Reply to: Paid via PayPal from Canada

[earningacrust]

I use a business PayPal account regularly to receive payments from international customers. I simply add a line to their invoice stating "If paying via Paypal (other than mass payments), an additional fee of X% is due to cover the costs of processing the payment."

I then calculate the Paypal fee and show it below the invoice total

...and for a Canadian customer, I'd invoice in Canadian dollars and show the Paypal fee in dollars also

Money gets sent to PayPal, I leave a bit in there but transfer the rest across to my main Business current account. No problems to date and the PayPal account has been running for years

[jamesbrown]

Why would you pay extra charges to send a foreign transaction if you don't want to?

They have options if that's an issue; they can split the charges, pay all the charges, or have the receiver pay all the charges. It's more likely that they couldn't do it via online banking and couldn't be bothered to make the effort, but who knows. Either way, the client needs to pull their finger out.

[Eirikur]

The client mentioned Western Union. How does it work? Does it go direct to you bank account?

Western Union is used to transfer cash to 3d world countries, where the bankings system is poor or people don't have bankaccounts. You get a reference number you go to an office and get cash. The percentage they take can be well over 10%

[SueEllen]

There's no reason a client's overseas bank cannot make a payment to a UK Bank account with the correct IBAN and SWIFT codes.

Any client who says they cannot is lieing. As for using Paypal to receive payment, jeez, with their charges for getting at 'your' money and account suspensions etc, people must be desparate to use them.

Lying?

Of course the client is lying. Why would you pay extra charges to send a foreign transaction if you don't want to?

[jamesbrown]

This is almost certainly a question of your client nor being a***d or not doing it properly. Who does YourCo bank with? If it's a UK clearing bank, it should be straightforward. If it's someone like Cater Allen, it's less straightforward, because it's routed via two intermediaries, so your client probably cannot initiate this via online banking (which leaves them at the mercy of generally useless bank staff), but it's still do-able once they get the wire transfer set-up properly. Bottom line, it needs someone vaguely competent on the client side, but they probably can't be a***d to do it. I deal with clients from North America all the time, and I've only had to accept a cheque on one occasion. You definitely don't want to be using PayPal.

[BolshieBastard]

There's no reason a client's overseas bank cannot make a payment to a UK Bank account with the correct IBAN and SWIFT codes.

Any client who says they cannot is lieing. As for using Paypal to receive payment, jeez, with their charges for getting at 'your' money and account suspensions etc, people must be desparate to use them.

[borderreiver]

Managed to set one up quite quickly. They send a 1p transaction to your bank with a verification code instantly. I checked online banking and got code from there

That bit was easy for me too. But ISTR they wanted me to submit all manner of company documentation (certificate of incorporation etc) before they would deign to let me actually withdraw funds from my PayPal account, and that took a few days.

Of course, maybe they've improved things since then (12 months ago).

[Contreras]

PayPal used to have a service called "mass pay". It's different because the sender pays the fees and the receiver gets the precise amount billed. The fees were also lower than standard paypal. It is/was intended as a batch payment facility. I think you had to upload a text file describing the transaction or something. A quick Google suggests it still exists so maybe worth a quick look.

[cityben]

PayPal charges 3.4% +20p per transaction IIRC, but it's more for transactions from outwith the UK. Could be more like 4% for a Canadian transaction, even if in Sterling. Best check on their website.

It's also not all that easy to set up a PayPal business account - they obviously have to verify that you're a business and that can easily take a couple of days (I speak from experience). Plus, every once in a while, PayPal decides that some transaction you have had is somehow dodgy and locks your account down for a couple of weeks while it's investigated. In that time, all the funds in your PP account are frozen, of course.

So avoid if you can ...

Managed to set one up quite quickly. They send a 1p transaction to your bank with a verification code instantly. I checked online banking and got code from there

[cityben]

I had a similar problem with my American contract, their bank weren't able to do the transfer for some weird reason (my previous American contract were able to though and the one before that used to just post a cheque) so its now transferred via their bank to Western Union (I believe) and the currency charges seem okay

The client mentioned Western Union. How does it work? Does it go direct to you bank account?

[borderreiver]

PayPal charges 3.4% +20p per transaction IIRC, but it's more for transactions from outwith the UK. Could be more like 4% for a Canadian transaction, even if in Sterling. Best check on their website.

It's also not all that easy to set up a PayPal business account - they obviously have to verify that you're a business and that can easily take a couple of days (I speak from experience). Plus, every once in a while, PayPal decides that some transaction you have had is somehow dodgy and locks your account down for a couple of weeks while it's investigated. In that time, all the funds in your PP account are frozen, of course.

So avoid if you can ...

[darmstadt]

I had a similar problem with my American contract, their bank weren't able to do the transfer for some weird reason (my previous American contract were able to though and the one before that used to just post a cheque) so its now transferred via their bank to Western Union (I believe) and the currency charges seem okay

[cityben]

Or work out the paypal and currency conversion fees and tell them you will only do it if they pay them.

Yeah, that was the plan. Just trying to figure out how much. Was thinking +5%

[DaveB]

Last time I received money from someone via PayPal (3 years ago), they took a big chunk of money through their % despite the fact that they were essentially the middle man in a simple bank transfer.

DON'T DO IT. It's their problem - tell them that you don't have a PayPal account and they should sort their tulip out.

Or work out the paypal and currency conversion fees and tell them you will only do it if they pay them.

[glippiglop]

Last time I received money from someone via PayPal (3 years ago), they took a big chunk of money through their % despite the fact that they were essentially the middle man in a simple bank transfer.

DON'T DO IT. It's their problem - tell them that you don't have a PayPal account and they should sort their tulip out.