Game price difference between Paypal and PayPal account

[Dino Rick]

Steam offers several buying options, including two options for Paypal. There is a "My Paypal Account" and a plain Paypal option. I assumed the difference would be how I would log into paypal.

Oddly enough, the price for the "my paypal account" was the correct value ($8.49 for Broken Age) but the Paypal option (completed with a separate login) wanted $9.30.

What gives? Is there a hidden tax being added on here? I've never seen this discrepency before.

[TastyToast]

prob have some steam wallet funds, and when you changed the payment method forgot to add the wallet funds back on

[Dino Rick]

The steam wallet funds is another option, usually the default one. When I select the non-wallet funds options, I always just pay the price of the game, in this case $8.49. For some reason, the plain paypal option wanted more money ($9.30) than the stated price.

[RedShadow]

Could this be some VAT? It's weird indeed.

[Dino Rick]

It looks like it some odd tax, because it turns out to be about 9.5%.

I usually check and make sure there are no extra costs on my steam buys. This is the first time this showed up.

I think I'll send an email off to steam customer service and see what they have to say.

[RedShadow]

Or maybe this could also be a $ conversion rate? Like CAD <-> USD for example if you are Canadian: 1CAD = 0.93USD right now, this could match your extra cost. Maybe.

You could also try to contact the PayPal support; you will probably have an answer faster from them than from Valve.

[Xander555]

I've had the same problem with 3 different game purchases. I cancelled each one before completing the deal. Support has not yet responded to my ticket. Each case was a 9.5% increase showing on the PayPal site.

For some unknown reason, I'm directed to a different PayPal page to complete the purchase. It appears to be a valid secure site. After multiple tries (over multiple hours), I was finally able to access the normal PayPal login page and complete two of the purchases normally. Even then, the amount did not show on PayPal, but the correct amount was billed to my account.

Now I'm having the same issue again with a third game. All of this started over the past 2 or 3 days.

[Tango_Whiskey]

I

[MancSoulja]

PayPal fees maybe?

[Xander555]

No. I checked that already. Neither party claims any fees exist. Looks like it's an odd glitch in directing traffic to a different webpage - probably an old link that added percentage fees??? It's only happening (to me) on games that are discounted by Steam. Sale items. And it's always the same percentage increase. Still no response from Steam/Valve.

[Xander555]

9 hours later - I was directed to the correct PayPal page, but no dollar amount showed for the transaction. I was returned to Steam to finalize the deal and paid the correct price. I double-checked with PayPal to ensure that it posted the correct amount (it did!).

Whatever is causing this snafu seems to be either temporary or on an 'hourly' cycle. I'm only updating this thread in the hopes that Steam Support will become aware of the issue, since they still have not responded to my support ticket.

It will be an accounting nightmare refunding all the customers who did not notice the change and were over-billed. Better to catch and fix the problem before it gets worse, Steam!

[Amogus backwards then say balls]

thanks ily

[Calthous]

I have also noticed that paypal has been showing a larger due amount then steam. I have canceled each order and then paid with a different method, but it has been rather annoying. I live in the U.S. so there should not be currency conversion factoring in.

[ihsoft]

I had the same issue. Noticed the difference and reported it to the Steam support. As usual they shown very little enthusiasm and closed the ticket with words "Unfortunately, we cannot provide the best support information for your PayPal account".

Looks like the only way to make them investigating this problem is actually buying a game at the wrong price and than filing a claim. Though, I'm not ready to go this way.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Does it not state any "extras" when u are given the paypal post-checkout process; where u confirm the total?

[ihsoft]

New PayPal UI sucks. It used to offer you a confirmation page with details on the product being purchased but now it's just the total amount. So, it's not possible to figure out why is this difference.