PayPal Surcharge

Hey, if PayPal is so damned worried about seeing the "+3%" notation, they should stop charging it.

I believe it has nothing to do with Paypal. I don't think any retail store can charge a surcharge on a credit card payment, period. It might be in the VISA, Mastercard, Etc, agreements that vendors sign....

The same reason some stores "don't take American Express" as the VISA advert goes. AMEX fees tend to be higher, and the stores cannot pass the extra cost on to the buyer.

Plenty of stores do in effect add a surcharge by saying, "well, I can give you this (hot deal) if you pay cash, but otherwise it will be (hot deal + 2%)". Regardless of what some unenforceable contract says about it, it happens and will continue to happen in the real world and on the internet.

Sugarbrie is right on it. In general, I'm all for venting about injustice but why whine about Paypal on the surcharge deal? They are simply protecting their ability to accept Mastercard/Visa which, like it or not, sets the rules of the credit card game. Likewise the seller who appreciates Paypal will do what he/she can to protect their service.

Btw, thanks to Jetkitty for possessing such a keen intellect :^)

Preferences aside, PayPal runs the disclaimer because it just happens to be illegal. Whether anyone likes it or not is beside the point. Of course PayPal doesn't care one bit what people do as long as they use their services and someone pays whatever fees they, or the credit card companies, charge. They make folks agree not to pass along the fee so that they can say to any authorities who may (or may not) investigate their compliance with the law, "hey, we told them it was illegal, we told them not to do it, and they agreed -- don't look at us." This will likely serve as enough of a complication to diffuse any interest in enforcement against PayPal, and there is certainly no political will, advantage, or practical feasability in enforcing it against individual users (...yet, with more high-volume or institutional users, I guarantee this will change).

Consequently, whether or not folks insist on passing this fee along to purchasers is a question of nothing more and nothing less than their own integrity. In fairness, most individual sellers likley don't realize what is at issue. Notwithstanding, no one who insists on passing a surcharge for a service they have selected for their own convenience is someone I would elect to do business with -- and the fact that they do so illegally and in clear breach of an express covenant only drives it home further. I don't think it's worth getting particularly exercised over, just not transactions I need to be a part of. As in all things, the choice is yours.