Change adds up

Despite sentiments that the service is free, the WebGuild reports — or rather, laments — that Google Checkout, a competitor of PayPal, charges 20 cents per transaction in addition to a "hefty fee" for general use.

20 cents is also charged for canceled orders.

The Costs and Fees section of Google Checkout gives AdWords users free transaction processing for up to 10 times their monthly AdWords spend. In excess of that, users are charged 20 cents per transaction.

There are no visible rates for non-AdWords merchants.

PayPal does not charge a fee for sending money, making withdrawals, adding funds to an account, or receiving payments from other PayPal accounts. Receiving payments from a credit card, debit card or buyer credit account commands certain applicable fees.

Some fees are higher than on Google Checkout, but WebGuild does not take issue with the fees themselves; lack of transparency is the problem.

View a detailed chart of PayPal's fees. (There is currently no such chart on Google Checkout.)