Where can I find information on how much PayPal charges for a payment of a given dollar amount?

[VegasDJ]

I am a retired DJ and I'm selling off records from my personal collection on Discogs.com, which uses PayPal to process payments.  The fee that PayPal charges for each transaction varies for every transaction, even for transactions of the same amount.  This makes it impossible for me to accurately set my prices.  For example, I sold a record on 12/15/2022 for $3.00.  PayPal charged me 91 cents, or 30.33%.  The next transaction, three weeks later, I sold a record for $7.00.  PayPal charged me 91 cents, or 13%.  Prior to those, I sold a record for $2.00 and PayPal charged me $1.07, or 53.5%

I would just like to know the formula that's used in determining these fees.

[sharpiemarker]

@VegasDJ 

You have to factor in marketplace fees, sales tax (which varies by state), shipping, any packaging/handling because the PayPal fee encompasses the entire amount. 

Commercial Transaction Rates

3.49% + fixed fee

[VegasDJ]

Sales tax is charged by Discogs and I charge my own standard shipping and packaging fee, which doesn't vary.  The PayPal fee is itemized and completely independent of those charges.

Thank you for the transaction rates table.  I wish that was easily accessible.  It doesn't, however, show why I'm being charged as much as 53% for a transaction.

[sharpiemarker]

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@VegasDJ wrote:

Sales tax is charged by Discogs and I charge my own standard shipping and packaging fee, which doesn't vary.  The PayPal fee is itemized and completely independent of those charges.

Thank you for the transaction rates table.  I wish that was easily accessible.  It doesn't, however, show why I'm being charged as much as 53% for a transaction.

What I mean is, the PayPal fee is calculated against the grand total because PayPal is processing the grand total buyer paid and the PayPal fee is of course itemized for you to see.

It is difficult to accurately charge the right amount because %’s are used in part of the calculation. The marketplace fees are in %, the PayPal fee is a %, plus a fixed fee component. The sales tax is a % that varies by state. Some states charge sales tax on shipping handling some do not depending if the shipping/handling is itemized separately from item price or not. I do not know if your marketplace takes that into consideration. I know I have seen some eBayers of certain states complain if sales tax is charged on the shipping/handling when it doesn’t apply according to their states’ law.

The PayPal fees link can be found at the bottom of PayPal’s home page. People don’t scroll down there, they expect it’s at the top menu. The top menu covers the great features. The bottom menu has all the dreaded info: fees, security, legal terms and conditions, help & contact, fine print. 🤣

[VegasDJ]

I am aware of all of that.  First of all, what I charge for shipping and handling (which is the same for every transaction) is not made known to PayPal and is not itemized in PayPal's charges.  Unlike e-bay, Discogs doesn't profit from what I pay for shipping materials or what I'm charged by the U.S. Postal Service.  Secondly, when I ship to states like Oregon, which has no sales tax, PayPal would not charge me a percentage of what the buyer pays to the state in tax, because there is no tax.  Third, there is still no reason I can find why PayPal is charging me 13%, then 33%, then 53%.  When a buyer pays 20 cents in sales tax on a $2.00 sale, I still can't figure out why I was charged $1.07 on that sale.  Nothing in the table that you posted validates it, and nothing in your explanation validates it.  As far as I can tell so far, it's a matter of PayPal arbitrarily taking whatever they want because they have the monopoly of payment solutions for Discogs and they don't provide any mechanism to question it.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @VegasDJ,

Thank you for joining the PayPal Community Forum and starting this thread. I'm sorry to hear that there is confusion about fees or any other withholdings from the payments you've received. If the general information supplied by @sharpiemarker (Thank you, sharpiemarker!) does not explain fully, please reach out to Customer Service to request a review of the received payments. I'm sure a representative can help you get to the bottom of what's happening. 

To find your contact options, click Contact at the bottom of the PayPal website. Alternatively, you can reach out by DM on Instagram or Twitter, or PM on Facebook.

I hope this information is helpful!

Olivia