Payment by Money Order Only Prohibited
Just a question; I recently find myself prohibited from offering payment ‘by Money Order ONLY’ in my listings and am having a hard time determining if its a new police or something I did. Do you have any insight to this?
Howard Kaye
That’s a new change based on either your feedback, your registration date, the items you sell, or your location. eBay is trying to force sellers to use PayPal.
This new PayPal requirement is explained as a safety measure to prevent new sellers from scamming people. The fact that eBay makes 2.9% of each PayPal transaction is immaterial.
So they say.
They tried to force all sellers including long time sellers to accept PayPal in Australia, but the courts blocked the rule. I’m not sure if there are other countries where this rule has been adopted.
The registration date and how long you’ve been selling can be overcome by becoming a verified seller. Last time I did this it was $5.00. You have to prove who you are by putting a bank account on file with eBay.
A restriction because of the type of items you sell will only go away once you’ve done enough sales without problems. Problem items are electronics and commonly counterfeited items.
I think once you get a track record as a seller, you can stop taking PayPal.
I personally don’t like paying the PayPal fees, but it does make it easier. Also since I started taking PayPal, my number of non paying buyers has declined considerably.
Terry
PS In 2011, PayPal will start issuing 1099 tax forms to all eBay users who do more than $10,000 in sales and/or sell 200 items. A lot of sellers will stop accepting PayPal at that time. I’ll do an article on the tax changes in the future. Sign up for the newsletter to get a copy when I get it done.
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