[warrenm]

You're getting hit with basically the same %% fees credit card companies charge

PayPal's very clear on this (as is Stripe, etc)

The only "feeless" transfer service I know is Zelle ... but there's also no recourse if you transfer money to the wrong target, the product doesn't arrive, etc

[lathiat]

In Australia the Reserve Bank publishes the average cost of acceptance by card type.

As of 2019 the published rates are 0.5-1% for Visa and Mastercard (lower end for debit, higher for credit) and 1.4% for American Express. They are basically all dropping over time, not going up. This includes terminal rental, monthly fees, etc.

PayPal charges 2.6% plus a fixed $0.30 fee for domestic + another 1% for international. Stripe by comparison charges 1.75% domestic and 2.9% international. PayPal still charges this fee even if someone funds it from a much cheaper bank account or their PayPal balance. BrainTree, a subsiduary of PayPal for many years.. charges 1.75% + $0.30. Go figure :)

PayPal also has a fairly good anti-fraud measure that many others lose out on in that it does not let you submit a payment with a credit card associated with a PayPal account, without actually logging into said PayPal account.

PayPal has historically always had quite a high percentage, operating off brand I think and owing to easy integration options.

I'm sure there is some more complexity here I'm missing but in general, PayPal fees have always been significantly higher than the competition in Australia.

Also worth noting unlike the US, in Australia we have totally free transfers between all australian bank accounts - same system, every bank, 0 fee. So Paypal here is really only used primarily as a merchant facility for your website. The inter-person payment part has a much lower use rate than the USA.

[dustymcp]

Despite the hate paypal gets, and the high fees i have multiple times been saved by having them in between me and the seller, its something i dont mind paying abit extra for the clawback system is pretty decent.

[DaveExeter]

Paypal in USA charges 3.49% for domestic!

[CHY872]

But credit cards in the US also charge about 3%. Paypal’s somewhat pegging to what’s ‘reasonable’ in the locale.

[DaveExeter]

I know! We really get cheated in the USA.

[CHY872]

In the USA my expectation is that the higher fees cover two things. The first is much higher all around credit limits - with higher fees you can handle more delinquency. In the UK it's typical to get a credit limit of around 10% of your salary, whereas from what I know it's easier to get a higher limit in the US. That may be a good or a bad thing. The second thing is that some credit cards are basically an asset transfer from the poor to the rich. Get a Chase Sapphire Reserve? $500 fee per year, then you get $300 back immediately on travel, $0.015 on travel per dollar spent ($0.075 if spent on flights), $25/year value on global entry applications, and various free other things (airline lounge, auto rental insurance, etc etc). You don't get that if you're poor.

[jimmySixDOF]

It's not just fees. Its the currency conversion spreads they offer which are just as bad and fluctuate wildly depending on the country.