Never do family and friends for art.

No, I don't. The reason I ask is because I'm only loosely aware of the reasons why you don't do Family and Friends. I'm just looking for the full picture~

You can't get your money back if there's issues.

Good enough reason for me.

:P I said this option cause paypal gets (1'50-2$) fot commission >< this is much money when u make much commissions >< But I do not force anyone, I only give that option and then everyone pays as they want ^^ (sorry for my english hahaha)

I'm not calling you out for it, like I said, nor am I condemning you. It's just your mention of it brought it to mind is all.

Still, I can understand your angle given PayPal takes a portion of the money exchanged.

Friends and family GUARANTEE they get exactly the amount they ask for, as PayPal deducts a fee of the money sent. So by using friends and family the fee is tacked on automatically so you pay about 2 dollars more than what is asked.

While it is nice to give artists all the money, there's no buyer protection in that. While it's not often one needs a refund, it's a nice thing to have there for piece of mind. Like the porn channel in a hotel room.

I see :3 That is perfectly fair ^^

If they really want to get money in full, just have them do an invoice ^^

Don't get me wrong, I understand why an artist would request payment via friends and family. I get it, I really do. Often times they just scrape by every month.
But if nothing else it's disingenuous to not process the transaction under business. I'm not gonna try to think of the potential other risks involved.

Just know the reason why I don't want to send money via Friends/Family is not to deliberately screw an artist over.

While I don't know if PayPal itself will do anything about artists asking for payment via the Friends/Family option, anyone who is asking for money as a business transaction is supposed to use the Goods/Services option, yes. I know people don't like that PayPal takes a cut, but it's easy enough to adjust prices to compensate. So if someone wants, say, $30 for a particular commission, it's easy enough for them to tack a couple more dollars on to cover the fees. People who send money via F/F aren't covered at all, and if an artist should happen to run away with your cash, PayPal won't do anything about it. Whereas with the G/S option, well it can be a pain in the butt sometimes, to judge from what others have told me, but at least you have a chance of getting your money back.

In short, never send money to artists or other business-people via the Friends option because if they screw you, you're out of luck. A lot of artists I know would say the same.

"anyone who is asking for money as a business transaction is supposed to use the Goods/Services option, yes."

This was exactly my thinking, heck I always treat interactions with artists as a business or service/customer relationship when it comes to actually having paid for something. (General interactions I don't hold to such a formal degree).

I wouldn't pay via F/F simply due to this principle, regardless of other potential implications that might arise.

As I said to  deathspartan187 above, I really do understand an artist's angle in this situation. But I just can't bring myself to do it.

Oh, I completely understand an artist wanting to get paid full price, and I sympathize. But as I said, it's easy enough to adjust prices to compensate. Besides, I think that someone can get their account shut down if they get too many F/F transactions in a given time period, so it's just safer all around.

Yeah, I can see the reasons have already been well-discussed. Usually, if it comes up, I explain to them my concerns, set it to goods/services, and throw them an extra dollar to help cover fees.

Artists should be careful about running the friend route, though. I've had a couple of artist friends lose access to their PayPal because doing this was apparently considered a breach of their ToS. That's why I like the invoice route. Keeps everyone honest.

I was discussing this the other day, and invoices were mentioned. I agree that they're probably the best way to do it. Are there any charges involved with invoices? I'm not actually aware of any

Invoices work the same as purchasing via Goods/Services, so the artist still has to deal with the fees. If it's a super-big issue, there's sites that can help you calculate the fees for the value of a Paypal charge, so they can include those in the invoice.

I see. So it still makes invoice the best way to do it, since nobody really has to get jibbed in the event something goes wrong