Can anyone help me with paypal? I have a paypal account setup, but am wondering how to use when I want to have my customers pay me? Also does that payment go into my checking account? Please be explicit with instructions, I am not the most computer literate. Thanks

When you want someone to pay you via Paypal, you have them paypal the funds to the email address that you have your paypal set up with.

The funds will not go directly to your checking account, but will instead go to your Paypal account, and you transfer them to your checking account from there. It can take several days for the transfer to complete.

Be warned - PayPal takes a pretty big fee for this!

How big a fee?

I had a Pay Pal account once when I sold a couple of things on Ebay. I thought the Pay Pal would automatically put the funds in my checking account. Not true. You have to make the transfer. It cost me $50 before I realized this. Could not find any monthy fee so I sort of forgot about it until the day I decided to check on how much money I had in Pay Pal. So transfer it to your checking ASAP.

PayPal will take a percentage. It really depends on your usage. Kind of like a service charge. If you don't need PayPal much, they shouldn't charge you a fee. If you need a merchant type account, they'll take a certain percentage of the funds you receive. It's not bad and very competitive with other companies.

And yep, you have to transfer the funds to your checking account. It's free when done online. PayPal isn't a mind reader, so you have to participate a bit. It's such a great payment system though and most everyone trusts it. They've really worked hard for their good reputation. I encourage you to read their policies so you know what to expect.

Can you just leave money in your paypal account? Paypal sent me $$ as part of a promotional program when purchasing on-line. I received an e-mail telling me it was there, but haven't done anything with it because I've only ever sent with paypal, never received. My thought was that the next time I need to send money, I'll have a little nest-egg there to start with. Am I right, or is it move it or lose it?

It should be fine b.zang. You can use PayPal for almost any online purchase too. It's very secure. They should be paying me right?!! Nope, they take my money! LOL! Oh well, it is really convenient and safe for my buyers.

I use it all the time to both send payments ie ordering and also for automotic payments of my websites. I also have my online store set up through paypal. I have customers who don't want to go through the online store just go on paypal and send me money to my email address. It goes in my account and sits there til I send it to my checking account. If I have a payment come out before I move the money the payment will first come out of whatever is there and the balance will then be taken from my checking if needed. I don't know the percentage off hand but out of $20 they take a couple of dollars. Not an exact amt as I can't remember exactly but it isn't bad. You do have to pay for their services and a couple of dollars for a transaction isn't all that bad to me.

When I get a payment they send me an email to tell me the money is there. Then I have to go on paypal and open my account and click on money transfer and follow the directions. They say it takes about 3 -5 days to show up in your acct but it has been around 2 -3 for me. I have no problems using it.

When I opened my first web store I was not wanting to use paypal as I had heard alot of nasty stories. Well nothing is error free. There are things that will go wrong with any way you set up for payment. But if they are willing to work to fix it then that is the key to good service. I haven't had to have any help yet so hope I don't. I have had Paypal for about a year and had no bad experiences. It is easy to figure out and use.

I've not sold with pay pal, but my sister does. She said the percentage is a sliding scale depending on how much business you do.