eBay

c2chuc · ‎04-13-2016

I recently sold an item to someone in US. When I created the auction, I made sure only people from US/Canada can bid (in Ebay, it means the buyers must have a primary shipping address in the countries you ship to). Ok, now someone in US won this auction and paid me through Paypal. When I check the Paypal transaction, to my surprise, I was charged 1% cross-border fee. I know payment from US shouldn't be charged cross-border fee (at least that was the policy before April 13). So I contacted Paypal, and they simply told me although the buyer has a US shipping address, his Paypay account is non-US account (probably means not US currency). Therefore they charged me cross-border fee.

I feel this is very unfair to Ebay sellers, as I see no option in Ebay to block someone with non-US paypal account. To Ebay, if the buyer has a US shipping address, then s/he is from US. So theoretically, I could sell an item to someone within Canada, but still pays cross-border charge because s/he is using a foreign Paypal account! There is something not right here. I contacted Paypal a few times but the conversation goes nowhere.

Now, I don't really care losing a few dollars for 1% cross border fee, but I really want to know, is there any way in Ebay to prevent this kind of scenario (buyer is within the same country but seller is charged for cross border fee) from happening?

reallynicestamps · ‎04-13-2016

I know payment from US shouldn't be charged cross-border fee (at least that was the policy before April 13).

That changed with the Spring Update, if I remember correctly.

http://announcements.ebay.com/2016/04/updates-to-the-ebay-user-agreement-4/

pierrelebel · ‎04-13-2016

"account is non-US account"

That is the real problem and why you have to pay the full 1% cross border fee. It has been like that for fifteen years.

A few years ago I had a Canadian buyer who paid through PayPal. I was charged 1% cross border fee. Why? He had been registered with PayPal in the UK eight years earlier before moving to Canada.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-13-2016

It's possible that the buyer is outside of the US but is using a shipping forwarder in the US. But effective today we will be charged an .8% cross border fee for US buyers using PayPal.

hlmacdon · ‎04-13-2016

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
It's possible that the buyer is outside of the US but is using a shipping forwarder in the US. But effective today we will be charged an .8% cross border fee for US buyers using PayPal.

So far today my fees are tracking with my previous merchant rate and not showing any cross border fees. I'm not sure if this is how it is meant to be given the confusing wording of the paypal update email they sent out which implied the new fee structure didn't apply to my business account. Color me confused.

pierrelebel · ‎04-13-2016

"Color me confused."

You actually mean "Colour me confused." (in Canada!)

c2chuc · ‎04-14-2016

Your link is an ebay policy update page, not Paypal. Yeah, I know Paypal increased payment charge rates from US buyers for Canadians, but that shouldn't take effect until April 13 (if my memory serves me right), and it has nothing to do with cross-border charge.

c2chuc · ‎04-14-2016

Yeah, this is the scenario that I am talking about. The buyers originally opened a Paypal account in some other countries, but then somehow got a US/Canada shipping address. In this case, I as a seller, may not want to sell to this person due to additional cross-border charge. But in ebay, there is simply no way to prevent it from happening.....

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-14-2016

@c2chuc wrote:
Yeah, this is the scenario that I am talking about. The buyers originally opened a Paypal account in some other countries, but then somehow got a US/Canada shipping address. In this case, I as a seller, may not want to sell to this person due to additional cross-border charge. But in ebay, there is simply no way to prevent it from happening.....

You can block buyers so that they can't pay if they have a 'non U.S.' Paypal account in Paypal but that would probably block Canadians too. I didn't see another option though you might want to check under preferences in Paypal. There's nothing that you can do about it from the eBay side.

But being that you are going to be paying .8% for U.S. transactions now, is it still an issue for you? For that $130 sale you would be paying $5.07 in Paypal fees if someone from the UK purchased your item and $4.81 if someone purchased it with a U.S. Paypal account. Would you rather lose out on a sale than pay an extra 26 cents?

c2chuc · ‎04-14-2016

no, it does not matter for a $130 sale, but it may matter for sale amount larger than that (we already pay Ebay 10% then Paypal 2.9%, now additional 1%...). What really bothers me is that I feel this is unfair to Ebay sellers who do not want to pay additional cross-border fees as there is simply no way to avoid it. btw, how did you know this is for $130 sale? just curious...

pocomocomputing · ‎04-14-2016

Why worry about cross border fee of 0.8% to the USA and 1% to the world? I would be glad to get the sale first. Build in the worse case of 1% cross order fee into the sale price and the issue is gone. Every other Canadian seller has the same issue so it is an even playing field.

It is annoying that sales to the USA have an 0.8% increase in PayPal fee but it is not the end of the world. Just another cost to absorb or to pass on to the buyer.

c2chuc · ‎04-15-2016

not 0.8% and 1% difference, I might want to just sell to a Canadian so it is 0% and 1% difference...

it's not really about cost or whether it is worthwhile doing it, the point is that the system should allow sellers to have the choice

pierrelebel · ‎04-15-2016

"I as a seller, may not want to sell to this person due to additional cross-border charge."

As stated above, I sold to a buyer with a Canadian address. In fact I personally delivered that order to the buyer (North of Toronto) as it was a large purchase.

Yet I paid the extra 1% cross border fee to PayPal. I am not aware of any way to avoid it.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-15-2016

If you limit your sales to Canadians then it is less likely that you will have this problem but very likely that your items will take longer to sell and/or go for less money.

You should look at the big picture. If that buyer was not able to bid on that auction then the winning bid would have been less. So instead of paying $1.30 cross border fee you could have received $120 for the item...or less....with no cross border fee.

cumos55 · ‎04-19-2016

In the good old days many, many, many Canadian sellers sold primarily in US dollars.

and... Paypal got an exchange rate fee when US dollars were converted to Canadian dollars.....

Paypal got its percentage.... and the cross border fee disappeared.

In the future... all Canadian sellers ... well lots, and lots of sellers will be selling in Canadian sellers..... Much less in exchange rate fees..... Less US to Canadian dollar conversions...

and the cross border fee is back....

For those sellers who will sell on eBay.com... there will be an exchange rate fee as well as a cross border fee.... more fees to pay

while... for those that will now sell in Canadian dollars... not US dollars .......there will be no exchange of US to Canadian dollars.... There will be less fees to pay.

....and .... then for those that sold in Canadian dollars... and will continue to sell in Canadian dollars..... bringing back the cross-border fee will be an increase in fees...