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Hack 29 Send Payment Quickly and Safely
The best and worst ways to pay
for an auction.
It's
your
money,
and you can do anything you want with it. That said, I
don't want to see any of you stuffing dollar coins
up your nose or sending cash through postal mail.
Electronic
payments have become the most popular method of paying for auctions
on eBay, and for good reasonsending money online is by far the
safest, quickest, and cheapest way to pay, for both buyers and
sellers.
When choosing an auction to bid on or when deciding how to pay for an
auction you've won, look for any payment method that
can be funded by a credit card. Although some people are downright
terrified of transmitting credit card numbers over the Internet,
credit cards are undoubtedly the safest way to pay online. You can
dispute any unauthorized charges with your credit card company with a
simple phone call, which is much easier than trying to find out what
happened to a check you mailed six weeks ago. Some cards even offer
extended buyer-protection services such as replacement insurance.
Sellers choose which payment methods to accept, so make sure you can
abide by the payment terms specified in an auction before you bid. If
there is more than one of a particular item you want on eBay, look
for the seller who accepts the type of payment you want to use.
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3.11.1 PayPal: The eBay Way
PayPal
allows you to send a payment to almost anyone with
an email address, regardless of whether or not the payment is for an
eBay auction. Just go to www.paypal.com, log in, click Send Money, and
type the amount to send and the email address of the recipient. See
Signing Up with PayPal if you
don't yet have a PayPal account.
Signing Up with PayPal
To get a free PayPal account, just go to www.paypal.com, click Sign Up, and follow the
instructions. They'll ask for the usual information,
such as your name, address, email, and a username and password. What
may not be clear, however, is that the amount of additional
information you provide drastically affects your standing on PayPal,
and thus your ability to send and receive auction payments.
First, there are three different types of accounts: Personal,
Premier, and Business. A Personal account, the default, allows you to
send and receive money at no charge, but comes with severe
restrictions on the amount of money you can send and the types of
payment you can receive. If you're serious about
eBay, you'll need to upgrade to a Business or
Premier account. Although the
"upgrade" paradoxically means that
PayPal will begin charging a percentage of all payments you receive,
the restrictions will be lifted, and you'll be able
to do things like accept credit card payments. And sending money will
continue to be completely free, regardless of the type of account you
have. (Note that Business and Premier accounts are essentially the
same thingthe only real difference is the name seen by buyers
and sellers with whom you conduct transactions.)
If at all possible, you'll want to link a credit
card to your PayPal account. Not only will this allow you to pay for
auctions with your credit card, but you'll be able
to "confirm your address," a step
required by many sellers (see [Hack #67] for an explanation). Also,
you'll want to link a checking account into which
you can transfer money you've received from auction
payments.
Once a serious competitor to eBay's now-defunct
BillPoint system, PayPal is now owned by eBay, and their services are
tightly integrated into eBay's checkout system. If a
seller accepts PayPal payments, a PayPal logo will usually appear in
the Payment section of the auction details or underneath the auction
description. If you're the high bidder, simply click
the PayPal logo or the Pay Now button at the top of the auction page
to go to the PayPal site (www.paypal.com) and complete the transaction.
Note that if there's no PayPal logo, it
doesn't necessarily mean the seller
doesn't accept it, only that he perhaps
didn't take the time to choose the correct options
when constructing his auction. Look in the description itself or in
the Payment Instructions box for clues; if in doubt, simply ask.
Your PayPal account has its own balance, like an ordinary bank
account. Any payments you receive are added to your PayPal balance,
which can then be transferred to a bank account or used to fund other
auction payments.
You can fund your payment with a credit card, electronic bank account
transfer, PayPal balance, or eCheck.[6] You can even fund payments with airline frequent-flyer
miles or other "partner" awards;
see anythingpoints.ebay.com for
details. Although the default funding method is electronic bank
transfer (if available), you can choose to use a credit card on a
per-payment basis, as shown in Figure 3-5.
[6] An eCheck is
just like a bank account transfer except that it takes about a week
for the funds to clear. If you have the option to do a real transfer,
there's no reason to ever send an eCheck.
Figure 3-5. Click the More Funding Options link to fund your PayPal payment with a credit card
Because PayPal has different types of accounts, a seller may have a
restriction on how you fund your PayPal payment. New PayPal users
with "Personal" accounts can
receive all payments funded by a bank transfer for free (up to a
limit), but will not be able to receive large payments or any
payments funded by a credit card. More serious sellers upgrade to a
"Premier" or
"Business" account so they can
receive all types of payments, but pay a small percentage (about 3%)
on all payments they receive.
3.11.2 Alternative Online Payments
There are plenty of other ways to pay for an auction, useful if the
seller doesn't (or can't) accept
PayPal payments. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages:
BidPay
BidPay
(www.bidpay.com) allows you to
use your credit card to purchase a Western Union money order online.
This is great for buyers who want the protection offered by their
credit card company, but have won an auction for which the only way
to pay is to send a money order through postal mail. This is often
the best choice for international payments.
There are drawbacks to BidPay, however. Sending payments through
postal mail can delay shipment by several days. And the buyer pays
all fees (BidPay costs sellers nothing). BidPay can be used only to
pay for eBay auctions, and is notorious for canceling payments
without explanation.
C2IT
C2IT
allows you to send electronic bank transfers from your checking
account to the checking account of any other user for a flat fee.
This is especially useful for sending payments to eBay members in
Germany and other European countries, where many sellers accept only
electronic bank transfers for auction payments. Although
it's a Citibank service, you don't
need a preexisting Citibank account to send or receive C2IT payments.
Although it's much safer than sending cash, money
orders, or checks through postal mail, C2IT doesn't
offer the kind of buyer protection that a credit card-funded payment
service offers. And while the $10 fee is a tiny fraction of what most
U.S. banks charge, it's rather pricey for small
payments.
Credit Cards
Sellers who are also credit card merchants will be able to accept
your credit card directly, without the use of
an online payment system like PayPal. While paying directly has
little advantage for buyers, it may be the best choice if the seller
doesn't accept PayPal.
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The main hurdle to paying directly with your credit card is finding a
safe and convenient way to transmit your credit card number and
expiration date to the seller. The seller may provide a web site
address, but make sure the little yellow padlock on your
browser's status bar is glowing and in the
"locked" position (see Figure 3-6); this is your browser's way
of telling you that your connection to the server is
secure and appropriate for
transmitting sensitive information like credit card numbers. Also,
look at the address of the page, and make sure you know where your
information is going. While some sellers have their own secure web
sites, others use third-party checkout services like
AuctionWatch
(www.vendio.com) and
Ándale
(www.andale.com). If
you're not familiar with the company, look at their
home page to learn more before you send them any sensitive
information.
Figure 3-6. The little yellow padlock tells you that you are using a secure connection
You can also phone or fax your order, if you still remember how to
use such devices. The last resort is to email your payment
information, but given that email is insecure, unreliable, and not
even a little private, it's a poor choice. If you
must use email, try breaking your number into multiple emails: send
the first eight digits and expiration date in one message, then send
the second eight digits in another message an hour later.
3.11.3 Convince a Seller to Play by Your Rules
Nearly all sellers who refuse online payments like PayPal do so for
one of three reasons. First, inexperienced sellers may simply not
know how to accept such payments; in this case, you can politely
offer to walk them through it. Second, a previous bad experience may
have turned a seller against online payment services, and
it's unlikely that a single anxious buyer will
change his mind. Finally, the seller may simply not want to pay the
associated fees this is where you have the most latitude.
Nothing speaks to people like money. PayPal takes about 3% of any
payment a seller receives. Some sellers refuse PayPal payments merely
to avoid paying the fees, despite the fact that the PayPal logo on
their auctions will almost certainly get them more bids. If this is
the case, the seller may happily accept your payment if you offer to
pay the fees yourself.
Not wanting to waste money, you'll want to calculate
the amount to send so that the seller receives exactly the requested
amount. Assuming PayPal takes 2.9% plus 30
cents for each transaction,[7] the total amount to pay is calculated as follows:
[7] This is the standard rate
charged to PayPal users with Business and Premier accounts. As
always, your seller's mileage may vary.
total = (subtotal + 0.30)
--------------------
1 - 0.029
So, if you need a seller to ultimately receive $53.25 (the
subtotal), you'd send a
total of $55.15, or an additional $1.90. The
seller is happy, and you get the additional security and convenience
of paying online for less than two bucks.
