I am doing moving sale. A person who bought some of my stuff asked me if I have account with PayPal or Bank of America? I told him no, because I really don't.
Later I tried to understand how PayPal works, and found this web page for their fees:
Buying something
Always free - PayPal is free whenever you use it to buy something or make a payment in the US. The seller pays us a small fee to securely handle your payment. As a buyer, you never pay a fee to use PayPal.
Selling something
Small Fee - PayPal fees mainly apply to sellers, who pay a 2.9% transaction fee on the total sale amount plus a $0.30 fee per transaction. There are some exceptions, listed below. If you have a business, see PayPal Merchant Fees for discounted rates and other pricing info.
Transferring money
Usually Free - Sending money to friends and family is free for you and the recipient when you fund the transfer with your bank account or PayPal balance. You can also use a debit or credit card or make an international transfer for a small fee.
I wonder if payment to me for a moving sale can be done via "Transferring money" so that there will be no fee for me to receive the money in my PayPal account, and then to withdraw the money from my PayPal account to my bank account? Why?
If not, which category would PayPal classify the payment into?
How does PayPal know that the person who pays me is not my friend or in my family, and know that I am doing a moving sale?
But another source at about.com says it is free for any transaction through a personal PayPal account (I think it means free for both payer and payee?):
Choice 1: PayPal Personal Account
This is the basic PayPal account that lets you pay for your eBay purchases with ease. You can use it to send and receive money. You can send funds to anyone with an email address in 55 countries and regions. Personal account will even let you accept payments should you sell something via eBay. The catch: you can only accept payments from other PayPal accounts, and you cannot accept credit or debit card payments.
There is no fee for either the Personal account or the transactions you make through it. There is, however, a limit on how much can you receive per month. If you plan to sell a a high volume of product, the Personal account might be too restrictive.
In the Bank of America account case, is it safe to give out my account number (if I have one) to that person just for him to pay me via online money transfer? From my previous question, the reply there doesn't think so. But why are there at least two different persons who want to pay me asking if I have a BOA account?
Thanks!