Paypal & the 2.9% - do you charge for this?
 

When a customer pays by paypal, do you add in the cost of the 2.9% fee? The way I look at it now is no, but lately i've been thinking you buy something from any store you get hit with a sales tax of 5% or more depending where you are. In Cali its 8%, so if anything 2.9% doesn't seem too bad but I still don't like the thought of quoting a price then when the job is finished, saying "Oh... if you're paying by paypal, i need to charge you 2.9% more.

Your thoughts?

it's a cost of doing business.

You can add it into all your prices, sure. But don't add it on as a extra charge when checking out. That will piss customers off.

No I don't charge for it, I'm happy with the prices people pay me currently.

It's not like grocery stores, malls etc tack on an extra 1.4% when you use a credit card vs. cash even tho they have to pay the percentage for thier merchant acct

Nah I hate nickel and diming people.. I just figure the 2.9% in when I give someone a price.

Yep cost of doing business

Paypal makes big bucks off me :(

DH

switch over to a merchant account :)

is there not other alternatives that would rob you off less money?

If I did do it... you're the only one I wouldn't charge ;)

I just include it in the final price it's the best thing to do...

Well most webmasters want to pay via PP, so we keep that open as an option, but we also accept epassporte, bank wires, money orders and for our best customers cheques.

DH

Awww I can feel the love in here :)

DH

Paypal is pretty damn cheap for US/Canadians!

We have credit card processing now, but they charge us like 7%

When you have a 20% profit margin, 7% hurts!!!

DH

I've had people charge me and others that don't. Personally I think it's very tacky and rude to charge the client for the transaction.

Steve you mentioned paying sales tax at the grocery store. This isn't the same situation. If the grocery store charged you extra for using your CC then it would be the same situation.

It's a cost of doing business. If you're losing too much from processing fees maybe you need to adjust your prices.

7% on an advertising site? I think you need to shoot me an ICQ tuesday.

I don't. PayPal's percentage is pretty small in the grand scheme of things. If they charged more than they do, then I would probably have to pass that along to customers, but since their fees are so reasonable, I don't really feel the need to do so.

As a side note, my car insurance company recently started charging an extra fee if you pay by credit card because they said the CC companies charge so much for their services. Walmart also told us recently that they may start adding a fee onto Mastercard purchases because of high fees. There was a few weeks when our local Walmart wouldn't take them at all.

paypal fee's nah would not tack them on. I often even ask the person what is the cheapest way to pay them on their end as well as mine. By the way it comes to almost break even if you make purchases as well as sell stuff. Just use your paypal debit card when making the purchase and your cash back even's it out almost.

Now I would charge for a few other payment options. WU, wire's, or anything that would be over 4.9% of the fee.

I guess what I was trying to get across that outside of our business, most people would go ahead and charge a tax on their service/product for tax. I don't, so in the end when tax time comes around I will owe for not only for the tax I am not including but taking a small hit for not including this since my invoices show what I billed the client. that is what the govt. will see when it's actually X amount of dollars minus 2.9% that i realistically grossed. considering that 99% of my clients pay by paypal, take my annual salary and minus 2.9%, thats a few thousand that are just gone just for being nice and excluding it.

my prices are already cheap...maybe i do need to readjust prices...

it is deductable.

ok, cool. i leave most of this stuff up to my accountant, she's great. i would be screwed without her.

Sure, can I get my accounting person to contact you in regards to this? What is your e-mail?

DH