I keep hearing people talk about pay pal gift payment but what exactly is it and how is it different from me requesting a payment the usual way? Does it avoid the fees?

The payer pays the fees unless he's got a positive paypal balance in which case it's free for both parties.

As above basically avoids paypal fee's, you click personal payment then gift and neither buyer/seller loses out!

no protection – hate people asking for it in adverts

i offer to pay by gift IF and only IF i trust the seller – ie know them from events, regular poster – or a friend of a friend

What trail_rat said.

It's cheeky to ask and I've been ripped off doing this (thanks snaps), so I don't any more unless I trust the seller.

The payer pays the fees unless he's got a positive paypal balance in which case it's free for both parties.

So only works if Paypal have already had their commission, that answers it. But how was the guy earlier in the week doing that for the £15k car?

Paypal make far too much cash, I have just brought a bike, set of brakes, graphics card, pedals, headset and a saddle all by paypal gift, no problems so far, at least the sellers get the full amount I sent them, I guess its having a bit of faith! Ok I only send by gift where I can see someone has posted a lot for a good year or so, and not some unknown person. If your selling its nice to get the amount you agreed and not minus x% to paypal. Someone brought a bike off me recently for £2300 by paypal gift, but then I do have a long history of selling and buying so wotn run off 🙂

b r – Member
The payer pays the fees unless he's got a positive paypal balance in which case it's free for both parties.

So only works if Paypal have already had their commission, that answers it. But how was the guy earlier in the week doing that for the £15k car?

Not quite right. If you pay your paypal balance off by Direct Debit, there are no fees. That's what I do.

I like it mainly because it's so quick – it's done and dusted in minutes which means I can usually post next day.

I'll happily take bank transfer from someone buying but they have to accept that it may take longer to get what they're buying.

Oh Btw, Its free IF

You have the cash already in your paypal account OR

You are funding it from your bank account NOT Credit card, if your Paypal is linked to a credit card there is a charge!

Hope this helps!!

Gift gives no protection and should only be used If you’re giving money to someone as a gift not for purchasing item. The PayPal fees are so low what is the point in putting your money at risk, if people ask for gift I just don’t bother personally.

I was recently scammed from a user on bikeradar who was user for 3 months and only got my money back because I refused to use gift.

CtR

Thanks for the clarification – think I'll miss that one as I didn't want Paypal linked to my bank account; its one thing having your CC scammed (and more than once), but another if its your bank account…

Probably the same reason I never use my switch-card, but CC instead.

The PayPal fees are so low

WTF

It shifts the fees on to the buyer. Which is fair enough IMO – effectively makes it no different (cost or protection-wise) from doing a bank transfer.

Paypal do seem to be looking into "abuse" of gift transactions more. When I sell, I'm happy to accept paypal but only as long as the buyer covers fees – and Paypal don't have an easy way of doing that besides gift transactions.

The PayPal fees are so low

3.4% on a large item is a fair bit, would have been £78 on a bike I sold, may be peanuts to some but that a lot of cash to me!

each to their own I guess

trail_rat – Member
no protection

Waiting on a refund – I paid by gift. Not a big amount but I won't be doing it in future.

same amount of protection as bank transfer, personal cheque etc…

paypal fees are pretty nuts if you ask me. easily lose 15-20% of the sale price of things on ebay once they have gone through PP and ebay fee process.

I always use gift and as said there are no fees if you have it linked to a bank account. Never had a problem so far. I seem to remember there are fairly strict conditions you have to meet yo be protected outside ebay anyway.

If you dont want to use gift then you can just as easilly select to pay the fees yourself (as the Buyer). This gives you protection and the seller gets the amount they requested. Both win. However…

If you dont trust someone enough to not require payment protection then should you really be sending them money?

Rich.

I just sold a £500 item on ebay. By the time Ebay and Paypal had their share, I got £436! Ouch!! Won't be making that mistake twice!

I must admit, I have asked for a Paypal Gift as a seller in the past as I thought it just avoided the fees. Didn't realise it cuts out the protection. Now that I know I won't ask again. Part of the commission you pay is for the security of Ebay and Paypal.

As was said before, it's only free if it's from a bank account and not a debit card or credit card. I ask buyers as I hope they can trust me and PayPal and eBay fees are getting ridiculous. I now try sell items at a price that takes those fee's into account so I sell a bit cheaper as I understand what fleabay will take off me if I didn't.
As for costly items I ask for bank transfer as it's safer and no charges. A frame I sold for £550 on here would have been hit by about £70-80 if sold on fleabay and so I gave incentives (free saddle etc) to anyone buying it for the price I asked. Winners both ends then 🙂

Could alway use this

http://www.rolbe.com/paypal.htm

if you want the protection, just add on the extra.

I've had an email from Paypal 😀

"……………………We're not sure if you are aware of this, but we noticed that some of
your customers are sending you personal payments for purchases.
Unfortunately, this violates our rules, and we need your help correcting
this. Please don't ask or allow your customers to use personal payments
to pay for their purchases.

If we continue to see such activity after March 9, 2010, we may have to
disable your ability to receive personal payments, and then you will pay
fees for all money received through PayPal………. "

I have just bought a frame from the states and paid through paypal. All through normal channels and not gift. Worked out using XE.com what I should put into my paypal account. Went to pay for it but paypal used a lesser rate than XE quoted. I had to put more in to cover it!

paypal used a lesser rate than XE quoted.

Well of course they did. The XE rate is the mid rate. Paypal will be using a buy rate.