Recently I attempted to pay a book illustrator for her work by using PayPal. I have used the PayPal service to send my illustrator money for several years. The December payment went through just fine. Imagine my surprise when the March payment would not process. I spent hours, that’s hours, not minutes on the phone with PayPal who never did figure out the problem. I was forced to find an alternate method of paying my illustrator.
I turned to Western Union whose $34.00 fee was less than the $65.00 bank transfer fee my bank wanted. Now the hidden fee part comes because if you use a credit card to fund a Western Union transfer, you get charged Cash Advance Fees by your credit card company. That added an additional $11.99 in fees to the already $34.00 fee from Western Union .
Now my illustrator lives in Bosnia . I don’t know why PayPal could not re-do a transaction they did multiple times over multiple years. That remains a mystery.
This is under Buyer Beware, there may be fee’s you never considered when you try and pay someone through the Internet.
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