PayPal fee change dust-up

[mouser]

This doesn't necessarily seem like a bad thing to me, but it has caused some confusion, and it's definitely something to be aware of if you are sending money to friends and family:

In June, PayPal made a number of changes to its User Agreement and posted an update to the PayPal Blog. At that time, director of product marketing Heinz Waelchli wrote that PayPal had now begun allowing those with business and premium accounts to make personal transfers to friends and family for free. This, in itself, is a welcome update—I use my PayPal account to receive payments for items I sell on Etsy, but now I can send money to my brother from the same account without either of us having to give PayPal a cut.

What PayPal failed to do was inform users of the fact that any transfer having to do with goods or services will be charged the 3¢ + 2.9 percent fee no matter who or where it's coming from. This includes payments sent from personal accounts as well as payments made after someone has sent you a request for payment (even if that request has nothing to do with goods or services).
...
For example, a personal account sending another personal account money for a one-time payment for, say, mowing your lawn was not previously charged any fees on either side, but is now charged the usual transaction fee (the sender gets to decide who pays). The only way to avoid this is by selecting "gift" when making the transfer —something you can't do if you're following through on a purchase or invoice from someone.

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/08/internet-waking-up-to-paypals-quiet-massive-fee-hike.ars

from Tech News Weekly - http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=19634

[Carol Haynes]

I don't know what the differences are between EU and US PayPal T&Cs but I have always paid a cut of any money received into PayPal since I joined (apart from charging up my own account from credit card or bank account) both on my private and business accounts - even if it is just a cash transfer and nothing to do with goods and services.

[gexecuter]

paypal better make that little bolded part clear to everyone when they send money to personal accounts otherwise people will get angry, i know i would.

[OldElmerFudd]

I occasionally sell things on eBay, but I've never had a reason to send funds to a personal account. It *did* take me a while to figure out there had been a subtle fee change, but in the face of eBay fees, it's a drop in the bucket.