What and what commission is charged for transactions in the PayPal system

The PayPal payment system is actively used all over the world as a convenient tool for making purchases and money transfers. Recently, users began to notice that PayPal commission has increased for some transactions.

The PayPal service is unique in its essence, because it can be used in any country in the world and automatically converts currency depending on the location. Before blaming the shortcomings of the service, you must fully familiarize yourself with the rules for users and the amount of commissions.

In some cases, Paypal commission is not charged

The content of the article

The PayPal payment system involves linking a bank card to the main account. A card account can be opened for any type of currency. In addition, you can also link a virtual card account to make payments.

The following types of transactions are carried out without a commission fee:

1. Transfer funds from your balance to another PayPal account.
2. Transfer money from a card to a PayPal account.
3. Purchasing goods in online stores - without commission, you can purchase products only from trading partners of the PayPal payment system.

It is necessary to distinguish between such concepts as payment from the account balance and payment from a bank card. To make any of these transfers, you must have a sufficient amount on hand. Only transfers from a PayPal account within the country will be free. If the user pays through a linked bank account, then he is charged a commission of 3.4% and a fixed fee of 10 rubles.

PayPal: what is it and how to use it

The so-called PayPal “Stick” is already used by many people and today there are 205 countries and a huge number of fiat currencies circulating all over the world. The system itself has existed since 1998 on the world market and has already been somehow absorbed by the global trading giant eBay? But today it is again an autonomous platform.

A platform with a full list of services arrived on the Russian market and has been available since 2013. Now I can only use mine to pay for goods all over the world in online stores and send money from wallet to wallet.

Official project page for Russian-speaking audience: https://www.paypal.com/ru

The share of online transactions due to the pandemic and increased literacy of the population has increased significantly. It’s rare that anyone carries cash with them anymore and doesn’t pay for everything using Google Pay, SPB from Sberbank and other mobile payments. Everything is convenient and you can carry all the cards in one phone.

International transfers via Paypal

If you need to withdraw money from one country to another, the Paypal commission will be much more expensive. The interest rate depends on the country to which the transfer and currency conversion is carried out.

Commission amount for international transfer:

1. When withdrawing from one PayPal account to another, interest is charged - from 0.4% to 1.5% of the amount.
2. Transfer from a bank card to a PayPal account - a commission of 3.4 plus 10 rubles is charged for transferring funds from a card and from 0.4 to 1.5% for transferring money to another country.

It is important to note that each user has a limit for various transactions (withdrawal, transfer, receipt of payment) with PayPal. Through PayPal, you can also withdraw funds to your bank account - the payment system does not charge a fee for this operation, but the bank can independently impose a commission on the incoming transaction.

PayPal: logging into your personal account and registering a wallet

The registration itself is quite simple, but special attention should be paid to the reliability and transparency of the information provided when opening a wallet.

IMPORTANT: Very frequent cases of freezing money and blocking accounts with $1000 in their accounts have been recorded. All this is connected with the fight against money laundering and the detection of dubious transactions on the Internet. With anonymous wallets, you can lose all your contents.

Before opening your account, you need to select an account type from two in the registration section:

• Personal account. Register for personal use and spending on the Internet to purchase goods and services. Often used by citizens of the former CIS such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, etc. to send money to relatives home, etc. You can buy it in any store all over the world without leaving your home.
• Corporate. You can use a legal entity for financial transactions. Integration into online stores and platforms for conducting monetary transactions. In general, everything for running a business account.

a button to place an order on your website or store by inserting There are no such opportunities for personal use.

Step No. 1: first of all, select a workspace and click open an account:

Step No. 2: we go through a banal registration for which you will need: phone number, email. (Example for an individual):

• We enter your phone number and receive a six-digit code to enter and confirm the number.

• We are setting up a profile and be sure to note that you must indicate exactly the data and exactly your own in order to avoid hemorrhoids in the wrong place in the future.

• Fill in your details and be sure to have an INN or SNILS (other people’s data will not be accepted).

• After registration, you will be offered to make purchases or try to send money.

• If you choose the first option, you will be asked to link your card.

IMPORTANT: link your card once and it will be safe. You don’t have to constantly enter codes, card expiration dates and other data. When you select a payment card, the necessary data will be automatically connected without displaying personal information. To link the card, you will be charged 60 rubles, which will then be returned to your account.

Enter your card details in the appropriate fields and click next:

The system debits 60 rubles to confirm the card and its owner.

The process is similar if you want to link a bank account rather than a card with the following information:

• Type of account to be opened (citizen, individual entrepreneur or LLC, CJSC, OJSC);
• TIN and BIC of your organization;
• Name of the organization;
• Bank account number opened for accounting purposes.

Step #3: Once in your personal account, you can use various services: send money or issue an invoice and request it.

If you need to transfer an amount, then select a user by email address or his name in his profile. Next, select a currency and send.

Currency exchange with Paypal

If you buy goods abroad, it is worth considering that when withdrawing money, a currency conversion fee is charged - it is 4%. In addition, money is transferred at the current PayPal exchange rate. For comparison, you can take the current exchange rate in the bank and in the system - the difference is noticeable.

There is one option: in order not to overpay, you should attach a bank card in a foreign currency to your PayPal account. In this case, the funds will be debited from the account in rubles, and subsequently the money will be credited to the card and converted at the bank’s exchange rate.

Important point! When making online purchases in another country, you must disable automatic currency conversion in PayPal settings , otherwise funds will be exchanged at the rate of the payment system. If the received funds are withdrawn to the card in another currency, then a commission of 2.5% of the amount will be charged.

Is it possible to reduce the commission?

The most important costs are related to the conversion of funds. Therefore, if you avoid it, you can save money in your account. A wallet in the currency used for payment will help with this. That is, experts advise opening cards in dollars or euros so that you can pay for online purchases without overpayments.

But there is one more trick for those who cannot open multiple accounts. The default system settings are PayPal currency conversion. She's quite tall. To reduce it, you should choose to transfer the currency of other payment systems (Visa, MasterCard) or your banking institution.

This is worth remembering, especially if we are talking about large amounts. After all, a significant part of the funds is lost only on conversion. You should always check with the seller who pays the 4% overpayment. According to the rules, this is the seller, but there are exceptions.

How to buy without overpaying

When choosing stores to purchase from, you should pay attention to those where the fee is payable by the seller. It would be a good idea to have a card in dollars to avoid conversion altogether. The card must be verified and linked to your account.

Terms of trade

PayPal purchases are free, but the merchant must pay a fee. In the event that the seller does not wish to pay the 4% currency conversion fee (for out-of-country purchases), this percentage is paid at the expense of the buyer.

The following types of commissions are established for sellers depending on the size of turnover:

1. Up to 300,000 rubles - 3.9% plus 10 rubles mandatory fee.
2. Up to 750,000 rubles - 3.7% plus 10 rubles mandatory fee.
3. Up to 1,500,000 rubles - 3.4% plus 10 rubles mandatory fee.
4. More than 1,500,000 rubles - 2.9% plus 10 rubles mandatory fee.

If the buyer regularly makes mini-payments in the amount of up to 300 rubles, he is charged a commission of 5% in Russia and 6% for international purchases, plus a mandatory fee of 2 rubles. To pay the commission on micropayments, you need to contact feedback and create a special request.

Approximate PayPal fees for international sales charged to seller and buyer:

1. The buyer pays: 4% for currency conversion, a percentage of 0.4 to 1.5% for withdrawing funds to an account in another country and interest at the exchange rate for currency exchange. An additional commission of 3.4% is possible for funds withdrawn from the card to a PayPal account. In addition, the seller may impose the obligation to pay a commission for the sale of goods on the buyer, and this is an additional 2.9% to 3.9%.
2. The seller pays a percentage of sales from 2.9 to 3.9% (depending on sales volume). Other costs are not taken into account.

From the above comparison it is clearly seen that the main costs are borne by the buyer.

Info

An additional fee in favor of the electronic payment system is charged when performing the following operations:

• sending money to friends or relatives from a linked bank card;
• international transfers;
• for commercial users.

Regardless of the type of transaction, when using wallets with different base currencies, an additional conversion fee is charged.

In addition to senders, recipients also have to pay a fee for transferring money from PayPal to PayPal. In particular, the rule applies to sellers who receive payment for goods or services to their wallet, and to persons accepting charitable donations.

Purchase returns

What to do if the buyer did not like the purchases he paid for and he wants to return them? First of all, you should agree with the seller of the goods - if he has no complaints, then the funds can be returned. To do this, you must return the product and send the appropriate feedback request. In this case, fees for currency exchange, conversion of funds, and wire transfers from the card will not be refunded. Only the amount of the item will be refunded.

Based on all of the above, we can conclude that the PayPal system is easy to use, but it has some nuances that should be studied in advance and taken into account when working.

We recommend watching a video on how to remove double conversion in PayPal.

Free transactions on PayPal

Transfer to PayPal is carried out without commission in the following cases:

• personal transactions between electronic wallets within the same country;
• payment for goods and services using the payment system;
• withdrawal of balance to linked bank details;
• return of funds transfer.

Wallet management is generally free - no fees are required for creating an account, linking a bank account and a card for a card. In the last two cases, a small amount is frozen, but is immediately returned after the transaction is confirmed. The cost of servicing personal and business accounts is zero.

How to top up your PayPal account?

PayPal operates in more than 200 countries around the world, has internal converters for 26 types of currencies, and the number of registered users is approaching 180 million.

PayPal is an international payment system that is used not only by many foreign stores, but also by bookmakers, poker companies providing various types of gambling services, as well as millions and millions of individuals and legal entities.

The operating principle of PayPal is based on making requests between participants in the system; it does not have its own funds, taking into circulation the money that was credited to the participant’s account from an external account (for example, from your card).

Disadvantages of Paypal

The service has a number of disadvantages. The most significant:

• high popularity among scammers who send links to websites in order to force the user to disclose their personal data;
• collecting tax from online sellers;
• providing data to third parties for transactions;
• high commissions compared to other EPS.

Despite a number of disadvantages, PayPal is popular. The service has not lost its position for more than 20 years and is gradually eliminating competitors.

Sending and receiving

Many questions concern what PayPal fees are for transfers. Let us immediately note that since the summer of 2022, all internal movements of funds in the Russian Federation are prohibited, so money can only be transferred abroad. If we are not talking about a commercial transaction (purchase of a service / product), the PayPal commission for an international transfer is 3.4% + fixed payment.

Additionally, there are requirements for the balance. If shipping is carried out to European countries, Canada and the USA, at least 149.99 rubles must remain, and to another country - 299.99 rubles. There is no fee for receiving personal funds.

As for the fixed payment, it depends on the currency. For example, for the Czech crown - 10, for the euro - 0.35, for the Japanese yen - 40, for the US dollar - 0.30, etc.

Many people ask what PayPal commission is for transferring to a Sberbank card. Due to the introduction of restrictions on internal transfers in the summer of 2020, such operations are not carried out at all. The only thing you can do is withdraw funds to the linked card/account, and then transfer the funds to another person through banking channels as usual.

Where to see the payment status

If the system did not reject the operation, then the money was sent to its destination. You can check the status of your completed payment in your personal account in the Review tab.

The Recent transactions section displays all transfers and payments made during the last period. If the status In processing is indicated under the operation, it means the money has not yet reached the client. The Executed status means that the operation was completed successfully and that the client has already received money into his account.

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about the author

Irina Rusanova - higher education at the International East European University in the direction of "Banking". Graduated with honors from the Russian Economic Institute named after G.V. Plekhanov with a major in Finance and Credit. Ten years of experience in leading Russian banks: Alfa-Bank, Renaissance Credit, Home Credit Bank, Delta Credit, ATB, Svyaznoy (closed). He is an analyst and expert of the Brobank service on banking and financial stability. [email protected]

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Where can a positive PayPal account balance come from?

PayPal account balance may appear for several reasons:

• the account owner was sent a payment for any service that he provided on the Internet (for example, for placing advertising on his website, as in my case);
• PayPal account was sent a transfer via the PayPal : from a friend, relative, or it could be an act of charity;
• the seller sent the refund to the buyer directly through PayPal (this can be either a payment or a transfer);
• as a result of a dispute on eBay, the funds were returned to the PayPal and were not automatically transferred back to the buyer’s bank card;
• and finally, why this article was written - a payment has been received into your PayPal for an item purchased on eBay !

Of course, these are not all possible options for the appearance of a positive balance on a PayPal , but the rest will be very similar to those given. Please note that the reasons given include two main options for replenishing your account: transfer and payment! In case the reason for replenishing the account is a payment! then you should pay special attention to its sender before accepting this payment, and even more so before withdrawing the money received in this way. The fact is that if a payment was sent, then a commission will be charged from its recipient (transfers of funds between PayPal can be sent without commissions) and what’s worst: the sender of the payment may open a dispute demanding a refund of the funds paid, since the services were not provided were provided or the goods were not received or received but not the right one. When receiving payments, you should be especially attentive and careful if the purpose of the payment contains unclear links or descriptions. For example, such methods of taking money are used by dishonest sellers from AliExpress and TaoBao and even some from eBay . The buyer who demands a refund receives money to his PayPal in the form of payment! The recipient of the payment pays a small commission and seems satisfied - the money is returned! However, a little over a month later, a dispute opens over this payment and the “fraudulent seller” receives a refund of his payment for the air, and the unfortunate recipient of the payment loses any opportunity to receive reimbursement for his expenses for the original purchase.

How to reduce the cost of translations?

It will not be possible to completely eliminate mandatory payments. However, you can avoid additional costs in the following ways:

• use the most common currency – euros or dollars – as your main currency;
• check the currency of the recipient’s account - you can save a lot if you exclude conversion;
• Link your bank account - this will allow you to exclude operations to replenish your wallet.

Sellers, in turn, can reduce payments through various programs. However, the choice depends on the sales volume. For small amounts, it is possible to switch to “Micropayments” - the mandatory contribution will be 6% + a fixed percentage. In this case, the value of the latter will decrease in comparison with the standard option.

Due to the restrictions introduced, using PayPal in Russia today is not so convenient. However, an e-wallet is still convenient for online payment for purchases abroad. Such operations can be carried out at little or no cost.

Comments: 2

Your comment (question) If you have questions about this article, you can tell us. Our team consists of only experienced experts and specialists with specialized education. We will try to help you in this topic:

Author of the article Irina Rusanova

Consultant, author Popovich Anna

Financial author Olga Pikhotskaya

1. Love.
   09/02/2020 at 20:04 They sent me money to my Yandex Money wallet via PayPal, now they are asking me to open an accounting account and pay 9% of the amount - is this normal?
   Reply ↓ Anna Popovich
   09/03/2020 at 12:33

   Dear Lyubov, which company requires opening an account? Please clarify your question.

   Reply ↓

Replenishing your wallet through payment terminals

It is not possible to directly fund your PayPal wallet with cash.

However, the PayPal system cooperates with many Russian operators through which you can top up your personal account.

The most common operator, located on almost every corner, through which you can transfer money to your PayPal account is QIWI. This company's terminals are located in almost every large store or shopping center.

To do this, you need to register your wallet with the QIWI operator. You can do this on the official website https://qiwi.com/ by going through an easy registration and confirming it with the code from the SMS message that will be sent to your phone.

Then you will have to do the following:

1. Apply for a virtual Qiwi VISA Wallet card.
2. Register an account in the PayPal system.
3. Link a virtual card from Qiwi Wallet to your personal PayPal ID.
4. After which you go and top up your Qiwi Wallet at any place convenient for you, and then transfer the money through an online client to PayPal.

Replenishment from a virtual card

Russian payment systems such as Yandex and Qiwi include opening a virtual card in their list of services. With its help, clients can top up their PayPal balance using the following plan:

• the virtual card must be linked to the system in the same way as a Sberbank plastic card;
• When making a payment, indicate the virtual card number, confirming the procedure via SMS messages.

It is important that the first and last name specified during registration match the details of the cardholder.

Replenishment via Yandex

The nuances of replenishing your PayPal account with Yandex money:

• The owner's personal data is entered in Latin.
• A certain amount (maximum 10 rubles) is reserved in order to confirm the user's affiliation.
• The notification is sent either by phone or by email (the system determines it automatically).
• After the operation is confirmed, the reserved amount will be returned to Yandex money.

Replenishment via Qiwi wallet

Sequencing:

• in the binding system you need to select a virtual Qiwi card;
• fill in all required fields;
• The owner's first and last name are entered in the same way as on the card;
• Confirm verification using your phone;
• The amount of money in your wallet must be at least $2, but in ruble equivalent.