05-06-2019 04:55 PM
Recently eBay sent me a solicitation for a loan through Square Capital. I suspect that eBay has found a new partner to steer sellers' interest payments away from PayPal.
I thought it odd that the prominently displayed illustration shows a 6-month loan of $55,000 for a total borrowing cost of $5,500. I wondered if the borrowing cost exceeded 10% of the principal on a much smaller loan, so I started to do some comparison shopping.
I have had good experiences with PayPal Working Capital when I've needed to make a large inventory purchase. PayPal's total borrowing costs have seemed reasonable to me. Their website shows details of the loan's repayment progress When I checked with them a couple of weeks ago, total borrowing costs were never above 10% for me unless I paid back the loan at the slowest possible rate. The loans I am considering would cost me 6% to 8% with estimated payoff times of about six months.
When I went to the Square Capital website, I could not get a quote without giving them my online banking user account and password. They promised that it would be safe to give it to them, but I hit the back button immediately, and decided to ask other sellers' opinion here. I recall eBay partnering with a couple of firms with a "slightly less than wonderful" reputation among sellers. My questions are:
1) Which company has a lower cost of borrowing: Square Capital or PayPal Working Capital?
2) Which company is more trustworthy and why?
Solved! Go to Best Answer
05-06-2019 06:05 PM
Well, I've been using Paypal Working Capital for years now. I am on my 5th PayPal loan. I like that PayPal automatically deducts a percentage rate you pick at the time you opening your loan from each item you sell. Makes it simple and easy to make payments. The percentage rate is flat. There is no term. There is no credit check.
These are the things I love about it. It is not without its flaws. For example, if you sell something and a buyer wants to cancel and order or there is a return, you're still out that percentage they took to pay off your loan. eBay once took money from me they weren't suppose to and when they refunded it (only $500) they took 15% of that too. That time I called them and they told me there was nothing they could do about it. I've also had someone accidentally forget to send me money Friends and Family. It was $1,000 in money they owed me for a personal loan I had given to them. Not only did PayPal take their service charge fee, but they took the 15% for the loan too! Boy did that suck.
All I know about the Square loans is: 1. That they're directly partnered with eBay, which I already don't like because eBay and my money have never mixed well. It's really a necessary evil at this point, 2. They require you to enter in bank account and other info, which seems to suggest they take a certain amount each month instead of a percentage of sales like PayPal (which I don't like, but makes sense as no one on here is getting paid via Square), 3. Jack Dorsey is with Square and I am not a fan of him.
05-06-2019 06:05 PM
Well, I've been using Paypal Working Capital for years now. I am on my 5th PayPal loan. I like that PayPal automatically deducts a percentage rate you pick at the time you opening your loan from each item you sell. Makes it simple and easy to make payments. The percentage rate is flat. There is no term. There is no credit check.
These are the things I love about it. It is not without its flaws. For example, if you sell something and a buyer wants to cancel and order or there is a return, you're still out that percentage they took to pay off your loan. eBay once took money from me they weren't suppose to and when they refunded it (only $500) they took 15% of that too. That time I called them and they told me there was nothing they could do about it. I've also had someone accidentally forget to send me money Friends and Family. It was $1,000 in money they owed me for a personal loan I had given to them. Not only did PayPal take their service charge fee, but they took the 15% for the loan too! Boy did that suck.
All I know about the Square loans is: 1. That they're directly partnered with eBay, which I already don't like because eBay and my money have never mixed well. It's really a necessary evil at this point, 2. They require you to enter in bank account and other info, which seems to suggest they take a certain amount each month instead of a percentage of sales like PayPal (which I don't like, but makes sense as no one on here is getting paid via Square), 3. Jack Dorsey is with Square and I am not a fan of him.
05-07-2019 05:04 AM
PayPal Working Capital is lower cost. What's more there is no time limit on repayments which come out of daily sales. Perfect! I never heard of Square Capital, $5,500 seems like a huge fee. The negative of Square would be having to repay it out of your bank account. That I don't like. I'd rather PayPal Working Capital any day of the week, it will be a big loss not to have that under MP. Because your payments for sales would no longer be in PayPal.
05-07-2019 07:19 AM
For me the biggest disappointment with MP is gonna be losing Paypal Working Capital.
I have used them multiple times and it is great.
Square trade called me and recently offered a 5000 loan and the guy wanted to see 3 months bank statements and you must pay back in 6 months any amount, I was like forget it!
I am sure MP will be a horror in general, but losing Working Cap really stinks.
05-07-2019 07:22 AM
BTW, I have never heard of anyone asking for your banking user account and password, are you sure it was legit?
05-07-2019 07:45 AM
@duncanvr wrote:PayPal Working Capital is lower cost. What's more there is no time limit on repayments which come out of daily sales. Perfect! I never heard of Square Capital, $5,500 seems like a huge fee. The negative of Square would be having to repay it out of your bank account. That I don't like. I'd rather PayPal Working Capital any day of the week, it will be a big loss not to have that under MP. Because your payments for sales would no longer be in PayPal.
I too have used several PP Working Capital loans. I would like to note, while there is no time table to repay, in the terms they want at least 10% of the loan paid every 90 days, so it would have to be paid off in around 900 days, or 30 months.
05-07-2019 09:21 AM
Isn't the PayPal loan interest rate in the 20-30% range?
05-07-2019 09:56 AM
Mine was 6%, less than I could get from any bank or credit card.
05-07-2019 10:36 AM - edited 05-07-2019 10:39 AM
@mongoose26 wrote:Mine was 6%, less than I could get from any bank or credit card.
An annual interest rate of 6%?
Are you saying that you can borrow $1,000 from PayPal for a year, for a flat fee of $60?
05-08-2019 05:57 PM
Really?
05-08-2019 06:24 PM
The amount you quoted for the Square loan was 20% per year, which to my mind is outrageously high. I've never borrowed from Paypal so I don't know their rates.
Buy a smaller amount of inventory and/or get the supplier to extend you terms. I just got $150,000 worth of inventory for which I don't have to pay until December. And NO interest. If I couldn't have gotten those terms I would not have bought so much.
If you must borrow, at least check out your local bank, or a home equity loan.
05-08-2019 06:36 PM
05-08-2019 11:37 PM
05-08-2019 11:38 PM
05-09-2019 12:00 AM