I have had my paypal account for a long time. I never received any payments through them though, until I started mystery shopping. I just received a email from them telling me that I was supposed to be charged for each payment I receive. Here I thought it was free all this time. My letter is as follows:

We are contacting you regarding an issue that temporarily impacted your account. For a period of time, your account was not charged any fees associated with receiving payments.
The issue was fixed on February 22. At that time, we began deducting a base rate of 2.9 percent, plus $.30 USD from the payments received. This rate is in accordance with the PayPal User Agreement which you accepted upon opening or upgrading your PayPal account.Because this issue was on our end, your PayPal account will not be charged for the outstanding fees associated with transactions that occurred during the affected time period.
We apologize for the inconvenience this issue may have caused you and appreciate your understanding. If you have any questions or concerns, please visit our Contact Us page.
Sincerely,
PayPal

So, I am assuming this is correct? We are charged by paypal for every payment we receive? I have one company who sends each shop separately, so on the 20th of every month I have 10-20 different payment transactions for $10 or $15 each. I don't like the idea of giving up ANY of my hard earned money. I suppose I wouldn't be taking it so hard if they had been doing it from the beginning. I thought they were an excellent "free" way to be paid lol

I have only been charged for payments related to one company and it would appear that they are handling the payment in some odd way.

What's the exact email address from which this was sent?

The email came from paypal@paypal.com It has the paypal logo on it. Is it real? Does paypal charge you for each payment you receive from your MSC's or anywhere else for that matter?

No that is not right. Go to paypal.com and log in and get it straight.
Let us know.

they charge on the merchants end... not the recievers... the only company that passes that fee on is CORI... and since they are so large and their pay is so small that $0.30 per transaction is probably pretty hefty on their end...

did you do some ebay selling or selling on another site ? the email might be in regards to that... or it just might be a glitch... or spam... but spam is usually much more tell tale than that...

either way you are going to be fine...

No, no ebay selling or anything like that. I will give paypal customer service a call in the morning.

It depends on how the payer is using paypal. One MSC that I work with increases my fees to cover the paypal fee that results from the way the MSC contracts with paypal.

sassyshopper Wrote:
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> The email came from paypal@paypal.com It has the
> paypal logo on it. Is it real? Does paypal charge
> you for each payment you receive from your MSC's
> or anywhere else for that matter?

PayPal is a very popular phishing/spam/scam domain. I checked my emails, and the closest address to that from which I've received mail is paypal@e.paypal.com. It's kind of a toss-up as to whether or not it's real. My first inclination was no because of the charge notification (which make no sense, unless your account was set up the wrong way), but the content is fairly benign,unless there was something to click on within the email. Anyway, I'd call them today. Not sure if the number is easy to find on the site. I'd call them today (888-221-1161).

Please let us know what you find out.

Second To None now passes through PayPal fees to the recipient.

cooldude581 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> they charge on the merchants end... not the
> recievers... the only company that passes that fee
> on is CORI... and since they are so large and
> their pay is so small that $0.30 per transaction
> is probably pretty hefty on their end...
>
> did you do some ebay selling or selling on another
> site ? the email might be in regards to that... or
> it just might be a glitch... or spam... but spam
> is usually much more tell tale than that...
>
> either way you are going to be fine...

No payment charged from Paypal in my 6 years of msing, sometimes I wonder at it all....I may have a limit per month, I think so, but do not go over it.

Limits only have to do with the amount you can withdraw per month, but you can get rid of the limit with additional verification.

I didn't get to call today. This is just too confusing to me. I don't think I have any limits, as I met all the verification requirements. I can't imagine what they are referring to. My activity with paypal consists of receiving money from my MSC's and then transferring the money to my linked bank account. I did send some money to my daughter twice using paypal. Could that be it?

When you pay someone through PayPal, you have to be careful about how the money is transferred so you won't incur a fee. I always choose "personal" so there's no charge. I then click "other", mostly because there's no reason for them to know my business. However, in regard to your situation, the email you got cites monies received, not sent, so I'd definitely give them a call.

Hey this is very first time I am hearing that Paypal is has made disappointment with someone. But yeah we are also bit responsible for such things.

I had a paypal account before I started MSing. Originally, I only used it to pay for ebay purchases. The paypal account is linked to my personal checking account. When I used it in that manner, there were never any fees, but I only paid using paypal.

One time, I sold something on ebay. In order to be able to accept paypal and let the payer use a credit card, I had to change my account status (I don't exactly recall, but it seems like it was a change from personal to vendor or something like that.) I've only sold on ebay 5 or 6 times total in 10+ years.

Anytime I would sell on ebay and someone paid for something, paypal charged me AT LEAST one fee and most of the time TWO fees. They charged one fee because it was an ebay auction and they charged a second fee when the payer paid with credit card. It got fairly expensive, IMO.

Once I started MSing, I received lots of paypal payments with no issues. But I do recall one company paying and I was charged a fee, but I don't recall which company as it only happened one time. I figured the company had paid using a credit card or something.

Anyway, you do have to be careful with PayPal. They'll ding you just like every other bank if you aren't careful.

Apparently there is always a fee when we get paid through PayPal and most of the MSCs pay the fee on their end rather than pass it along to us.

PayPal charges however they can. Many of the free options when sending or receiving money incur fees now. Lots of people do not like PayPal for many reasons, having your paycheck docked is one but they've frozen accounts without a real reason, refunded money when they shouldn't have, and more. Although I haven't had a huge issue with them, I've had some issues, including being charged for MS payments from time to time but nothing too major.

If you use their merchant accounts (not just the upgrade to accept payments), it gets expensive quickly. There are other viable options out there. I don't particularly trust PayPal and their biggest competitor Google Checkout, I think it's called, is banned on eBay because eBay owns PayPal and wants to keep the money to themselves. It's just another reason I don't put much faith in them. I'd rather have direct deposit. It's faster than PayPal.

Yes, I definitely prefer direct deposit above all else. I wish all the MSC's offered it but most of the ones I perform shops for use paypal as their only means of payment. I never did find out why I was sent that notice, but I have received payments through paypal since then and no money was taken out. I was relieved about that.

I know there is a way the companies are supposed to process it so they get charged the fees instead of the shoppers but not everyone does it right or chooses not to do it right.

I wonder if the person who sent the notice was incorrect and it was found out by someone above him or her. There's no telling. You can contact PayPal 10 times and get seven different answers.

I haven't been charged for my MS fees since I've been back but, come to think of it, only a few companies I'm shopping with regularly use PayPal. One uses PayQuicker and the rest send a check.

Knock on wood that you keep getting to keep all your money.