Gift Payments

[fourthstartcg]

I’m fine with gift payments if people can give me a tracking number for the purchase. Usually if you can do that, I’ll send the payment as a gift. If I want extra protection (a large overseas purchase not shipped EMS, or someone I don’t know too well) then I’ll add on a couple bucks to what I pay to cover the seller’s PayPal fees. Just seems like the right thing to do.

[patriotsfan117]

@KingPokemon

@patriotsfan117

I typically don’t have a problem with gift payments. Whenever I sell on Reddit, most people usually trust me and send as a gift wihtout me specifically asking for a gift payment. Saving fees and giving the buyer a discount at the same time is always nice. I have only been scammed once when paying this way, but luckily it was only $9. I am sure to always use my CC from now on, because the bank pretty much always wins chargeback, even of gift payments, so it’s safer.

Still, PayPal isn’t a large group of idiots… They are well aware of the fact that people use gift payments as a way to avoid fees (which is against their TOS). They will flag accounts whenever they notice a large # of gift payments received frequently and/or large sums of $ being received this way. This may lead to the gift option being removed from your account, or your account suspended altogether.

As an accounting/business major, I can see why PayPal is ticked about people using the Friends and Family option to avoid the fees. Their service makes it a lot easier to exchange money than it would normally be, and 2.9% + $0.30 isn’t a big deal. People using their service for free isn’t good business for them. But, it all really depends on the seller and buyer to determine what to do. The alternative that many sellers do is to state that the buyer must add 3% to the stated prices. I never liked doing that, just seems a bit wrong IMO…

Tl;DR: PayPal may ban your account for abusing their gift payment option, but it really comes down to what the seller/buyer feel comfortable with.

If PayPal would have “flagged” anybody it would have been me and they have not. Between many of the top sellers and myself 10s of thousands get gifted yearly…sometimes monthly.
To say “your account suspended altogether” or “PayPal may ban your account” is totally absurd. You should realize that since you also said they aren’t “a large group of idiots”. Eventually canceling the gift option is possible but only as general policy.

It’s absurd as in, you think I’m lying, or you think PayPal’s stance on the matter is absurd? If you Google “PayPal account banned for Gift Payment” or something like that, you’ll find a few pages like this: www.blowoutcards.com/forums/off-topic/150122-dont-send-accept-gift-payments-anymore.html

I can always e-mail PayPal themselves and ask to see what response they give me, if you think I’m lying of course. I’m not saying I’m totally against gift payments, because I’m not. I stated I actually like not getting hit with the fees, but being the business minded person that I am, it’s not hard to see why PayPal will be crying (ok, maybe not crying lol) about the thousands, if not millions, of dollars they’re losing because everyone is trying to save a couple bucks here and there. If it were you guys running a similar service like what PayPal offers, for a small fee, I’m sure you’d be a bit annoyed when you found out everyone was trying to avoid fees.

But I guess at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter much. If the seller is trustworthy, then I don’t really see a problem with sending gift payments. Just be aware of the fact that you MAY (I’m not sure what limit PayPal will allow before coming down on you for this) get an e-mail eventually from PayPal, stating that your FnF option has been removed or your account has been limited/banned…

[elam18]

if someone pays me in paypal gift, I give them a good deal because we save on the fees.