PayPal seller fees - the lowdown

If you’d like to sell online, you’ll need to work out the easiest and most cost-effective ways for customers to pay you. One option is to use PayPal. It’s designed to be a quick, easy and secure way to accept payments on many different platforms.

Once you have a PayPal for Business account, you can integrate PayPal into your ecommerce site. Alternatively, you can link it to your seller account on online marketplaces such as eBay.

Here, we’ll look at the benefits of using PayPal to sell online, along with the fees you can expect to pay for each customer payment. We’ll also cover a handful of alternatives to PayPal, some of which could save you money – especially if you’re selling worldwide.

For example, get a free Wise Business account and you can receive international payments for zero fees.

But more about that later. Let’s start with the basics of using PayPal for Business.

PayPal for Business

PayPal for Business is a professional version of your personal PayPal account, designed especially for business users.

It offers an easy way to start accepting payments for selling online, and you can even use it to turn your website into an online store.

When you sign up for an account, you’ll gain access to a number of features, tools and services. These include:¹

• A choice of ways to accept customer payments, including PayPal, Mastercard, Visa and American Express. You can even use a PayPal Here card reader or virtual terminal to accept payments.
• The option to link your PayPal account with your eBay seller account, to reach buyers all around the world
• Send customisable online invoices, so customers can pay for their purchase in just a few clicks
• A mobile optimised payment experience, including the option to accept payments in your own app.
• Integration with accounting software and other third-party solutions – to make it easier to keep track of payments and run your business
• Secure, Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant checkout

PayPal seller fees

Now, accepting payments with PayPal may be a convenient option for you and your buyer. But how much does it cost?

The good news is that there are no upfront setup charges or long-term contracts to worry about with PayPal for Business. You won’t have to pay cancellation or withdrawal fees either.

PayPal for Business does however charge fees per transaction. Here’s what fees you can expect to pay if you’re selling to customers in your own country:

But what about accepting payments from customers in other countries? Unfortunately, here’s where it becomes a little more expensive. Here’s what PayPal charges for accepting international payments:

What’s more, if you receive money in currencies other than AUD, PayPal will convert the currency at 3% above its base rate⁴.

Alternatives to PayPal for Business

PayPal is a popular choice among online sellers, but it’s not the only option available. It’s also not the cheapest for all things, especially if you regularly sell to international customers. The many different fees can start to stack up and eat into your profits.

This is why it always pays to do your homework before settling on a payment solution for your business. To help, here are a couple of alternatives to consider.

Wise Business

If you sell internationally, this is one of the cheapest ways to accept payments. In fact, it’s a whopping 19x cheaper than PayPal⁵.

Open a free Wise Business account and you can receive payments from all over the world, in multiple currencies, for zero fees.

There are no setup costs or monthly charges, and you’ll only ever pay tiny, transparent fees if you need to convert money. If you prefer, you can hold the money in your account and use it to pay invoices and other business expenses.

And when you send, spend or convert money, you’re 100% guaranteed the real, mid-market exchange rate. There’s no mark-up added on top, so you get the best deal.

There are other perks too. You’ll get a Wise Platinum Business Mastercard so you can spend like a local anywhere in the world, plus integration with accounting software and other time-saving tools.

Braintree⁶

Braintree, owned by PayPal but operating independently, gives you a number of handy seller tools and ways to accept payments. Through its payment gateway, your customers can pay using major credit and debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay and other digital wallets. They can also pay in multiple currencies, although fees for international payments are quite high at 3.9% (plus $0.30) a pop.

With your Braintree merchant account, you can integrate with accounting and other third party tools. You’ll get reporting and fraud prevention tools, and all payments are covered by 3D Secure.

So, that’s pretty much it – all you need to know about how much it costs to sell with PayPal. As long as you’re comfortable with the fees, you should find it a convenient, easy way to start selling online and accepting payments from your customers.

Just remember that there are other options out there that could potentially suit you better. Some could even save you quite a bit of money, so it’s worth doing a quick comparison before settling on a payment solution.

Sources used:

Sources checked on 17-October 2020.