eBay has announced a change in its acceptable payment methods. Beginning sometime in
October 2008, checks and money orders will no longer be acceptable payment methods.
Paper payments end this October
Beginning late October 2008, all items listed on eBay.com must be paid for using one of the following approved payment options:
- Direct credit or debit card payment via a merchant credit card account
- PayPal
- ProPay
- Payment on pick-up
Paper payment methods such as checks and money orders will no longer be accepted on eBay.com.
By January 2009, all approved electronic payment methods will be integrated into eBay checkout. For example, buyers will be able to enter their credit card number directly into eBay checkout, and the payment will be routed to the seller’s Internet merchant account or to their PayPal account.
This will be a big change for a lot of sellers. Of course it means more fees for eBay, since they will collect another fee on each PayPal payment.
As a buyer, it makes things easier to pay your seller and you should get your patch qa few days sooner.
As a seller, it squeezes your margins a bit more. For the big boys who have merchant accounts with the credit card companies, they won’t need to accept PayPal, but everyone else will need a PayPal account or will need to stop selling on eBay.
What if I only accept checks, money orders or other payment methods that will be prohibited?
By late October you’ll need to do at least one of the following:
- Add PayPal as a payment method to your listings. This can be done through your seller preferences page in My eBay.
- Sign up with ProPay to offer this electronic payment option to your customers. We are also working closely with additional electronic payment providers to add them to our approved payment providers list. Learn more.
- Accept credit or debit cards through your Internet merchant account.
What if I don’t take at least one of these steps by late October, 2008?
You will not be able to list new items or relist using the same templates. Your current listings will remain on eBay.com until they end. Good ’til Canceled listings will be displayed on eBay until they come up for relisting at the end of 30 days.
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- I can’t understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars.
This new “advance” in paying for Ebay sales is really a profit making opportunity for Ebay. I am not in favor of it. I can see that the future buyers will be paying for this “advance” when the seller adds the pay pal charges to his sale costs.
I Agree, eBay does nothing that it will not increase its own profit making potential. In my separate post of fixed shipping in certain categories, eBay explicitly encourages sellers to add costs into the sale price. Of course, eBay also earns more commission on that too.
There are so many changes going on with eBay and their payment options. Many of the frustrated eBay users may be happy to learn of a new payment option eBay is picking up called ProPay. EBay has no financial affiliation with ProPay. ProPay is going to offer some great new services especially for their eBay customers, some of which won’t be announced until the end of Sept. ProPay will be an answer for those small business owners/sellers that are getting nervous about all the changes.