[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] paypal credit card payment

[Joe]

I agree about perhaps getting legal council involved.  There is a 
definite contradiction there, unless governments are not considered 
"merchants" for the sake of their policies..  Although, we're also 
talking about paying a fee, and the language about surcharges also 
relate to selling merchandise rather than charging a fee.  On the other 
hand, Paypal probably imagined people paying for dog licenses when they 
wrote the section I quoted rather than library fines.

Anyway, definitely brings up more questions..

Have a good weekend.

Joe

Joseph Knueven
Director
Germantown Public Library
51 N. Plum St.
Germantown, OH 45327
937-696-9998x10
knuevejo at oplin.org

On 4/5/2013 1:38 PM, David Busby wrote:
> In Section 5 on 
> https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/terms-outside#receiving_payments 
>
> In short:
>
> "No Surcharges. Under Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express 
> regulations and the laws of several states, including California, 
> merchants may not charge a fee to the buyer for accepting credit card 
> payments "  and a few more sentences of legal noise that defines a few 
> workarounds (such as handling-fee on all payments methods, not just 
> paypal)
>
> But notice, that's for merchants and makes no statements about 
> educational, non-profit or government entities.
> It might be time for legal council to review.
>
> /djb
>
>
>
> --
> David Busby
> Edoceo, Inc.
> http://edoceo.com/
> 206.282.6500
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 10:14 AM, Joe <knuevejo at oplin.org 
> <mailto:knuevejo at oplin.org>> wrote:
>
>     Perhaps it depends on your entity's legal status?  On paypal's
>     government entities site
>     (https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/government-payments) it
>     states that governments are allowed to charge a fixed transaction
>     fee for all transactions, either credit, debit, etc..  I can
>     imagine that paypal would prohibit all others from charging a
>     fee.  The text from their site is below.
>
>     Thanks.
>
>     Joe
>
>
>     --------------
>     Some government entities choose to absorb PayPal transaction fees.
>     However, it is possible to recoup some fees from constituents in
>     the form of a fixed fee.* Government entities are allowed to
>     charge a convenience fee that applies to all forms of online
>     payments, even debit and ACH transactions. The fee must be a fixed
>     amount – such as $10 per transaction – rather than a percentage fee.
>
>     * Different convenience fee rules apply for tax payments.
>
>     --------------
>
>     Joseph Knueven Director Germantown Public Library 51 N. Plum St.
>     Germantown, OH 45327
>     937-696-9998x10  <tel:937-696-9998x10>
>     knuevejo at oplin.org  <mailto:knuevejo at oplin.org>
>
>     On 4/5/2013 12:37 PM, David Busby wrote:
>>
>>     Please note that PayPal terms do *not* permit charging a fee for
>>     usage.  That is, you cannot charge Patrons a fee to offset the
>>     processing fees that PayPal charges you.
>>
>>     /djb
>>
>>     On 5 Apr 2013 08:29, "Joe" <knuevejo at oplin.org
>>     <mailto:knuevejo at oplin.org>> wrote:
>>
>>         Good day everybody.
>>
>>         I had a quick question about accepting credit cards through
>>         paypal for those libraries that do.
>>
>>         Do any of you charge a convenience fee to your public for
>>         charging fine payments?  Tinkering with a test server, it
>>         looks like the entire payment process occurs from within the
>>         TPAC when the public pay fines themselves.  I know paypal has
>>         a setting where a fee can be automatically added to a
>>         balance, but I'm concerned that if we went this route and
>>         patrons were paying from within the OPAC that they would
>>         never see this fee until after their charges had been made.
>>
>>         We are currently on 2.3.1
>>
>>         Thank you in advance.
>>
>>         Joe
>>
>>         -- 
>>         Joseph Knueven
>>         Director
>>         Germantown Public Library
>>         51 N. Plum St.
>>         Germantown, OH 45327
>>         937-855-4001 <tel:937-855-4001>
>>         knuevejo at oplin.org <mailto:knuevejo at oplin.org>
>>
>
>

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