven to be one of the few who want to know what they’re getting into before signing up for PayPal. That’s awesome!

This article will help you understand PayPal’s fees as well as how you can avoid them. Let’s dive in!  

Types Of PayPal Fees

One of the most important things to know about PayPal is that they do not charge a fee to open an account.

They also won’t charge a fee if you send money from your PayPal balance!

That said, however, when you link your credit card account to PayPal and send money to friends, family, or coworkers, you will have to pay a fee.

Let’s go over the different fees associated with PayPal quickly, so you have a better idea about the fees you’re being charged.

  • Sending Money

    As stated before, sending money from your PayPal balance is 100% free. However, most people send money from their personal banking account through PayPal, in which case a fee is charged.

    When sending money from the U.S., it costs 2.9% plus $0.30 USD of the amount you’re sending.

    For example, if you send $100.00 USD from your personal credit card, the fee would be $3.20 USD ($2.90 + $0.30).

    At first glance, this doesn’t seem bad. Over time, however, $3.20 adds up. That’s $32 for every 10 transactions, or $3,200 for every 1,000 transactions!

    What about receiving money? Will you be charged a fee for simply getting money from friends, family, and coworkers?

    Let’s find out!

  • Receiving Money

    The answer is no. You, yourself, will not be charged when receiving money from anybody.

    That said, whoever is sending you money may (or may not) be charged. It all depends, again, on whether or not they’re paying you through their personal credit card or through their PayPal account.

    There is, however, a small catch that you should be aware of: international fees.

    If you’re receiving money from someone outside of the U.S., you will be charged 1% of the payment being sent over from your PayPal account.

    We’ll dive a bit more into international fees in the next section, though. For now, let’s talk about transaction fees!

  • Transaction Fees (For Purchase Payments Of Goods And Services)

    Again, there isn’t a fee associated with purchasing goods and services when using your PayPal balance.

    That said, if you sell items on eBay and have your account linked up with PayPal, a transaction fee will be applied.

    The fee costs 2.9% plus $0.30 USD of the amount you’re sending. Sound familiar? It’s the same price you’d pay if you were sending money from your personal bank account from PayPal.

    Again, if you make a sale of  $100.00 USD, the fee would be $3.20 USD ($2.90 + $0.30).

    To better understand the payment fees associated with selling, receiving, and transaction fees, check out this table, provided to you by PayPal’s User Agreement page:

Activity Purchase Payment Fee
Sending (buying) Free
Receiving (selling) Standard rate: 2.9% + $0.30 CAD
Seller rates*:
Monthly Sales Volume
  • $0.01 - $3,000.00
  • $3,000.01 - $12,000.00
  • $12,000.01 - $125,000.00
  • Over $125,000.00
Fee
  • 2.9% + $0.30 CAD
  • 2.5% + $0.30 CAD
  • 2.2% + $0.30 CAD
  • 1.9% + $0.30 CAD
Charity rate**: 1.6% + $0.30 CAD
* To qualify for the above Seller rates you must submit one-time application, have qualifying monthly sales volume, and have an account in good standing.
** To qualify for our charity rate, you must have registered charity business number with the Canada Revenue Agency.

Source: PayPal.com

It’s also important to note that as your monthly sales volume increases, your per-transaction fee decreases. It caps at 1.9% - a full percent cheaper than if you’re under $3,000 per month.

International Payments

Now that we’ve gone over the different types of payment fees associated with PayPal, let’s dive a little deeper into the water.

Important: You will always be charged international fees through PayPal, regardless of whether you’re sending or receiving money or using your PayPal balance or a credit card.

It’s also important to know that the international payment fee is more than the standard U.S. fee. Check out the table provided below to see what the PayPal fee is for your country:

Activity Recipient’s Country Discount rate:
Personal Payment Fee when Payment Method is exclusively Balance or bank
 Standard rate:
Personal Payment Fee when another Payment Method is used to fully or partially fund the payment, including a credit or debit card, Paypal Credit or Paypal Cards.
Sending* Australia 1% 3.4% + Fixed Fee**
Brazil 1% 5.99% + Fixed Fee**
Canada 0% 2.9% + Fixed Fee**
Germany 2% 3.9% + Fixed Fee**
Japan 0.3% 3.9% + Fixed Fee**
Poland 1.0% 3.9% + Fixed Fee**
All Countries
Except as listed above
 0.5% 3.9% + Fixed Fee**
*Sender generally determines whether the sender or recipient pays the Fee. See Section 8.1(b). However, for senders that have been to the newly updated Paypal user experience, there will no longer be an option to allow the recipient of the Personal Payment to pay the fee and such sender will always pay the Fee.
**See Section 8.4(d) below for detailed list of fixed fees for international payments.

Source: PayPal.com

As you can see, the standard rate varies from place to place. Canada only has a 2.9% fixed fee (just like the U.S.) while Brazil has a 5.99% fixed fee in place. Australia only has a 3.4% fixed fee, and all other countries have a 3.9% fixed fee rate.

PayPal used to allow the sender the option to pay the fixed fee or to have the person receiving the money pay for it. Now, however, PayPal has the sender paying the fee regardless.

Remember when we told you that you would have to pay an international payment fee even if you were receiving the money?

When you receive international payments within the U.S., it will cost you 1% of the payment when you use your PayPal or bank account.

When you use a debit or credit card, however, you will be charged 3.9% plus a fixed fee according to the currency of the payment.

All this talk of fees and you may be wondering, “Is there any way I can avoid the payment fees PayPal has in place?”

The next section will answer that question and then some. Let’s go!

What about Friends and Family Fee for Paypal?

There are no fees charged (for both the sender and the receiver) if the sender selects the Friends and Family option upon sending the payment. However, the downside to this is the sender will not have payment protection from Paypal. If both parties agree to this method, it can be a good way to save money on Paypal fees.

Note: While it's free to send payment via the Friends and Family option, there is a small charge for payments made with a debit or credit card. 

What about Paypal's Goods and Services Fee?

If a payment is sent via the Goods and Services option, the standard USD $0.30 plus 2.9% fee applies to the seller (payment receiver). This payment type is used when you're selling an item or service to someone. 

How Do You Avoid PayPal Fees?

Let’s get something out of the way really quick: If you’re paying somebody with a credit card, fees can not be avoided.

That said, there are ways to curb the payment fees by using your PayPal balance. Interested? Follow these steps, and payment fees will be a thing of the past!

  1. Log into your PayPal account.
  2. Select “send money”.
  3. Next, select “send money to family/friends” instead of clicking “paying for goods/services”.
  4. Enter your “to” and “amount” as you normally would.
  5. Continue and conclude your transaction as normal.

I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re paying someone for their services, however, as it goes against PayPal’s Terms of Service. This is purely for your knowledge.

The main problem people face when sending money through PayPal, is the fact that the money is in their personal banking account.

In which case, you cannot avoid the payment fees no matter how hard you try.

How Does PayPal Work For Sellers?

As stated before, many sellers get slapped with PayPal’s payment fee up front. The reason?

A lot of them use their own personal banking account to send and receive money.

While we don’t advise against doing that, if you want to avoid the seller’s fee completely, you’ll need to use your PayPal account for all transactions.

For those of you who skipped down to this section, we’ll go over PayPal’s payment fees one more time.

When sending money from the U.S., it costs 2.9% plus $0.30 USD of the amount you’re sending.

For example, if you send $100.00 USD from your personal credit card, the fee would be $3.20 USD ($2.90 + $0.30).

Don’t forget that this fee is different when dealing with international buyers and sellers!

When you receive international payments within the U.S., it will cost you 1% of the payment when you use your PayPal or bank account.

When you use a debit or credit card, however, you will be charged 3.9% plus a fixed fee according to the currency of the payment.

Fees For eBay And PayPal

Now that we’ve gone over PayPal’s payment fees, let’s talk about eBay. More specifically, how eBay and PayPal correlate when it comes to selling (and buying) merchandise.

Before we dive into eBay’s selling fees, take a look at the table provided to better understand how fee’s are calculated:

Basic fees for auction-style and fixed price listings

  Insertion fee
(per listing, for any duration, including Good ’Til Cancelled*)
 Final value fee
(per item)
Your first 50 listings
(per month)
 Free
(exclusions apply)
 10% of the total amount of the sale
Maximum fee is $750
All additional listings over 50
(per month)
 $0.30
(Insertion fee credited back if your item sells, for eligible auction-style listings)
All your listing appropriate for and listed in the Musical Instruments & Gear > Guitars & Basses category Free 3.5% of the total amount of the sale
Maximum fee is $350

Source: eBay.com

eBay allows you 50 free listings (per month). That said, however, when your listing sells, they take 10% of the total price per sale.

To better understand that, let’s say you priced an item at $25.99. eBay would take 10% off that price, leaving you with $23.39. While this isn’t that much of a difference, a little money here and there adds up after a while, as we’ve shown in the examples above..

Now, let’s say you posted more than 50 listings in one month. eBay would charge you $0.30 per listing as well as 10% of the total amount per sale.

So, how does PayPal come into play, here?

Regardless of whether you’re selling or buying materials from eBay, if you’re located outside the U.S., you’ll be slapped with the 10% fee that eBay charges, as well as the international fee from PayPal.

This is pretty much set in stone. Remember: all international transactions cost the buyer as well as the seller on PayPal.

If you’re ready to get started on eBay, check out our free Online Seller Training Program!