Can you use a credit card on Ebay to pay for purchases directly to Ebay

[dutchman48]

There is a post on the US boards that buyers can make payments directly through Ebay with their credit card and not go through Paypal.

In other words, Ebay is collecting the payments.

Has any one else heard of this, is it US only, or what?

If seller has a payment gateway on Ebay for payments, would that give the same result?

Here is a link for the post on .com.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/New-Feature-Buyers-can-pay-with-credit-card-now-NOT-through/m-p...

[reallynicestamps]

I wonder if the original poster saw a listing from a seller who also has his own merchant account?

Many sellers on eBay have their own businesses with shops and warehouses and employees and 'merchant' credit card accounts.

Those sellers can take credit cards directly.

Allowing eBay to store the number of your card in case you buy from one of those ?

Hmmm...

I really don't see the advantage.

[dutchman48]

I asked 2 posters for seller's item numbers so I can check payment method and have not received a reply yet.

One big advantage is if you want to pay by credit card and have a balance in your paypal account, you don't have to get rid of your paypal balance 1st to use a CC.

[reallynicestamps]

Huh??

You can use the card over the balance at any time. 

And of course, if the balance is smaller than the payment needed, PP will go directly to the card.

To me the advantage of using the card is that it adds a third level of protection : eBay/Paypal/cc chargeback. Although now that PP has moved to a 180 days deadline, the card is less important.

[dutchman48]

Wrong

If you have a balance in the Paypal account, it will take that balance before accessing your CC or bank account. I have called Paypal and they confirmed that is the way the system is set up and only way around it is to transfer all the money out before paying.

[reallynicestamps]

Then PP should fire that programmer.

At one point PP made all their money from holding thousands of micro-payments for a few hours. Later they started charging fees and really raked in the dough.

It would make more sense to keep making that easy money by holding on to the cash as long as possible and letting the cc payments earn fees for them.

However, although I usually have a balance in my PP account, I also have my preferences set to pay by credit card unless I am buying for business.

I have to choose every time I make a purchase.

[maggiebvintage2010]

PayPal will make your PayPal balance the default payment method, but I always see a place to click to choose an alternate payment method.  By choosing that, I can then choose my linked credit card or linked bank account as alternate payment methods.  I just made a purchase using this choice the other day.  If you don't choose an alternate payment option, then the PayPal system will exhaust your balance first, and then turn to the payment method you set up in your preferences, as reallynicestamps says.  I think your PayPal CS rep gave some incorrect (or at least incomplete) information.

[dutchman48]

I will check next time I purchase.