PayPal Merchant Rates: Don’t Get Caught Paying Too Much!
April 27th, 2007PayPal Merchant Rates: It’s Up To You!
Perhaps we were simply too trusting. Perhaps we just didn’t read the fine print. But when we opened a PayPal merchant account and saw that the rates varied with the volume of sales, we figured that PayPal would automatically decrease our merchant rate as our sales increased. After all, PayPal knows what our monthly sales volume is, right?
Nope. Apparently not. You have to manually register for a lower rate. What is ironic about this registration, is that none of the information you submit is information that’s not already known to PayPal. Now don’t get me wrong, I love PayPal and recommend it often to my website clients. (Go here to read about PayPal and other ecommerce solutions for your website) But requiring customers to manually register for a lower rate appears to be just an extra hoop to jump through and a way to keep rates high. And the rate decrease is not retroactive. Even if you’ve met the criteria for a lower rate in the past, it’s only effective AFTER you formally request a lower rate.
So as is often the case when I think something doesn’t work the way it should, and my clients or others out there on the web might end up paying too much for something, I wrote this article. Remember to keep an eye on your monthly volume and when it meets PayPal’s criteria for a lower rate, fill out the form and get that lower rate!
Jill--------------
J. Olkoski
Aldebaran Web Design, Seattle
Jill Olkoski has a BS in Engineering, a BS in Computer Science and an MA in Clinical Psychology. She delights in using her advanced technical and psychological skills to help small business owners develop cost-effective and successful websites.
