Question:
As usual, eBay help is USELESS!! Kindof urgent: A buyer wants to pay me for an item via credit card and I’m not set up for that — I’m also not a registered "merchant" or anything. Can a regular seller like me quickly sign up to receive credit card payments, and if so, how? When I enter "credit card" in Help all I get is info on how *I* can pay eBay my fees via credit card. Thanks in advance!
Response:
As usual, eBay help is USELESS!! Kindof urgent: A buyer wants to pay me for an item via credit card and I’m not set up for that — I’m also not a registered "merchant" or anything. Can a regular seller like me quickly sign up to receive credit card payments, and if so, how? When I enter "credit card" in Help all I get is info on how *I* can pay eBay my fees via credit card. Thanks in advance!
If you don’t mind paying a fee (percentage) of what he will be paying you, sign up for paypal and you’ll be able accept cc. If its stated in your auction that you only accept whatever it is you accept, NOT CREDIT CARDS, then politely tell this buyer that your only accepted form of payments were listed and please kindly remit payment that way. If he argues, then tell him he should not have bid if he didn’t accept your terms. WypeOut "Pupukahi i holomua." – Hawaiian Proverb "Unite to move forward." To reply remove "DIESPAMDIE" from email address
Response:
you can always use www.bidpay.com takes a minute to sign up and it is the buyer who pays the fee’s —
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – As usual, eBay help is USELESS!! Kindof urgent: A buyer wants to pay me for an item via credit card and I’m not set up for that — I’m also not a registered "merchant" or anything. Can a regular seller like me quickly sign up to receive credit card payments, and if so, how? When I enter "credit card" in Help all I get is info on how *I* can pay eBay my fees via credit card. Thanks in advance!
Response:
As usual, eBay help is USELESS!! Kindof urgent: A buyer wants to pay me for an item via credit card and I’m not set up for that — I’m also not a registered "merchant" or anything. Can a regular seller like me quickly sign up to receive credit card payments, and if so, how? When I enter "credit card" in Help all I get is info on how *I* can pay eBay my fees via credit card. Thanks in advance!
Basically you need a merchant account setup to accept credit cards. These usually have setup fees, monthly fees and they take a percentage of the sales dollars. Not worth it for one transaction. If you feel you have a need a merchant account there are literally hundreds if not 1000’s of them out there but the prices vary significantly. There is one I know of that is good if you plan on sporadic need for a merchant account. You can go to www.2checkout.com but be forewarned, there is a one time $50 setup fee and they take 5% as a commission. Many of the merchant accounts charge a fee similar to PayPal, but then tack on a minimum invoice fee or gateway fee for online stores. You really need to shop around for your needs to find the best account for you. All in all, it might be easier to get your buyer to sign up for PayPal if you can. There are probably other services you can use to transfer credit card funds as well. Chris
Response:
As usual, eBay help is USELESS!!
In this case, it’s for a reason–they don’t offer this service. (Okay, PayPal is now owned by them, and they do offer it, but eBay proper really doesn’t.) Kindof urgent: A buyer wants to pay me for an item via credit card and I’m not set up for that — I’m also not a registered "merchant" or anything. Can a regular seller like me quickly sign up to receive credit card payments, and if so, how? When I enter "credit card" in Help all I get is info on how *I* can pay eBay my fees via credit card.
There are two main possibilities. First, sign up with PayPal. To accept a credit card payment, you’ll need to be a Premier member, which means that all your payments will incur a charge in future, which may not matter if you’re never going to use it again; on the other hand, if you think you’re going to be taking a lot of credit card payments, it may be worth paying the fees so you can get those buyers. If you think this really is a one-time only thing, look into a BidPay money order. It’s in USD (you’re in the US, right?) and the buyer purchases it with a credit card online; BidPay (which is part of Western Union) then sends the MO to you for the usual MO treatment. The downside is that it’s fairly expensive, so buyers (who pay the fees for BidPay) don’t like it much. Since this sounds like it might be a particularly stellar sale, you might consider splitting the fees or eating the cost if you think the buyer will be put off by a fee (it’s amount dependent, starting at about $2.50 these days). If this isn’t a one-off and you think you may want to accept credit cards in the future, BidPay probably isn’t the best way to go, because some CC payers won’t pay that premium for using their card. Just some thoughts. Deborah Stevenson
Response:
As usual, eBay help is USELESS!! In this case, it’s for a reason–they don’t offer this service. (Okay, PayPal is now owned by them, and they do offer it, but eBay proper really doesn’t.)
<snip Thanks to all of you who replied — problem solved, and he was very pleasant about the whole thing. (We decided on a good old money order.) The issue was that the buyer didn’t want to use Paypal. I remember that eBay used to accept CC payments but now that they’re linked with Paypal that’s history, and I have no reason or desire to open a merchant account for the piddling business I conduct.
Response:
Thanks to all of you who replied — problem solved, and he was very pleasant about the whole thing. (We decided on a good old money order.)
Yay! The issue was that the buyer didn’t want to use Paypal. I remember that eBay used to accept CC payments but now that they’re linked with Paypal that’s history,
Yup. I wondered if you were thinking of the late great Billpoint, which, as you say, didn’t survive the acquisition. ("If you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em" being one of the great corporate mottos.) and I have no reason or desire to open a merchant account for the piddling business I conduct.
I bet. BidPay isn’t a bad idea for the odd one-off, especially if it’s a nice price that you won’t get otherwise. Glad you worked it out. Deborah Stevenson
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