Please don't send real small donations

[Betty]

Pay pal charges a small percentage on every donation, & a fee on every donation or transaction. So almost half or more of your small donations will be going to Pay Pal. If your donation is really small, the percentage & transaction fee may actually more than the donation itself, & actually cost me money.

With larger donations, the charges & fees are an insignificant amount. But if I'm only getting a few pennies after charges because it's a very small donation, or the donation is going to cost me more than the donation itself, I have to decline the donation.

I appreciate the thought, but if almost half or more of your donation goes to Pay Pal because it's so small, Or the fees cost me more than the donation, it doesn't make sense to accept it.

You can wait & save a few weeks or months so you can afford to donate a little more later. Besides, if your donation is very small, there's a good chance you need it more than I do.

On average, a $3 donation costs me about $3.10. So Pay Pal would get all of it, plus I would owe Pay Pal an additional 10 cents.

But for reasons too long to get into detail here, on average, a $10 donation only cost me about 74 cents, & a $100 donation only costs me about $3.20. So really small donations get proportionately charged the most, & are not helpful.

[Robyn Jodie]

Is it better, then, to make the donation directly by credit card rather than through PayPal?
I know that the credit card companies also charge a percentage, but would it be significantly less than PayPal? Since you gave feedback on PayPal donations of $10 and $100, how much would the credit card company take out vs. PayPal?

[Betty]

It's the same regardless of what you use. The charge is very small for the service provided. But if someone is gonna donate pocket change or just a couple of bucks, it's eaten up by the charges. It's not designed for small pocket change & not practical for that. The fees on a $3 donation usually ads up to the same amount as the fees on a $90 donation.

Basically if someone is going to donate much less than their lunch money, they're better off hanging onto it for a few weeks or months until they've saved up for more, or not bother donating at all.

No matter who you donate to, If you go through Pay Pal (or other similar financial transaction services) you should donate at least $10 so the recipient is getting most of it rather than the service. If someone can't afford that, they really can't afford to donate to anybody. They should hang on to what they got for themselves, & wait until they really can afford more another day.

[Betty]

It's not just PP either. When you go to a store, pub, or restaurant & pay with a credit or debit card there's a transaction fee charged to the recipient.

This is why most places are seriously annoyed when you use your card just to buy a cup of coffee or a candy bar -- the transaction fees on a small purchase add up to more than you paid, so they loose money on the sale. Some will actually refuse small purchases with a card.

When you go to an ATM machine to get money, if the machine isn't owned & operated by your bank there's a transaction fee. It can be anywhere from 50 cents to $8 per transaction plus maybe 3-20% of the amount. On average, if you withdraw just $5 from your account at an ATM not owned at your bank, it will cost about $3-$8 extra. So your $5 withdraw actually drained $8-$13 out of your account after fees.

When you pay someone else with a card rather than for a withdraw, they are the recipient instead of you, & they have to pay the fees.

[Robyn Jodie]

Hmmm...going over my statement, I see I missed my donation last month. So I just donated for 2 months.
Hope it helps.

[Betty]

Thank you so much.

[samantha1]

I do market research on my computer and there is one company that pays me with a cheque in dollars,and when i put it into my bank account ,half of it goes on fees and currency exchange rates.and another company can only go into paypal and i also loose on that deal.

[Betty]

Ouch. They're really taking a bite out of you. I get no extra charges for international exchanges with Pay Pal. It's the same rate no matter if it's Canadian, French, UK, Australian, German, Swiss, or USA currency. There's the exchange rate... the value of the currency but no charge to convert it to USA dollars.

Wow. What kind of research? I may like to get into something like that for extra work. I work at home now, but it's not enough work all the time. Some weeks I get real busy -- too busy, & then there's some weeks there's almost nothing. It's not steady.

[Karen Ann Wilder]

Betty have a look at freelancer.com, I have found several jobs on that site in the last year or so.   Karen

[Betty]

Thanks. I'll check it out.