Hi, this is John from the eBay Trust & Safety team, and today we’re going to be covering the topic of Buying on eBay in light of the new accepted payments policy that was announced in August.
Other eBay and PayPal Pink members are also at hand to converse and answer questions you may have about what has changed, and how that impacts your shopping on eBay.
I’ll start by posting some information in a couple of introductory posts and then we’ll open it up for questions.
No checks or money orders. In basic terms, beginning October 20th, eBay sellers will not be allowed to include checks or money orders as payment methods in their listings. What this means for you as a buyer is that you will not see Checks and Money Orders under the Payment Details>Payment Methods section of listings.
What can I pay with starting on October 20th?
You can pay for items by one of the following ways. Sellers must offer at least one:
PayPal – through which you can use your credit or debit card or your bank account to pay, all while keeping your financial account details private from the seller.
Credit/debit card directly - use your credit or debit card to pay a seller directly if they can receive these types of payments directly.
ProPay – this is another way to use your credit card to buy eBay items. The seller receives your credit card payment via the ProPay payment service.
Or, if you buy something and agree and arrange with the seller to pick it up in person, you can pay using whatever payment method you and the seller agree to.
Q: How will checks and money orders actually be excluded? A: If a seller has not already revised his listings, the checks and money orders options will be removed, or in other words masked from view.
You may see a reference to Checks or Money Orders in the Item Description section of a seller’s listing, so you should know that eBay has given a grace period until January for sellers to remove references to checks and money orders from the Item Description section. Under the new policy, however, even if checks or money orders are mentioned in the Item Description section, sellers should not solicit checks and money orders in any other ways, such as emailing you to ask you to pay by check or money order.
Bottom line, when you go to purchase an item, eBay’s checkout will offer you the choice of paying with one of the accepted payment methods listed above.
II. WHY ARE WE MOVING TO PAPERLESS, ELECTRONIC-ONLY PAYMENTS?
We’ve made this change for the following three reasons:
1) To provide a more consistent and better buying experience. For approximately 1 out of 5 transactions on eBay today, buyers are required to leave the site to arrange payment for an item (such as, by mailing a check). Moving to electronic-only payments enables eBay to integrate all of the approved payment methods into eBay checkout, which will then provide a more consistent and secure buying experience every time you shop.
2) To ensure an overall safer buying experience for you. Individuals who pay with a check or money order on eBay.com, are 80% more likely to file an "item not received" dispute, and 50% more likely to leave a negative feedback than buyers who pay with PayPal or a credit card. Prohibiting paper payments greatly reduces your exposure to fraudulent activity, and moving to electronic payments with consumer protection built in gives you recourse and holds sellers accountable to providing a great buying experience. Remember also, as of October 20, by choosing PayPal when you buy, your purchases will now be covered more than ever – up to the full purchase price of the item, plus the original shipping costs.
3) To achieve a faster transaction which benefits you and the seller. Your sellers will be paid faster with electronic payment methods, so they can ship items to you quickly.
Well over 90% of successful items are already paid for with electronic payment methods on eBay.com, and over 98% of items offer electronic payment methods. So, actually, this will not be a big change for most eBay buyers and sellers. Also, it is already standard across the web to pay with electronic methods. Amazon just recently discontinued offering paper payment methods for buyers, and many large retailers online only accept electronic payment methods. Even on eBay, one of the last online destinations where paper payment methods are accepted, Check and Money Order usage has declined 40% in the last 2 years.
Q: I don't have a bank account and/or credit card, or I don't want to use them online -- what can I do?
A: If you remain concerned about using a credit card or your bank account online, or if you do not have a credit card or bank account, you have a few options:
1. You can purchase with cash a prepaid debit card that won’t be linked in any way to a bank account or credit card account or credit score. Pre-paid cards are available at many supermarkets and banks.
2. Some eBay customers have also suggested to us opening a secondary bank account or get a secondary credit card that is used only for online purchases and is not linked to your primary accounts.
3. Remember also that PayPal and credit card providers offer 100% protection against unauthorized use of your accounts, in the event that your account is compromised, and furthermore that this happens very rarely. In fact, it happens more often offline than online.
Large grocery chains sell pre-paid debit cards in person at their stores. For example, Safeway offers the All-Access Visa Gift Card, available in $25, $50 and $100 denominations. https://www.allaccessgift.com/gift/
Another popular pre-paid card vendor is Green Dot. They offer pre-paid Visa and Mastercard options in which there is no credit check and no bank account is required. www.greendotonline.com
Pre-paid card providers may charge fees, such as for set-up, to enable unlimited transactions, or on a card’s stored value, if any, at the end of each month. Be sure to read the card terms & conditions before you purchase one.
Finally, an eBay gift card is another way to use cash at a supermarket to load a card that can be used online, and can be used for any purchase on eBay. However, this option does require that you also have a PayPal account already. www.ebay.com/giftcard
And finally, if you would like to see more detailed FAQs on the change, go to www.ebay.com/payments
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Another problem I see with the system is that when Pay Pal does an investigation and puts a hold on the payment from the buyer, this doesn't reflect back to ebay allowing us to issue an NPB.
Do you have a list of merchant accounts that can readily integrate with paypal's payflow gateway that will be required for sellers who have merchant accounts?
And how accepting are merchant accounts in complying with that requirement? It is my understanding that ebay offered other payment services the option to sign on and only ProPay has taken the offer. I suspect it is the difficulty or perhaps giving up control of the security of thepayment process?
I apologize, because there has been conflicting information concerning payment on pickup.
1) Sellers must offer at least one of the electronic payment methods in addition to Payment on Pickup.
2) Buyers may choose whatever payment method the seller and buyer agree to when they pay on pickup, including checks, money orders and cash. It is OK for a seller to specify “Contact me for payment methods for pay on pickup”. However, we will not allow a seller to specifically call out prohibited payment methods.
A held payment shouldn't be considered an unpaid item. The buyer has paid, but the transaction is just under investigation. You can reverse the transaction yourself, and at that point, it will be reflected as unpaid on eBay. But if the funds are on hold, the buyer has still paid.
This is Hagar from eBay marketing, and to answer your question about losing buyers, we recognize that there are a certain relatively small number of customers who have historically transacted with checks or money orders, and some of those people may not migrate to accepted electronic payment methods. We hope they do and that's why we're educating to the and ease benefits of electronic payments.
We also expect that buyers will grow over time, and also increase what they do purchase on eBay due to heightened Buyer Trust due to enhanced protections.
In preparation for EBAY's new non-paperless payment requirements, I've already indicated in my listings that I only accept Paypal for payments. I've already run into the problem with buyer's bidding and winning items and then telling me they will pay via check or M.O., even though my payments policies are clearly stated. Can I go ahead and accept a personal check or M.O. in such instances, so that I can complete the transaction and be paid? Thanks, Julie
Yes, unfortunately, it does. No seller in their right mind is going to offer PP as a payment method on local pick-up unless PP changes their SPP. There is ZERO protection. Nada. Zilch. Bupkis.
I do appreciate the answer. It should, quite swiftly, destroy all local pick-up sales. Which, I'm assuming, is part of some plan.
Cashier checks are a paper form of payment and will not be permitted on eBay.com after October 20.
Thanks, John
Ok, Thanks. Will Turbo Lister be updated in time to reflect those decisions? As for now the button is still available on Turbo Lister to accept Money Orders/Cashier Checks ..
I don't have a list of merchant accounts that can readily integrate with PayPal's Payflow gateway on hand. However, if you email me at JohnMcD@ebay.com, I can get the list to you. We plan to provide detailed FAQs and workshops to explain how to integrate your Internet merchant account later this year. We will not be launching the integration until January, 2009.
We have been working with other electronic payment services, similar to ProPay, to add them to the Accepted Payments list and integrate them into eBay checkout. They do need to meet minimum fraud, information security and uptime requirements, as well as complete product development to integrate into eBay checkout. We expect to announce more payment services late this year, with likely integration in January.
I have a merchant account that requires that the customer contact me. They can't use another payflow system. This means I can't accept their payment. How are you going to fix this? PP charges much more than my merchant account AND I can fight chargebacks without a disinterested middle man. (PayPal has no incentive to REALLY fight for me - they just say they will).
I'm not buying your logic on this. (ProPay is more expensive than PayPal - an idiot would use that instead of PP).
There are other online payment processors that are cheaper than PayPal.
This is clearly an interest in simply getting more revenue.
You stated that those customers that wish to pay with paper, may.
I have customers who wish to use paper paymnent and only paper payment. I will look elsewhere to supply those customers with excellent service. Eventually, I will put EVERYTHING on whatever alternative place I go, because...
eBay requires (PayPal only) Auction site two allows (PayPal, checks, other payment processors....)
Convince me to stay. I agree that more traffic is here at eBay than elsewhere.
Also 75% of my business is with PP, I don't (generally) have a problem with PP.
I have a problem with eBay forcing me to be "PayPal only".
"Safer" simply does not jive with me, since you actively refuse to allow other payment processors
You can reverse the transaction yourself, and at that point, it will be reflected as unpaid on eBay. But if the funds are on hold, the buyer has still paid.
Regards, Monroe
Sure, but had I shipped that item already, the chance of being without payment was my burden, and not Pay Pals or ebays. Something needs to be changed there if possible. I don't understand how I could reverse anything while the payment is on hold.
monroe, perhaps you could pass along an idea for local pickup/ paypal transactions...
Buyer pays with paypal and receives a telephone number to call and a PIN. Buyer can then call that number and indicate receipt of the item while still with the seller.
Yes, if your buyer insists on paying with paper, then we're not going to tell you to turn away the sale if you don't want to. It is not a violation of the policy to do so. There is, of course, plenty of space for grey in this area, so to deal with that eBay plans to monitor payment completion with electronic payments. If a seller shows a high rate of sales that are not disputed as UPIs but aren't showing electronic payment completion, then eBay will investigate and if it is found that the seller is encouraging or soliciting paper payments off the site, then that will be considered a policy violation.
It is also OK for you to decline the payment, and that item would be considered an unpaid item. And we did change our feedback removal policy so that if a buyer responds to an unpaid item dispute by saying "I tried to pay with a check" or something to that effect, then they lose the unpaid item dispute and any negative feedback they leave can be removed.
" Also, it is already standard across the web to pay with electronic methods. Amazon just recently discontinued offering paper payment methods for buyers, and many large retailers online only accept electronic payment methods"
Money order acceptance is THE reason I have shopped on eBay. Now where can I go? I feel like a second class citizen because I can't use any other form of payment. I have a good record as a buyer here and you are throwing me out the door with all the bad guys.
Our goal is to eventually have all buyers go through eBay Checkout when paying for their items. When buyers go through Checkout we are able to log their payment and provide support. This is why it's important to have your internet merchant account integrated.
Could you email me some information about your merchant account so I can investigate? What is your merchant bank (acquiring bank), what is your gateway, what is your credit card processor?
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