How to pay on Ebay
When you buy something on Ebay you can pay for it using several payment methods.
The primary payment is Paypal of course, which is owned by Ebay thus heavily promoted, make it look like the only payment method you can use. That’s because if the buyer pays by using Paypal, they make an additional roughly 4% commission off of the total amount including the postage cost.
If you live in a country where Ebay has a presence, you can use that country’s currency. If you live outside of any of those countries, you might be able to use Paypal if you are able to sign up. Paypal requires a bank account and a credit or debit card.
If you don’t want to use Paypal, you can use a postal order, a bank money order, a personal check (if the seller agrees to it), -you better ask the seller first before you bid, unless it’s indicated in the payment accepted section below the listing price.
You can also use cash when you are personally collecting an item.
In the UK the postal orders are very expensive. £.95 pence per ten pounds. So if you buy an item for, say £100 pounds, that would be an extra £9.50 pounds for the postal order.
Bank money order -or bank draft as they call it here is also expensive.
When you buy large items such as cars or excersize equipment where a personal collection must be made due to the size, the best method for payment is cash. Saves the seller the 4% Paypal charge. That makes them happier too.
If you don’t have money on your credit or debit card, you are not able to pay for your purchase, because they take the money out of your account right away. However if you don’t have money on your cards and your bank accoun t is approved by them, they’ll take the money out of that.
If your bank account is not approved, because you are new to Ebay, they have a so called “e-check” method, where they take the money out of your bank account and deposit it into theirs until the payment clears and than forward it to the seller. This usually takes about two weeks or more to clear. Once you have made a couple of purchases and had the money cleared you’ll get an approved status and the whole procedure is immediate.
Keep in mind, the sellers won’t send you the item until the payment had cleared.
Ebay takes their fee (which is about 10% of the total purchase price) out of your bank account once per month, but they’ll send you an email about 10 days prior, to make sure you have the money available. Paypal takes their fee out right away as soon as the payment was made.
Trading an item for another item is not allowed on Ebay.
Related articles
- How to Send Money with Paypal (fastmoneypage.com)
