Is it true, once you go Express you can't go back?
I haven't changed a thing in my account since the dawn of Managed Payments. When the Express thing started, I was kind of interested because the % fee seemed reasonable and I probably wouldn't need to do it often anyway. But at that time, I think I was told (here) that you can only get Express withdrawals if your (regular) payment schedule is at least weekly; you couldn't do them if you were on daily payments or on-demand payments like I am. Also if you switched, you couldn't switch back. I think I remember some people found out the hard way and were really ticked off about it.
Tonight I noticed that the ad banner now says the Express payouts are a flat $2 fee, so I got curious again. Well now I am ALL KINDS OF CONFUSED.
The help pages seem to conflate Express Payouts with On Demand in multiple ways. Talks about OD being 30 minutes with a fee, but right below it describes OD as 1-3 days (no mention of a fee). AND the requirements of getting OD seem to indicate you can only opt to take an OD payout if you're on a schedule of no less than weekly. But I'm not on a schedule AT ALL. My payouts are PURELY On Demand, as frequently or infrequently as I want them! How did that happen?
Are these these help sections just all kinds of messed up? Or am I "grandfathered-in" with a payout situation that the help language no longer describes? Or both?
But I'm STILL interested in Express. And it appears to say you can have it even if you get OD payments; you don't have to be on any of the scheduled ones. But it also seems to say if you switch to this, ALL your payouts will cost $2. I might not mind that, as long as I still get to decide WHEN I take them. And if they're all going to cost $2 then they all better be instant, no more 1-3 days.
The most ideal, best case scenario: I can let my sales pile up for 4 days, 9 days, whatever, and take all or some of it. Then if I want take more the next day. Like an ATM basically.
Worst case scenario: I get shoved into weekly payments or whatever, AND have to pay $2 each time, and also is it true that if you switch to Express, you can't switch back?
valueaddedresource
·1 year agoOh also I'm a dummy and can't believe I forgot this, but is that debit card linked to an actual, physical/traditional bank account?
I remember now when it first rolled out some people thought it would be a work around to get money in their PayPal accounts by using the PayPal debit card but that didn't work and if I recall correctly it also may not work for cards going to other similar online/virtual "banks" or payment services like Chime.
gurlcat
OP1 year agoBINGO, lol! But don't feel bad; it's been eons and a pandemic since all this started. Also I just SUCCESSFULLY re-added the card, but just as a 'checkout' account. So now I don't seem to have an official method for paying seller costs, but then I don't think I did before either, still this card DID get charged for shipping labels few times, when my spendable funds weren't enough. It's all so strange.
As for Express payouts requiring a BAM bank affiliation, assuming that is true, how frigggin hard would it be for them to include that fact in the Help pages, or AT LEAST cited as the reason in the red rejection banner? And how much you wanna bet that a phone CSR wouldn't know it either?
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@gurlcat oh no! So sorry it isn't working and has made it even worse. 😞
Only thing I can suggest is it's Thursday and there seem to be other maintenance day gremlins happening (see other posts about image upload/editing issues) so maybe give it a few hours or until tomorrow and try again?
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@gurlcat I think the TLDR version for what it sounds like you specifically want to accomplish is this:
1.) go through the upgrade process to enable Express payouts (may require re-entering your debit card details)
2.) Once it is enabled, go to the "manage" link under that debit card and make sure the toggle for "preferred for scheduled payouts" is turned off.
3.) Check your Payout Schedule section, if it shows you have been added to a schedule, use that "manage" link and then slide the toggle for Scheduled Payouts off.
4.) Make sure your bank account information is still shown accurately and selected as "preferred for payouts"
If you do all of that, in theory you should have it set up like you want where payouts are not scheduled but you can go in and manually request it On Demand whenever you want (as long as there are funds available to payout). That On Demand pop up screen should then provide you two options to select from - either the standard ACH payout to your bank account for free or the Express to debit card option for $2.
gurlcat
OP1 year agoI so wished it would work, not only for myself but because you've spent so much time trying to help. And you DID affirm that I'm not stupid; the Help documents on this stuff are wack AF, also how this should work (when it works), and it makes total sense the way you explain it. .... However, the thing I feared would happen came true, in fact worse than I imagined.
So, starting with the invitation banner, I clicked Add Debit Card, and entered it on the form. But clicking Continue only caused a brief spinner and then nothing; card details still entered and fresh Continue button to hit, but no a second hit didn't work. And there was no error flag. But I did check and recheck the card and address details of course -all correct.
The thing I worried about before -my debit card already being on file- that would seem to be the most obvious problem.
So I figured I'll just delete the card and start over. BTW it's disturbing how when you delete a card you get a popup that says 'We'll still charge this card for outstanding balances even after you delete it' (it even said that about an old expired card from a closed account that I still had on file when I deleted it yesterday, just to take it out of the picture). So then I went back to the banner to start over, entered the card in that same popup, got the same brief Continue spinner, with no joy.
So then I tried to just re-add the card to the payments page by clicking a + box, figuring at worst I'll just be back where I started.
That seemed to work, in fact it gave me these exciting things, in this order:
But EGHHHHH! No dice. So now I just have my checking account ONLY on file. Do you think they require TWO debit cards -one exclusively for checkout, auctions, offers and selling costs, and the other exclusively for Express payouts?
fbusoni
·1 year ago@gurlcat @valueaddedresource
Looks like yet another example of people in one department (accounting) not communicating with people in another (publications).
eBay should offer rewards of some sort to sellers who uncover these disconnects.
(To quote Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story 1: "Hey, I can dream, can't I?")
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@fbusoni at the risk of sounding cynical, "it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it"....or in this case perhaps, "it is difficult to get eBay to write policy and help pages that are understandable when their revenue depends on sellers not understanding it." 😂
I generally try to go with not ascribing to malice that which can be explained by ignorance or incompetence, but sometimes eBay makes that difficult....and when it comes to making policies and procedures for things which stand to net them more in fees in some way (Express payouts, Promoted Listings ads etc.), I'm not entirely convinced the difficulty isn't intentional at some points.
At the very least I think it's fair to say eBay seems to have very little incentive or motivation to provide greater transparency in some of these areas, leading to a minimum viable compliance mentality that sees these policy pages as "good enough" to cover eBay from liability with very little care for whether they provide a positive user experience or not.
fbusoni
·1 year ago@valueaddedresource
Thanks for your insights as always. I agree with you.
I saw the same mindset during my long career with the executive branch.
I think that it might be endemic to large , unwieldy bureaucracies where accountability is simply not a priority.
Although my guess is that Jamie Dimon would not tolerate it for a nanosecond.
gurlcat
OP1 year agoHonestly all the time I wonder why they don't scout these boards to hire for positions that require people who actually know the selling process, not to mention people who understand certain categories very well, etc. There could probably even be gig assignments, carried out on the internet as opposed to going and living in CA. I'm not counting myself in the adept-enough category, but several people here, who do soooo much figuring out stuff, just to help the rest of us dum dums, FOR FREE.
fbusoni
·1 year ago@gurlcat
Yesterday I was driving about and stopped at a thrift shop to poke around.
I found a incredible trove of stuff, and was literally loading my shopping cart.
A woman with her own cart was standing nearby and politely asked what I was going to do with all of it.
I mentioned my eBay experience... she was intrigued and asked me about it... she had heard that selling on eBay was "hard." I started explaining the various ins and outs.
After 10 minutes of chatting, she was fascinated (especially after I showed her my 90-day earnings!), asked for my phone number and requested permission to contact me if she had any questions, and she seemed nice enough so I agreed.
It occurred to me afterwards that I could probably charge her for my advice (not that I would) and she'd gladly pay.
valueaddedresource
·1 year agoAlso, as far as not being able to go back - I believe when they first rolled this out, they required you to enable 2 Factor Authentication for your account for security in order to get on demand payouts. At the time they said once you enable 2FA as part of that process, you can't disable 2FA later on down the road, it's a permanent opt in.
Not sure if that is still the case today (haven't checked lately), but if so, that's the only part of this process that you can't go back on as far as I am aware.
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@gurlcat you are definitely not alone in thinking the FAQ and policy pages for Express Payout are confusing and very poorly worded.
I've seen an uptick in questions about this here in the community the last few months and believe it is 100% the fault of eBay's unhelpful help pages and/or confusing UI design and workflow.
One big point of confusion seems to be that you can use Express payout to a debit card for your scheduled payouts as well as on demand (though it's not required) and if you do have it set up that way, you'll be charged the $2 fee for every one of those payouts.
Here's what it should say:
Express Payout = any payout processed to a debit card, can be On Demand or Scheduled.
On Demand = Any payout that is manually triggered through the On Demand payout process and can be either Express Payout to a debit card for a fee or standard payout to bank account for free (this is an old screenshot from when the fee was 1.5% instead of flat $2 but the current process still looks pretty much the same.)
Scheduled Payout = any payout that is automatically processed on a daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly schedule (assuming there are funds available to payout), which can be either an Express Payout to a debit card for a fee or a standard payout to a bank account via ACH for free.
You'll see here that you can go back to a Daily schedule as well, but if you do, it will disable the On Demand option.
Once you enable Express to debit card for a fee, you'll need to make sure your preferred payout method is still set to a bank account if you don't want Express to be used for scheduled payouts.
To check your preferred payout settings, go to the Payments tab in Seller Hub.
https://www.ebay.com/sh/fin
On the summary page, if you scroll down, it should show you your current payout method.
If that is set to use your debit card as the preferred method, you'll need to navigate through the "manage" link to change it to a bank account to avoid the fee.
Or when you set up Express payouts, make sure the slider for "preferred for scheduled payouts" is turned off.
Having it set up that way should allow you to still have Express payout to debit card available for On Demand if you ever need it, while also keeping scheduled payouts going to your bank via ACH for free.
gurlcat
OP1 year agoGODDESS ON THE MOUNTAIN TOP, THANK YOU!
So here's the thing -the debit card that I would want Express payments to go to is already in my account; you can see it 's the one I use to buy stuff here, and occasionally cover shipping labels, although I can't recall the last time that happened; I think eBay just trusts me now to have a negative balance because I get steady enough sales that it'll be covered soon enough.
But it looks like the Express 'Upgrade' starts with clicking the 'add a debit card' thing ... which goes to a typical card account entry form. Would I just punch in the numbers for that card I'm already using on eBay? I'm guessing you wouldn't know that, and I could find out for myself by trying ... I'm just hesitant to do anything that could accidentally blow everything up.
Oh and to reiterate; I don't want to go on any kind of scheduled payments; I'd like rather stay with On Demand every time, even if it means paying $2 each time.
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@gurlcat What is shown if you click the "manage" link under that debit card? If it doesn't look like my screenshot above that says "use it for checkout, payouts, scheduled payouts" etc. then yeah I would guess you may need to go through the "upgrade" process and re-add it.
And yes, you should still be able to not have a scheduled payout while still having On Demand with the option of Express to debit card for $2 or standard ACH for free, just make sure the toggle under Payout Schedule is switched off.
gurlcat
OP1 year agoIt doesn't offer 'manage,' just 'edit' and 'delete.'
But that's what yours shows too, for the debit card box anyway. I do see your bank has manage, and so does mine.
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@gurlcat sorry for the confusion, in my screenshot the Visa debit card shows a "manage" link, the one that doesn't have manage is just a regular Mastercard credit card they have on file for purchases, which wouldn't be able to be used for Express payout any way.
This screenshot was taken from an account already enrolled in Express payouts, so since your debit card doesn't have a "manage" link, I would guess that means you'll need to go through that update process and re-add your debit card details.
mantle1951
·1 year agoI'm so glad I don't need my $$$ right away, what a mess.
gurlcat
OP1 year agoI didn't use to need it so quickly either, but my sales haven't been great lately so now I'm facing various late fees and even cutoff clocks. Totally sucks, especially with ones that treat weekend and holiday days like any other.
iamcara
·1 year agoDoesn't seem like a big portion of the FAQ is very detailed I noticed.
gurlcat
OP1 year agoIf by 'FAQ' you mean the Help pages ... it's like a town in the Walking Dead, you never know if the next click will take you to zombie information, stuff that no longer applies because of changes that nobody bothered to go rewrite or just delete, just create new pages that contradict the old ones. For the most part I'm used to it and just know not to take everything there as gospel. But .......
