Recent PayPal Updates
What is PayPal?
PayPal is an encrypted, online software that allows people to make independent transactions between computers. They are one of the largest and the most recognised brand of its kind for the common user. Despite some troubles in the past, they currently hold over 160 million accounts worldwide. Their revenue was 8.01 billion in 2014 and the second quarter in 2015 shows a revenue upwards of 2 billion (How Stuff Works).
Here’s what happened with their policies:
- Changes made in the intellectual property policy give PayPal more control
- Benefits for merchants were removed
- Fees for all users were increased by up to €0.35 per transaction
What are the updates?
PayPal has been rolling out updates over the past few months. The most recent were October 1st and 2nd. These updates change the company’s policy on intellectual property and remove the Merchant rates and the Monthly Sales Volume discount entirely.
How do they affect businesses?
The changes in rates affect both Domestic (United States) and International consumers and businesses. The tables below are taken directly from PayPal. You can read the full changes on their website.
The table below shows the changes in purchase payments made from the United States.
Domestic Purchase Payments in U.S. Dollars.
| Activity | Purchase Payment Fee | ||
| Sending (buying) | Free | ||
| Receiving (selling) | Standard rate: Mobile In-Store Payments rate: |
2.9% + $0.30 USD 2.7% |
|
| Nonprofit rate* |
2.2% + $0.30 | ||
* |
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As of the 1st of October, there are no Merchant rates or Monthly Sales Volume discounts. Everyone now pays the same Standard fee, regardless of account type.
The table below show the changes made to international purchase payments.
International Purchase Payments.
| Activity | Purchase Payment Fee | ||
| Sending from the United States (buying) | Free* | ||
| Receiving in the United States (selling) | Standard rate: Mobile In-Store Payments rate: |
3.9% + Fixed Fee*** 3.7% |
|
|
|
||
| Nonprofit rates****: | Monthly Donation Volume: $0.01 – $100,000.00Over $100,000.00 |
Fee: 3.2% + Fixed Fee***2.9% + Fixed Fee*** |
|
| * Your financial institution may charge fees directly to the card you use to fund a recipient’s country-border payment even where no currency conversion is involved.
** *** |
|||
As with domestic payments, benefits for international merchants have been removed. the new fixed rate is 2.9% plus an additional fee. You can view the complete list of fixed fees on PayPal’s website. Note that the fees are higher from EU to US and US to EU.
The current fixed fees for the Euro are as follows:
| Euro (France) (Applicable to International
Personal and Purchase Payments from US sender to a receiver in France): |
€0.25 EUR |
| Euro (Applicable where the currency
of the payment is Euro but the receiver is not in France): |
€0.35 EUR |
As the future of e-commerce becomes more competitive, businesses should stay vigilant about how money is moved and goods are paid for.
