Item listed in USD, trying to pay for it using American Credit Card but EBay not accepting?

[just_2474]

Hi everyone, 

I'm in Canada but have a credit card in USD from the States as I travel there often. The item I want to pay for was listed in USD, so I figured I'd pay with an American credit card in USD. I go about entering in the information, making sure that billing address and phone number is correct. I click on "Accept" to add the card, which the website accepts. However, when I go and click on "Confirm and Pay", I run into an issue. The website doesn't specify exactly why the card is not accepted, it just prompts me to "Try another card".

I try to avoid PayPal if I can but exasperated by all this, I tried to add the American credit card to my Canadian PayPal account and even then, the linked card didn't show up as an option, despite it being confirmed and receiving a notification in my inbox saying "this card is now linked to your account". 

I tried to go to the "Help & Contact" section of the Ebay website, selected "Trouble paying for an item" but there is no "Call Us" support option for that category. None of the generic help threads suggested there are helpful.

Guys, I'm at a total loss. Ebay doesn't want to help. I contacted the seller and it doesn't seem like an issue on their end, so they're also confused. This is my first experience with Ebay and I honestly never want to use it again. Please help! I welcome any insight!

Thank you kindly.

[femmefan1946]

Most sellers do not directly accept credit cards, even those with "real" businesses that do have merchant accounts.

We did when before we retired and closed our shop, but even then our customers preferred to use Paypal online- even the locals who happily handed over their cards in the shop.

Rather than going to eBay* to learn the problem with adding a US card to a PP account, try asking Paypal.

You should find Help and Contact under Tools at the top of your PP account page.

Or, rather than logging in as just_2474, log in as a Guest. 

Guest accounts are allowed to use credit cards directly, although they are actually still going to be processed by Paypal.

As I understand it, the only difference with using a Guest Account and cc directly, is that your coverage is restricted to eBay's Money Back Guarantee and the card's chargeback programme, not the usual 180 day Buyer Protection offered by Paypal.

* EBay was forced to divest itself of Paypal by Wall Street shark Carl Icahn a few years ago.  He made a fortune. Nobody else did.