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?
Doesn't seem like a big portion of the FAQ is very detailed I noticed.
@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.
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.
If 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 .......
GODDESS 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.
@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.
@valueaddedresource wrote:@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.
It 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.
@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.
