eBay managed payment

[jimban23]

Does anyone else (particularly Canadian sellers) resent being forced to switch from PayPal to eBay's managed payment system? I received notice from eBay yesterday and, for whatever good it may do, have sent the following to eBay.

If you insist on moving me (and everyone else) onto your managed payment system, I will stop selling on eBay. My reasons:

1) You say you will charge FVF on total amount of the sale including 13% HST (for Canadian sellers). I am not running a business, and sell less than $30,000 per annum. My government does not require me to charge HST and I have no licence to do so. So it is not right that you collect HST and charge me a commission on it.

2) I do not have a US dollar bank account, only Canadian dollars. I do have a US dollar account with PayPal. If I sell for US dollars, I want to get paid in US dollars, not have you convert the payment to Canadian dollars at an exchange rate lower than the bank rate.

3) I do not trust eBay with access to my personal and financial data.

I will watch to see what happens on April 13th. If you try to move me out of PayPal to your system, we will be parting company.

[cumos55]

(1) eBay has charged FVF on the  total of item price and postage for many years.

eBay is a Canadian company and must charge GST/HST on all services provided to sellers   If you are not registered to collect GST/HST  the amount eBay charges is a part of the cost for selling on eBay.

What eBay charges is like someone buying something at a local store

(2) The US dollar situation is what it is.   eBay may/will eventually adjust this problem, such that Canadian sellers can sell in US dollars  and have US dollars in a Canadian bank account.

I sell in Canadian dollars ....  to Canada and the US.....  No problem

(3) With Managed Payments you have a bank account that is dedicated to receiving Payouts from eBay.  That is the only account that eBay can access.  eBay has information... but then who else on line also has your information?  Check and be ... surprised....

What information does eBay already have... without Managed Payments?

Once the monay is removed from the Payout bank account, eBay cannot have access to your money elsewhere in  other bank accounts.

I have been using Managed Payment since August 2020.....  There have been no problems.

I am registered to collect GST/HST on all sales on eBay.

eBay collects GST/HST on all fees.....  How much is that on the fees you as a seller on eBay have  to pay?

There is a lot of infomation about Managed Payment on eBay under Help and Content .  Read and Learn

[jimban23]

A Canadian company? You think that? Really?

Sounds like you've drunk the Koolaid, but part of my point is: why should we be forced to switch from a satisfactory payment management method (PayPal) if we don't want to?

[cumos55]

When eBay established a business location in Canada, they became a Canadian company that had to  register to collect GST/HST.

Paypal  handled payments for eBay... and had access to a seller's bank account and a seller's credit card.

With Managed Payments, Adyen handles all payments for eBay and has access to a seller's bank account and a seller's credit card....

Managed Payments is the new eBay....  and eBay will no longer have a seller's payments linked to Paypal

[jimban23]

Quite so... Really just switching from PayPal to Adyen. The difference is:

1) You have to wait three days or so to get access to your money. With PayPal you could use it immediately. Who benefits from the delay, from having the money sitting in limbo? Certainly not the seller.

2) PayPal existed for years and had an established reputation. I have used PayPal for years for things other than doing business on eBay, and never had a problem. But I never heard of Adyen.

Apparently letting sellers choose whether to switch to eBay managed payments or stay with PayPal didn't work, so now we're compelled to change. Some will, and some (like me) won't.

[flyhooks4less]

I have been on MP since November I think..

1. For the most part it is working well from a payment perspective. I am set for daily payouts, I have a steady stream of deposits happening M-F, there is a lag of a few days on the weekends, and a lag of 1 day for most sales.

2. I wish that payment of invoices and payment for shipping lables used your MP balance. Currently I have default payment methods set up in Paypal for shipping lables (Shippo) and for eBay invoices, the charge goes to my MP Bank account. Both could be better set up. MP funds should be used for both Shippo and Invoices.

3. The new eBay label system was one of the reasons I adopted early, sadly it has been a complete failure. It displays one price and invoices another for Small Packet USA, both are wrong and not what the buyer pays. It does not use the sellers Canada Post account and therefore does not allow for savings past level 1, nor does it allow sellers to accumulate those shipping totals to achieve level 2 savings. I continue to use Shippo for this reason.

I like having all the fees in one place on MP. From what I know eBay has been charging GST on thier fees for some time.

[marnotom!]

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@jimban23 wrote:

Quite so... Really just switching from PayPal to Adyen. The difference is:

1) You have to wait three days or so to get access to your money. With PayPal you could use it immediately. Who benefits from the delay, from having the money sitting in limbo? Certainly not the seller.

2) PayPal existed for years and had an established reputation. I have used PayPal for years for things other than doing business on eBay, and never had a problem. But I never heard of Adyen.

Apparently letting sellers choose whether to switch to eBay managed payments or stay with PayPal didn't work, so now we're compelled to change. Some will, and some (like me) won't.

---

Back in the late 90s and early 00s, eBay used an in-house payment system called Billpoint.  Its basic workings were similar to Managed Payments': buyer pays, you see the payment deposited to your bank account a few days later.  Since paper payments were also permitted at the time, my wife and I found this a satisfactory alternative to waiting weeks for a cheque or money order to come in.

When PayPal came to town, we had concerns of our own.  Who was this ragtag upstart startup that felt it could hold onto our money for us?  Were we even covered by deposit insurance?  Why should we pay this outfit yet another fee to get our money out?  Why is it taking eCheques so long to clear?  Why are we reading so many horror stories about sellers getting their accounts frozen or funds wrested away from them?

My wife and I learned more about PayPal and adapted our business practices accordingly, particularly when it became the only payment method available to us.  As @cumos55 suggests, knowledge is power and knowing why and how something works the way it does allows you to use that something to its best advantage.

You were never given the choice between PayPal and Managed Payments.  You were given fair warning that a change was in the works.  Your choice is to adapt how you accept and use your payments so you can continue using eBay for your sales, or going somewhere else where a system similar to Managed Payments is being employed, because I can't think of another eCommerce site that's wedded to PayPal the way that eBay has been.

Postscript:  The PayPal that my wife and I signed up for is not the PayPal of today and it didn't integrate with eBay the way it does now.  It grew and adapted while eBay had it under its umbrella and continues to do so now.  If you have the inclination and patience to hang on for a bit, I suspect that Managed Payments will also adapt more to the needs of eBay sellers and make it more attractive to sellers considering alternatives to eBay.

[pjcdn2005]

Ebay does not collect Canadian taxes from buyers so if you are not registered to collect gst/hst you so will not be paying fvf on Canadian tax in MP since your buyers won't be charged it.  MP sellers do pay fvf on taxes that eBay does collect such as some US state tax, UK VAT and Australian GST.  PayPal does charge fees on tax that is collected as do all payment processors.

There are definitely some disadvantages to MP for Canadian sellers but for many of us listing on .ca, fvf will be about the same as some fees are higher and some are less.  Either way it is up to you whether or not you want to switch.  Ebay is not going to have some sellers use PP and others MP so eventually we will all have to switch or sell elsewhere.  

[mrdutch1001]

There are countless smaller, lesser known selling venues out there that still have PayPal as a payment method... Many of these smaller sites have little traffic, compared to eBay, Amazon, Etsy but they are still doable, workable as a marketplace for sellers; but success on those sites largely depends upon how much time, effort, self-promoting & self-advertising the seller wishes to put into that endeavor.

I do sell on a smaller venue, where PayPal only payment is still available for its sellers and although my sales there may not match eBay, they are definitely closing the gap.      

eBay will never backtrack on its MP system and sellers who don't/can't apply a bank account for their selling will indeed never see any recourse for that on eBay. There is no way eBay will backtrack that need to have a bank account for selling ability on this site. Those days are gone.

My eBay selling days are numbered & I know that =I have accepted the fact that my unwillingness to sign up for MP =no more selling on eBay=that's fine, that's my choice as eBay's changes are not a good fit for me and are not a workable situation so I will quietly make my exit from eBay when that day rolls around that I am no longer able to list here...but so what? There is life beyond eBay...

there are so many other ways/other places to sell...There are many choices available...

Not everything works same for everyone so whatever the choice made by a seller just needs to be the right choice for their business/circumstance/situation/endeavor....

Buying & selling existed long before eBay and will continue long after eBay...

[marnotom!]

No question that when you commit to an eCommerce site, you're committing to all aspects of it, especially its system of payments, and that a seller should give their choice of eCommerce site a lot of consideration.

I would suggest to you, though, that this "gap closing" you're seeing in your sales with this other eCommerce site and eBay is mostly due to the work you're putting into it and not due to anything that the site is doing.  Many sellers may not have the ability to do the type of electronic legwork you've been putting into your sales on that site.

I guess I don't understand why some sellers are objecting to giving eBay "access to [their] personal and financial data" when eBay already has a great deal of personal information on file, and that direct deposit is becoming pretty much standard for people working for a "paycheque" as well as people receiving government monies such as tax refunds, CRB/EI, pensions, foster care payments and student loan payments (which can be repaid by an automatic withdrawl system, to boot).  I don't get why there's all this faith in PayPal, which isn't even considered a bank.  

[jimban23]

The difference is this... Monies received from eBay can only be sales, which in most jurisdictions are taxable income. Monies received via PayPal could come from anywhere, e.g. transfers from a kindly uncle. So if the IRS/CRA accesses your PayPal records, that's one thing, but if they get your eBay records, that's quite another. Get it now?

[marnotom!]

My understanding is that eBay Canada will cooperate with CRA if the latter makes a request for a specific seller's eBay sales records.  This has nothing to do with PayPal or Managed Payments.

[jimban23]

@ marnotom! - Yes, exactly. Now think of it in reverse. Suppose the CRA has a look at your bank account and sees dozens of transfers from eBay. Those would have to be sales receipts, right? But suppose they see only one or two transfers in from PayPal. That proves nothing. I don't know if PayPal would co-operate with the CRA if asked, but then, what reason would CRA have to ask PayPal, since they are only a transfer service, like Western Union?

[mrdutch1001]

Although most sellers on these smaller, lesser known selling venues do lots of social media, pinterest & all that stuff for their promoting & advertising of their items, I don't do that- I don't do social media; I do none of that...I do nothing more on that other venue than what I do on eBay= I list, I wait & I hope for sales...

And while there are many sellers who have their issues with supplying bank account & private info,etc; my reasons have not as much to do with that aspect, as it does with having to open a bank chequing account specifically for eBay; for those few sales per year that amount to a few hundred $...simply not worth the hassle. I don't "need" eBay and I know eBay doesn't care whether I list/sell here since this is simply a hobby for me, so I shall do what is in my best interests ...

[marnotom!]

I don't know why CRA would make an information request of PayPal, but it's happened in the past.

https://www.paypal.com/ca/smarthelp/article/cra-information-request-faq3755

[jimban23]

@marnotom! - "BUSINESS account" - but thank you for sharing

[marnotom!]

You asked if PayPal Canada had made information requests of CRA before.  I answered.  Future requests by CRA may be of a different nature.

[femmefan1946]

2) I do not have a US dollar bank account, only Canadian dollars. I do have a US dollar account with PayPal. If I sell for US dollars, I want to get paid in US dollars, not have you convert the payment to Canadian dollars at an exchange rate lower than the bank rate.

I have an American bank account. Not a Canadian bank account in US dollars which would be a waste of money.

Both RBCBank and TDNorth are American banks with Canadian connections.

I sort of inherited the American account when we closed our shop, but I also had opened my own, closing it after I worked out that currency exchange cost me less than the US banking fees.  Many snowbirds have these (Royal or TD) accounts and save up their US payments for use when they go went south for the winter .

If you have a PP account, and transfer the money to a Canadian bank you pay currency exchange. Same with MP.

If you then transfer the money to your USdollar account in your Canadian bank, you pay currency exchange again.

This is my objection.

I want to have both  an American and a Canadian account attached to my (future) MP account.  There have been murmers about this from eBay (specifically from @tyler) but nothing solid.

I would also like to have more than one Canadian account attached to my future MP account. This would be useful for "family" sellers, where more than one family member is selling on the same account. Or where the account is also feeding a charity. Or multiple accounts are using the same MP account.

EBay doesn't seem to believe that sellers here are also buyers and would like to use their received payments to buy on the site.   Although that makes me think of this.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joo90ZWrUkU

[jimban23]

Although it's a bit of a hassle, I've opened a new bank account just for the eBay MP transactions. There's still the problem with having to pay exchange on conversion from US dollars to Canadian dollars. I imagine that's part of eBay's strategy to maximize profits (as it is with PP, to be sure) but hope what femmefan1946 says about the possibility of keeping accounts in both currencies proves out.

[pjcdn2005]

eBay has said in the spring update that we will be able to put sales in $US into a US $ account at  a Canadian bank.  It's not clear though if we will be able to have both a $C bank account and $US bank account on the same eBay account.

I get an error when I try to paste the info but you will find it on the following page...

https://pages.ebay.ca/seller-centre/news/seller-updates/2021-spring/financials.html