Does anyone know if it is possible to have Donations as part of PayPal in Israel? I belong to a non-profit organization and we are in the process of setting up a website and would like to have PayPal as an option for our future donors. I couldn’t find anything about the donations feature on the PayPal Israel site.
Thanks for your help.

I have no problem explaining to people that if they want to use PayPal or a credit card then the cost is a little more than if they pay in cash. Most people understand.

It’s not so easy to explain to a person if you are offering a service that one’s price is “x” but because of Paypal, the new Paypal price is “y”. Whereas it’s far easier if they understand that the cost is “x” and they must pay any charges if they choose to use the Paypal option. Incidentally, I notice most of my transactions being billed with a service charge as high as 4 to even 5%! 2.5% would still be a pleasure!

How do you manage to deduct your Paypal service charge as a business expense?! On my end, we are continually perplexed that we must show up our income as the full Paypal amount. There is no option for speaking about the service charge as an expense because the receipts we submit must include the full Paypal amount that the client pays to us. So in truth we must submit full receipt amounts – even though technically we never see some 4-5% of the amounts documented.

What I do for commercial transactions is to include an extra 2.5% or so in the price I am charging the customer, so they ultimately pay the transaction fee even though it gets charged at my end. Transaction fees are also deductible as a business expense if you are declaring the income from PayPal transactions.

I notice something interesting in my list of Paypal receipts (payments from others.) I have some transactions that incur no fees. The person sending the money sent me the exact amount and Paypal did not charge any fees. Perhaps they charged the client – though I don’t know.

Can someone help to explain this and if it is in fact possible to get the client to pay the Paypal fees? There are in fact people out there prepared to pay the extra fee so long as they know they have paid the full amount to the service provider.

Thanks.

Eliyahu

Also it is still not possible to transfer foreign currency, Dollars or Euros, to an Israeli bank account from PayPal. They force you to exchange the money into shekels at really bad exchange rates.

Very unhappy . . . . .

Also, the exchange rate is outrageously low from dollars to shekels. If PayPal is already making money on the transactions, why does it need to also make so much money on the forex?

I am glad to have the service but it could be improved in these two ways.

If PayPal wants serious businesses to use the service in a comprehensive fashion then the exchange rates need to be competitive.

Nissim? You want to weigh in on this?

if i want to transfer dollars to my israeli bank, i’d like to transfer to shekels when I prefer, and at the banks better exchange rate.

doesn’t that make sense?

To connect an Israeli bank account to a PayPal account, you will need to open a PayPal account and register it with your address in Israel.

Can I link an Israeli bank account to that US PayPal account?

However there’s no excuse PayPal’s unfortunately low exchange rates for US$ to Shekels.

Eliyahu

“how should I post my items for sale, in USD or ILS?”
The answer is that “it depends” on whether you believe that the buyer would think twice about making the purchase if he is faced with a currency conversion fee. You see, if the credit card owner pays his bills in USD and you charged him in ILS, then he will get a charge in the equivalent USD amount, plus the conversion fee. As such, receiving the fee in ILS means that you do not pay the exchange fee when withdrawing the funds, since they are already in ILS.

“Can I combine currencies for a single withdrawal, in order to reach the 1000 ILS minimum to avoid the 8 ILS fee?”
Withdrawals need to be made from a single currency. If you wish to withdraw more than you have in a single currency (like the ILS for example) you need to click on Manage Currencies in your account in order to covnert those funds to ILS.

Well I’m happy that Paypal have finally got it together and now allow direct transfers from Paypal account to bank account without the credit card intermediary. So much for my bank manager understanding Paypal (see my previous post!) I only hope he’ll understand my needs to obtain a mortgage one day – better than he understands Paypal (else I might be stuck with using a credit card machine to manage my mortgage payments!)

My question is this: I’m in Israel, but I also try to attract overseas buyers and donors to my site. They of course work in Dollars etc. while I’m working in Shekels. I understand there’s no problem in accepting either currency – and I’ve done it too. However, I’m at a loss for knowing which is actually the better currency to work in as the default currency for me. For example, can those in the USA pay in Shekels for things they wish to purchase from me – though their banks are working in Dollars – or MUST I set up the Dollar “Add to Cart” button for them?

Likewise for Israelis – is it a MUST that everything be set up in Shekels for them, or can they just as easily purchase off the Dollar “Add to Cart” button?

The reason I’m asking this is based upon transfer fees and the like. Though Paypal seem to explain their terms “clearly” regarding costs, personally I’m lost. I’ve now got two currencies set up – Shekels and Dollars. Money is paid to both. But when I withdraw, I have to choose which to withdraw from, or make a conversion and then withdraw.

Is it best to simply withdraw from each individually (and wait for each to accumulate to at least 1000 shekels before doing so – to avoid extra costs,) or to first make a transfer into one of the accounts (and if so which?) – and then make the transfer to the Israeli bank?

I’m trying to reduce banking and transfer fees, and would like to know the best way of using my Paypal account in Israel so that it ends up attracting the least Paypal and other fees along the way.

Thanks again.

Eliyahu