Sending $ through PayPal -- How can the fees be applied to sender and not recipient?

Factual Questions
1

I want to send money to someone in Australia. He bought something for me for a favour and I need to pay him back.

Problem is, from my experience, when a person sends money through PayPal, the recipient gets charged. I don’t want him charged as he did not profit from me. How do I make the payment so that the fees are applied on my side?

What I just did now was give my sister money, have her send me an Instant Transfer of the money (Quasi-Cash), which PayPal deducted fees from upon my receipt, then I transferred the money to the guy in Australia. He won’t be charged as I was paying with my account balance, correct? I have yet to receive a reply from him.

Just FYI, I can’t wait the 6-8 business days it requires to add funds to my PayPal account from my bank account. I need this money pretty soon.

Can any of you Dopers help me out? I’ve only paid him $10 of $250 and I STILL need to sell the tickets he bought me and I can’t use, so I’m really stressed out right now. :frowning:

2

Paypal takes $0.30 + 1.9-2.9% as fees (depending on the level of account). In addition, they take a 2.5% exchange rate fee.

So, just add enough money to your transfer so that after the fees are taken out, the recipient is left with the desired amount.

If you want him to receive $x (assuming 2.9% base fee), then you want to send $y that solves:

x = .946y - 0.3

So, for x=$240, send $254.

3

I have a feeling this is only true if the payment comes from account balance and the recipient’s account is a personal one; if he’s an ebay seller and has (through necessity)upgraded his account, I think fees will apply.

4

Paypal also applies a fee to the recipient if the money comes off of a credit card. The one time that happened to me, I believe the final fees ended up in the 8% range, total.

5

This is correct. If he has ever accepted a credit card payment he would have had to upgrade, and would now pay the increased fees on every transaction. Yet another reason that Paypal sucks!

6

Why not just wire the money straight to his bank account or send him a Money Order?

7

iamthewalrus has it right - who’s giving the money is simply a matter of perspective. It comes out in the middle. If you want the recipient to get what you intend, you have to send more.

It works out precisely the same as if Paypal did provide a ‘let me eat the transaction fee’ feature.

And the walrus even did the math for you. You should paypal the walrus a tip.