[OPLINLIST] Use of PayPal--Responses from two libraries

[Marsha Wagner]

To date I have received two responses related to the use of PayPal. In PayPal there are two kinds of accounts: Website Standard with a transaction fee of 1.9% to 2.99% plus .30 per transaction and Website Payments Pro with a cost of 2.2% to 2.99% plus .30 per transaction and a $30 a month charge. From what Andy, my IT Coordinator tells me, the Website Standard requires someone, either the patron or staff to manually type in the patron's name address and credit card type, credit card number and expiration date. There seems to be less manual entry with the Website Payments Pro because can be used with a USB magnetic card reader. When you Google "USB magnetic card reader" the reader can cost about $59.00-$295 per USB magnetic card reader for a new one. 

The advantage of PayPal seems to be that libraries can accept major credit cards for fairly low cost. PayPal at this time does not interface with SEO's Dynix Horizon system. Staff would receive an e-mail if patrons paid from home and would have to go in and mark the item paid in the Dynix Horizon system. Otherwise, if the patron is in the library and wishes to pay at the circulation desk, library staff would entering the person's name and swiping the card, the staff member would have to mark the patron's account paid in the Dynix system as well.


1)The Wadsworth Public Library now uses self check machines with touch screens for patrons to enter their own information to use PayPal, but with a USB card reader. The patrons can also pay online from home or at the library. Thanks to Mohamed Ragheb for this information.

2) The Steubinville Library uses PayPal also but without a USB magnetic card reader, as demand is not sufficient to warrant that expense. Allan Hall reports that they have PayPal set up on their home page and it is available on computers in the library. He says that a couple of times a month their Fiscal Officer electronically transfers from PayPal into the library's checking account. Every day the staff check the PayPal account to rectify the system for payments, primarily if the payment was made at home and the system needs to be rectified for the payment. It takes the Fiscal Officer 2 minutes to do that, it takes about the same to check PayPal payments. Allan reports that it works just fine and is a small part of their accounts receivable, but that they have taken in $6,000 to date that way. As he notes few people carry cash these days. Thanks to Allan for this information. Also see http://www.paypal.com/ and select the business tab.

Earlier in the year Andy and I researched accepting credit cards through the bank as a regular vendor and found it more expensive for the equipment that had to be purchased and the volume needed to make it worth the cost and quite a bit of bureaucracy. PayPal seem easier and less costly. Canal Fulton would like to try PayPal using the Website Payment Pro and will report back to the list after we set this up.

Marsha Wagner 
Director 
Canal Fulton Public Library 
154 Market St. NE 
Canal Fulton, OH 44708 
330 854-4148; fax 330 8549520 

"All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been; it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books." Thomas Carlyle

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