Charging fees from paypal- whose responsibility?

[kellylindseyphotography]

I just realized that on my site I did not specify that if someone was paying via credit card on paypal that they should cover the fees. Someone bought a print and I ended up covering like .70 cents. Not a big deal the first time cuz it was my own mistake....

But then I got to thinking... should I ask those who pay CC pay those fees? Or is it my responsibility to include that in my price beforehand?

If so, I would just have to raise all my prices and it would not be fair to those that pay cash or funded pay pal.

In any case, SHOULD I be responsible for fees incurred by credit cards or is it the buyers?

 

[JimmyO]

Yes, paypal deducts the charge from the money they send you, so they pay the charge, but not on top of the money there sending you. If you want you could raise your price a tad if you want.

 

[dslrchat]

You could state, that if paying via PayPal with CC there will be a Premium charge.
However, for the amount they charge, I would absorb the cost, they only time the fee will be huge is if you sell a huge order, in which your will be making a bigger profit any ways.

Just my Opinion here.

PayPal also charges the buyer an extra charge when using CC I beleive.
They basically have their hands in both pockets
Thats how they make so much $$$

 

[Big Mike]

Put yourself in the consumer's shoes...would you like to pay an extra fee on top of the price? Probably not. Just eat the fee yourself and adjust your price to cover it as a 'cost of doing business'.

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

Put yourself in the consumer's shoes...would you like to pay an extra fee on top of the price? Probably not. Just eat the fee yourself and adjust your price to cover it as a 'cost of doing business'.

Your right. Thats why I asked.. though with bigger orders, I am looking to lose a lot of money. Yes, I"ll make a bigger profit but if they had paid with funded paypal, I would not have lost a cent.

Jimmy, the SELLER eats the credit card fees, not the buyer. The fees are 3.5% of the total, I believe. Change if your looking at one photo (less than a buck) but if your talking photo packages, I would be looking at eating fee's of 10, 20, even 50 dollars.

So for example, the photo I Just sold was a 5x7, I chard 6.00 for it. Paypal only depositied 5.31 in my account.

 

[Sarah23]

Hmmm...I guess if an order is over "$XX.XX" amount, you could put that if they are going to pay that way that there would be a fee. I mean...its not that hard for them to just move money into their paypal account and have it funded. Or you could maybe not accept unfunded paypal for over a certain order amount...but that might drive away business.

 

[Rachelsne]

seller should pay.

 

[hedonia]

Just raise your prices to cover the cost. I like all my print prices to be a nice whole number, so after I use my markup equation, I add the fees and taxes then round up. So something costs me 1.39 to buy wholesale, after all the fees and the markup it comes to, say, 9.27, I make it cost $10. Then when the customer checks out, it costs $10 exactly. Nice and simple.

If your profit margins are such that getting $5.31 on a $6 sale is too little, then your prices need to be raised anyway.

 

[AprilRamone]

The problem in your situation is that you aren't charging enough for your work. $6 for a 4x6" is nothing.

 

[SpeedTrap]

I price to include such fees, if the person ordering does not know they are paying the fee, they do not complain. Most retailers do this, Visa and Mastercard charge the retailers for point of sale machines the retail stores add this in as part of the prices.

Adding the fee on extra looks amature and unprofessional. This is just my thought.

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

The problem in your situation is that you aren't charging enough for your work. $6 for a 4x6" is nothing.

Hi, thanks for your thoughts. I am just starting out, so my prices are very very low right now. I don't know if I'm up to par with charging a lot. Feedback has been only so-so from what I've gathered here on this forum. So I only charge what I think my level is at- which is amateur.

 

[AprilRamone]

Kelly,
I was once in your boat and my best advice is to charge what you will want to charge when you are good enough. And for now to build up to being good enough offer discounts off of the real pricing.
Trust me, when the time comes and you have spent two years building up a base of clients who are happy to spend $6 on a 4x6" and you attempt to raise the price to an actual amount you can live off of you'll lose everyone you spent two years finding and have to start all over again anyway.
I strongly feel that you are shooting yourself in the foot by charging such a small amount.

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

Kelly,
I was once in your boat and my best advice is to charge what you will want to charge when you are good enough. And for now to build up to being good enough offer discounts off of the real pricing.
Trust me, when the time comes and you have spent two years building up a base of clients who are happy to spend $6 on a 4x6" and you attempt to raise the price to an actual amount you can live off of you'll lose everyone you spent two years finding and have to start all over again anyway.
I strongly feel that you are shooting yourself in the foot by charging such a small amount.

:hugs: Thanks for that advice. Can you let me know a good jumping start in terms of real pricing?

 

[Nimitz]

In any small business the price you charge for your products or services must take into account all your 'overhead'. This includes any fees associated with your transcations, like Credit card fees & PayPal fees. If you read the fine print of your Merchant Services Account - this is account setup by whatever institution you are using to process credit cards - you will see that it is a violation of that agreement to have one price for cash/checks & another for credit cards. PayPal is just a web credit card.

Anyway, if you do or anticipate a lot of business via PayPal then you should factor in those costs when you set your pricing, along with anything else.

Many folks just starting out deal with this issue of "I don't want to charge too much , etc" but you are really setting a trap for yourself. As someone already pointed out you will find it almost impossible to raise prices in the future "when you are better".

This will sound a little harsh but you are either currently able to produce professional quality images and should charge accordingly or you can not, in which case you should continue to practice & only charge when you are ready

$6 for a 4x6 is nothing and you are also undercutting all the professional photographers already in business who are charging more appropriate fees for their work. We all suffer when someone does not charge appropriatly for their work.

Take a quick look around the web to get an idea what professionals are charging and you'll see what I mean.

My fees are the same as they were for my first client: $99 sitting fee plus print costs; less for pkgs & more for single prints ...

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

In any small business the price you charge for your products or services must take into account all your 'overhead'. This includes any fees associated with your transcations, like Credit card fees & PayPal fees. If you read the fine print of your Merchant Services Account - this is account setup by whatever institution you are using to process credit cards - you will see that it is a violation of that agreement to have one price for cash/checks & another for credit cards. PayPal is just a web credit card.

Anyway, if you do or anticipate a lot of business via PayPal then you should factor in those costs when you set your pricing, along with anything else.

Many folks just starting out deal with this issue of "I don't want to charge too much , etc" but you are really setting a trap for yourself. As someone already pointed out you will find it almost impossible to raise prices in the future "when you are better".

This will sound a little harsh but you are either currently able to produce professional quality images and should charge accordingly or you can not, in which case you should continue to practice & only charge when you are ready

$6 for a 4x6 is nothing and you are also undercutting all the professional photographers already in business who are charging more appropriate fees for their work. We all suffer when someone does not charge appropriatly for their work.

Take a quick look around the web to get an idea what professionals are charging and you'll see what I mean.

My fees are the same as they were for my first client: $99 sitting fee plus print costs; less for pkgs & more for single prints ...

You know I've heard that before.. that I"m "undercutting" professional photog's... listen, if they have the skill and the clientelle, I'm not taking NOTHING from them. I'm someone starting up a business trying to give reasonable prices to my customers with the understanding that they know I'm just starting out.

I find NOTHING wrong with that and refuse to think I'm taking away work from someone else cuz I"m cheaper. If someone out there is worth their weight in what they charge, then they WILL get work. And someone cheaper with less experience won't cut it for those clients. Its HARDLY HARDLY taking from them. I take serious offence to that.