If I had to guess, I would say that credit card payments and their 2.9% fee are not going to be credited by PayPal. The normal checking account transfer fees, yes, but not the credit card ones.

Don't guess, just read the T&C from the Paypal front page. ALL TRANSACTIONS are re-credited by Paypal.

Guess I'll watch rather than join the frenzy, although I thought about making a transfer to daughter's acct. I don't want to get stuck with the 2.9% fee if PP decides not to comp. all fees.

Conservative hesitation has cost me miles before, so it won't be a new feeling if all goes well for others.

I recall words of wisdom from an investment friend when my "risky greedy gene" activates. "Bulls & Bears make money, Pigs don't."

Good luck to all who try.

BTW, I just made a ~$6500 Paypal payment about an hour ago. That was about the max amount Paypal would let me send on my CC to my other Paypal acct (and yes, there are different names + addresses on both Paypal accounts). It went through immediately this time, unlike a few days ago when I made a $2050 payment via Paypal and got rejected and then got a call confirming acct activity from my CC company. I just looked on my second account and the money is there and I am even able to withdraw it, I did a Phantom withdraw up to the very last step. Because of all the posts here however, I am wary of this scheme and will only try it this one time. I actually plan on leaving the money in my Paypal account until Nov. when the fees are cerdited back (heck, why not? I don't have to pay my CC bill for ~ 6 weeks and the money is earning 1.6% in my Paypal acct. which is more than it would be earning in my checking acct. anyway). Just wanted to relay my story. I'll post again later with my outcome. So much for this great deal, looks like it was pretty much a dud, about 1.5 hours worth of work for me to get 6500 miles!!!

I did, and it didn't say anything about waived credit card fees. If those fees aren't waived, then the miles you get will be quite expensive, indeed.

The so-called "credit card fee" for PayPal is actually the transaction fee that is charged to the recipient of the payment for receiving the payment. It does not cost the user of the card anything additional to use their credit card.

(Premier PayPal accounts, which can accept credit card payments, get charged this transaction fee on all transactions - regardless of whether it was funded by a credit card or not.)

This transaction fee is the one that will be refunded in a month.

Mike

I hope everyone knows that you have no excuse if PayPal freezes your funds or does not credit you the fees because you did large transfers that were not labeled as "quasi-cash."

The credit card fess are waived. Paypal is clear about that.

Why anyone would risk ping ponging money back and forth though however is beyond me?

I echo this. People, if you've done this successfully, get the money out N-O-W.

On second thought, that won't help anyway; PayPal can arbitrarily do an ACH out of your account, thereby reversing the transaction. This thread will be a hundred pages if that starts happening. It will make the Goldpoints/Valuemags fiasco look small-time!

My opinion (and experience): Don't deal with PayPal.

They are thieves. I cant wait till the IRS hits them up with an audit and the banking police hit them up. Worse kind of company to deal with.

yes, today is a fee-free day at paypal, but you may be certain paypal will be looking for self-payments, and if they don't catch you today or this week, I would be surprised if they don't catch it at some point.

Just like selling airline miles is a no-no on eBay, so too is sending oneself payments via paypal a big-time no no, and probably violates not only your paypal contract, but also your credit card contract between your bank and oneself.

This is a dangerous scheme for ff points IMO. Could lose your paypal "good standing" and have your credit card ultimately cancelled.

Separate story, but it confirmed to me today the power of information and the freedom of information flow about all of us:
I had a need to speak to AMEX security today...the CSR comes on and says she would need to ask me a couple of personal questions to establish security and to prove I was who I said I was...fine says I....she asks me what month my car had to be registered each year. I was floored, since I have never provided this sort of info. She was serious and expected an answer...I told her we had three cars and I would need to go outside and check my tags on my car, as I had no idea...she finally let me "pass go" by correctly describing the last car I purchased and the month I purchased it, since the purchase month = the month I had to register it and effectively answered the question. She mumbled something about "public records"...so now I know AMEX retrieves public vehicle registration records and cross-references it against a cardholders' account, at least at the security-level (probably not the first-line CSR level).

Back to this thread... I have seen anecdotal evidence that convinced me absolutely that paypal's acumen and IT skills go far beyond AMEX's, so, again, I would never consider a self-payment across two accounts and so forth...paypal will likely be looking for this very scheme and I'm guessing they will require reimbursement for the transaction fee, and then will close your account and lock you out. And then I would not be surprised if they managed to inform your ccard co also. Triple whammy.

FWIW.

All this stuff is actually on your credit report IF you got a loan through the dealership (GMAC, etc). I have been asked similar questions like this before when requesting credit reports to verify it was really me. I have been asked what month and year I bought my last car. How much is my monthly payment, etc. Since AMEX has access to your credit report, they have access to this info as well. I really don't think they retrieve public vehicle registrations and cross-reference them. You probably financed your car through the dealership, right? I feel this is a good question because even if a thief stole all your info, they would not know your car payments and other info like that.

gregorygrady, nope - paid cash. FWIW, and BTW, good luck w/ your charge. I would be doing a reversal on that charge you made (ie deny the payment from the receiving end) if it were me.

She specifically mentioned "public records". I have never put ths specific info on paper nor made it one of my "security questions", because I don't have a clue without going to look at the car reg info.

They had to have cross-referenced vehicle registration information; we've only had this particular car about 5 mo.

P.S. One more anecdotal observation about today's fee-free paypal day...paypal could have easily waived the commission on the spot in real time as payments were made today, but this promo leaves them until Nov 30th to credit back transaction fees paid today...anyone wondering why they are leaving themselves 30-32 days or so to refund the credits ? Could it be to review large charges or to give them ample time to review suspicious activity. That would be my hunch here.

I've dealt with PayPal since just a week after they originally launched, and back when there was no charge to make credit card payments. I thought about doing this for about 3 seconds when I saw the announcement, but there's no way I would get anywhere close to this. The miles aren't worth it.

And I have executives at the company I can call to get things cleared up if my account gets locked, unlike most people.

One final thing if no one read the details:
That's giving them time to investigate any questionable transactions before they credit them back.

Called Paypal this afternoon to tell them I wanted to make a series of large payments from my personal to business account for the sole purpose of getting the miles with no fees. I asked if this would be a violation of the Terms of Service or if they had any problems with it. The person I was speaking with put me on hold and came bck and said knock yourself out and that they had no problem with it. The person gave me their employee number and name.