Page 1 of 1

Using PayPal APIs. Is this possible?

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 2:19 pm
by mattkenefick
What needs to be done ( It's like an auction site I guess.. I'm just the developer, what do I know =] ) is person 1 and person 2 , Mary and John, have to seal a deal.

Mary posts something , John bids on it, John wins.
The money needs to be transferred from John to an escrow temporary account.
Then John waits for services / package to arrive, Mary and John agree to transfer the money, 5% is taken out as a service charge, the rest is sent to Mary.

The course of waiting could be a week or whatnot..

Is this possible using Paypal?

I've heard its not, and I heard it is... I don't normally program things involving money ( I try my hardest not to )


Thank you! 8O

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:14 pm
by feyd
I don't see why it's not technically possible.

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:27 pm
by alex.barylski
Your probably best asking someone at PayPal or reading the developer API's

I've read over them in the past and I cannot remember any kind of escrow feature. This usually requires a lawyer to setup. If anything you could maybe use PayPal as payment processor, storing the funds in a "phantom" escrow account. When the transaction went through you would have to transfer the money from your paypal account into the appropriate bank account.

You'll need to take more then 5% if you want to break even though cause I'm betting it'll cost about that much just to use Paypal in this way. :)

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:54 pm
by TheMoose
Business accounts take 2.9% plus an added $.30 processing fee (last time I used it they did) to receive funds paid by either fund transfer, eCheck, or credit card. It is free to send funds, so you'll need to take out basically 8% total, 3% to cover the Paypal fees, and then 5% for the service charge.