Cash back Bonus with Pay Pal offsets fees
Written: Nov 11 '03 (Updated Nov 14 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Web Site Experience: |
|
|
| Web Site Load Time: |
 |
|
|
Pros: instant money in your account, able to shop online without a credit card
Cons: fees
The Bottom Line: Anyone with an email address can receive or send funds through Paypal, which is an eBay company.
|
|
|
| bonniesayers's Full Review: PayPal |
I joined Paypal several years ago and received the five dollar sign-up bonus. Before I became active on eBay this past May I used Paypal for sending money to friends a few times. In order to become verified with Paypal you will need to confirm your email address and your mailing address as well as insert bank account data. They will send some change through your checking account and then you will have to verify this online. This whole process will take about two weeks before you can begin sending funds through the website.
I also received the ATM Debit card that has the master card logo on it. Paypal is also accepted at online store merchants and the card can be used physically wherever you use an ATM card, like a Bank for withdrawals or swiping at the register for payment.
After I became ID verified with eBay I switched my personal account at Paypal to a premier account. This allowed me to accept credit cards. I signed up to have the Paypal logos inserted daily on my auctions. Once you have a premier account and state within your auctions that Paypal is the only online payment you will receive you can start earning cash back.
This confused me at first because I was using the ATM card several times a week at the post office when paying for the shipments I was mailing out from my sales on eBay. I never did see any amount on my account and never pursued it further.
Last month when my funds were low I started using the Paypal ATM card at a local corner market. The first day there the girl processed my sale as an ATM, but the second time she handed me the slip for signature, like a credit card payment. I was very nervous since I knew this was not a credit card and said she made a mistake that it was only an ATM card. Well the payment went through and I checked online at the Paypal site and noticed I made some change!
The transaction shows pending for a few days depending on the merchant and then the money is added to your account. The actual transaction is also noted as pending, but the amount is deducted immediately from your account activity. While this is not much money, it really did offset the fees I have accumulated when a eBay customer pays with Paypal. For example a $12 charge snagged me 18 cents and a $17 charge added 26 cents to my account. It took about three days for the action to switch from pending to complete. On the activity table you can view the last seven days before having to view the next page. If you want there is a monthly statement you can request or view up to three months worth of data.
When I check further under the details for the preferred cash back bonus I get these specifics, “ Because PayPal wants to reward you for being "PayPal Preferred," we will credit you 1.5% on all debit card purchases when you keep PayPal as the only online payment option for all of your eBay listings. You will receive 1.5% cashback anytime you use your PayPal MasterCard for a credit card purchase (i.e. when you sign a receipt rather than entering your PIN).”
So the choice you need to make when wanting to utilize the ATM card is do you want cash back through your ATM immediately to use and if so use this as an ATM card. If you want to gain the pennies through cash back you will use as a credit card.
The activity table is set up as follows:
The date of transaction, type of transaction (this can be payment, transfer, update, bill) the to/from tab, name or email, status (pending, completed), details (this has the link to see specifics on this transaction), action (this has a little box with ship listed for sales), gross (this is the total for this transaction), fee (here is the cost of accepting paypal), net amount (after the fee) and the balance – this changes after each line.
Another option several buyers have utilized when paying me is an echeck. This is part of the Paypal logo that is inserted in the auctions. This starts as a pending transaction and within 5 business days has completed. Paypal sends you based on your preferences notification when logos are inserted, money has been received in your account and when a pending transfer has been completed. You are instructed by Paypal to wait for the echeck to be completed before sending merchandise.
A few times my balance was zero with Paypal and I started sending money orders or personal checks for auctions I won. I went to Paypal and used the tab request money to transfer funds from my checking account. This process takes several days to complete. Just a few weeks ago the light went off again and I realized I did not have to go that route when my funds were depleted in my Paypal account.
One of my pet peeves is when you go to pay for an item and get to Paypal and the shipping box is blank. This means you have to go back to the auction to read the directions in case they offer more than one method of shipping. I was in a hurry once and did not pay attention and noticed that the transaction used funds from my checking account. I learned by trial and error on my own that my checking account is listed as a funding source, and also my credit card on file was a backup.
Each of these transactions shows up separately. One line will show the money transferred instantly from checking account and the next one will be the payment to the seller for the goods. When you buy certain goods through Paypal they have an amount listed where if you want you can pay that fee in case you are not satisfied with those goods. I have never purchased this.
When you do receive a payment it will show the payee as either verified or not and the address you are shipping to as confirmed or unconfirmed. Receipts are sent to the sender of the payment if you request this notification.
Paypal now has a buyer protection plan that is listed within your auctions if you qualify. This is automatically on my auctions and I have not researched it further, but will when the need arises. There is also a refund button is available for 30 days should you need to send the money back. For example if you list in your auctions a shipping price for certain areas and someone in Canada buys and pays the wrong amount you can refund them the money and then send an invoice through Paypal with the actual shipping charge.
You no longer have to worry about making separate payments to the same seller because they have integrated the system so that all the auctions you won from the same seller are on the same invoice. The seller will have to go in and manually make changes to the shipping options and can have the amount changed automatically. They have the option of using the highest shipping rate and then adding $1.00 for each auction after that or leave it blank and enter the total rate before sending invoice.
For the buyer you can request the seller send you an invoice and ask about combined shipping. When items are paid they show up on your eBay page as paid, but it does depend on what other website they utilize for checkout, like vendido or andale.
Last month I had problems with my outlook express so I changed my email address with both eBay and Paypal. I received an email notifying me of these changes and it worked smoothly. You will have to note on the final page of your auction to change the email address there and once you change one it works for future auctions.
This past week they changed the review page before sending payment in and now you can change the shipping address. With this change came some glitches that affected whether you showed up as confirmed or unconfirmed. On Sunday November 9th I sent a payment for a purchase and noticed I was showing as unconfirmed. I checked my activity and cut and pasted the prior payment I sent on Nov 7th showing the same address as confirmed. I sent this to the seller letting him know I was indeed confirmed and was looking into it at Paypal.
Many sellers will not accept payment from unverified email addresses or unconfirmed shipping addresses. The protection plan from Paypal states whether a transaction is eligible or not depending on the address being confirmed. I did receive a reply to my email to customer service within 24 hours with thorough steps explaining how to rectify this problem with my shipping address at both Paypal and eBay.
Then there was an announcement posted on the eBay site mentioning the technical difficulties with the new page change and that Paypal would be honoring those who showed up as unconfirmed. This was not mentioned in my email response from customer service so maybe all the details were not in place at that time. The help section was easy to use as well.
The fees I am charged for accepting Paypal range from 50 cents to a dollar or more, depends on the actual amount and I believe it is a percentage of the total. When you are using the website it will time out after a few minutes prompting you to input your password. You can change your password and request it with ease. There are auction and merchant tools on the page as well as your profile to add more addresses or credit cards. " A genuine Paypal link will always begin with https://www.paypal.com/"
There is also Bill Pay, Money Market Fund and referrals to merchants that can net you $100.00. Beware of fraud emails and never give out your password or account numbers in an email.
I have received instant payments from people in the UK, Canada and Australia with great results. The money is available immediately with no wait period.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
bonniesayers
|
 - Top 50 |
|
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 842
Trusted by: 1188 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.