eBay now wants another Payment Method?

[myestate-treasures4u]

Just spent an hour on the phone that I'll never get back with two young foreign CS employees that haven't a clue! (great training eBay!) Had a buyer cancel their purchase before I shipped it. But when I went to cancel and refund the buyer, eBay replaces the blue button from "Cancel and Relist" with "Add Payment Method". 

Since I already have my business checking account as my payment method (5-yrs) added for BOTH payouts and selling costs, I didn't want to be forced to expose yet another payment method online. And yet, the only way to cancel and refund was to add another? I calmly reminded CS that I have a primary account that I've been using for 26-YEARS with nearly 19K transactions, and have never had to do this before. It didn't matter. Is this another policy change? 

[wastingtime101]

Go to this page:

https://www.ebay.com/sh/fin/summary

On the bottom left, check to make sure it shows a payment method under selling costs. I once had that randomly cleared on one of my accounts and had to re-select it.

[12345jamesstamps]

They only want a debit credit card associated to the 'business checking account'.

[myestate-treasures4u]

That is what's so frustrating. My checking account was already the payment method for both payouts AND selling costs.  Additionally, after I was forced to add a credit card to cancel and refund the buyer from, I was able to go back in and delete the card and reselect my business account for selling costs. 

???

[myestate-treasures4u]

I don't have a debit card for my business account....never have. BOTH payouts and selling fees have always used only one account. Why the change?

[buyselljack2016]

I have no debit card attached for any purpose and have refunded buyers when there were no pending or available funds.

ETA: Did one in December.

[wastingtime101]

I'm honestly not sure. I prefer to use a credit card for selling costs as I get cash back - although selling costs are always pulled from my available funds so the CC is really just there as a back up.

@valueaddedresource may know why eBay required a credit card and not just your bank account to issue the buyer's refund. She's the first person that comes to mind in regards to knowledge of the nuances of setting up payment options.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/setting-changing-payment-method-fees-selling...

That page doesn't say much other than, "If an on-file payment method doesn’t have Manage as an option, this could be because it is not eligible as a preferred payment method or has expired."

And, "The saved payment method will be used for any future charges. If your preferred payment method is unsuccessful, we'll charge the amount you owe to your other on-file payment method, or to your linked payout bank account."

To me that last blurb indicates the bank account is the backup, so perhaps eBay requires a credit / debit card for refunds? I could be very wrong about that. Like I said, I've always had a credit card attached for selling fees, so I'm not sure, but hopefully Liz will chime in.

[valueaddedresource]

Thanks for the tag @wastingtime101 . Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of specifics I can add on this one.

I believe the requirement most likely has to do with the fact that some financial institutions have different processes, policies (overdraft protection etc.) and even costs when it comes to transactions that are direct debit via ACH (which would be eBay taking funds from the bank account you use for payouts) vs a charge to a debit or credit card.

Completely spitballing here, but those differences could potentially create situations where eBay isn't able to recover funds via direct debit or it might cost more/take longer for them to do so, in which case it would be understandable why eBay would prefer to have a different method to use, even if ultimately the bank account number used for ACH and the debit card are actually drawing from the same account/funds.

That being said, I'm not aware of a specific policy about it (beyond what you linked to and quoted) - or any recent changes - so I'm not sure why @myestate-treasures4u would be running into issues with this now if it hasn't been an issue in the past.

[ryry-jj]

That happened to me as well, as did my automatic payouts was turned off.  I never noticed until I kept seeing my available balance for funds available for purchases just grow and grow.

[pls-consignments]

My concern is whether or not the choices made by Sellers in accordance with eBay's policies are honored by eBay. If they aren't, it exposes eBay to legal trouble ahead.

[wastingtime101]

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@pls-consignments wrote:

My concern is whether or not the choices made by Sellers in accordance with eBay's policies are honored by eBay.

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In addition to my business accounts, I have a small personal account for selling some preowned stuff. On that personal account I've seen some odd glitchy things with my preferred method for selling costs.

From the start I put in a credit card to use for selling costs. No problem until Spring 2023, suddenly I had no payment method on file for selling costs. So I had to re-select the credit card. (Edit to add: No, the card was not expired, and several others reported their payment method was de-selected around the same time.)

Then yesterday I was working on that account, on the Payments tab, I saw my bank account was the default for selling costs. I never set my bank account up for selling costs. Why would I when I get cash back on my CC?

I changed it back to my CC.

Then I checked my emails because eBay sends a confirmation when you change a preferred payment source for selling costs, and I have confirmation that I have always used my CC and never my bank.

My biz accounts have never had an issue, it's just the personal account where my payment method for selling costs keeps changing on me with zero alert from eBay. Don't know what kind of tech issues they have going on there, but clearly something isn't working right.