PayPal claims that customers don't have to pay anything for transactions as long as they are within a certain limit. "Personal Accounts are free".
If someone who sells his personal stuff on ebay checks "PayPal" he automatically agrees to upgrade his "Personal Account" to a "Premier Account". This is not explained when he checks the "paypal" box but it is hidden in the PayPal user agreement.
Even PayPals employees don't know that. When I asked why their system would allow a bidder to use his credit card even if my "personal account" would not accept credit cards, the lady told me: just put a note into your ebay listing that you don't accept credit cards.
Thats what I did but some ebay user still used his credit card to pay. I received a message from PayPal with two options "accept payment" and "deny payment". The "accept payment" option would automatically "upgrade" my personal account to a "Premier Account" with the corresponding ripoff-fees. The other option, "deny payment" was shaded and disabled. Below there was a message that I was not allowed to deny the payment since this was for an ebay auction.
When asking a paypal supervisor she told me that I had to accept the payment (and had to "upgrade") according to a hidden detail in their legal agreement (that is obviously not even known by their employees). This agreement states that it is forbidden to put a note into an ebay listing that only PayPal payments without a credit card (e-check or paypal balance) are allowed.
PayPal's "personal accounts" are only a way to trick people into their ripoff "Premier accounts". Paypal does not make this clear and even their employees are not able to explain that to customers.
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