For a number of years now, PayPal has been inextricably linked to eBay. While a great service, you may not want the hassle of signing up for an account just to sell off your unwanted items, or would just prefer for money you make to be deposited into your bank account instead of PayPal.
Well there’s good news. You can now be paid directly into your bank account without the need for PayPal at all. We show you how to set up what ebay is calling ‘managed payments’.
How much will eBay charge for direct payments to my bank?
Until recently, when you sold an item on eBay you were faced with multiple charges (aside from those for placing the listing in the first place). These were generally 10% of the final sale price (including postage) taken by eBay, plus a further 2.9% for using PayPal and a 30p processing charge for each order.
With the new system, using eBay Managed Payments, you’ll have one Final Value Fee which will be deducted before you get paid, with the remainder sent directly to your bank account instead of PayPal. The process of swapping from PayPal to bank payments doesn’t mention this change, or at least not in any obvious way.
We couldn’t find the precise amounts that the fees would amount to on the eBay site, but Moneysavingexpert reports that it will be 12.8% plus 30p per order. Obviously, there is no additional cost to PayPal.
As you can probably gather, there’s not much difference overall in the amount you actually receive. The total amount of the older fees comes to 12.9% + 30p per order, while the new version in 12.8% + 30p per order.
One downside is that you may have to wait longer before getting your money, with eBay stating it should take a couple of days for money to be transferred, rather than the instantaneous nature of PayPal.
One thing to be aware of is that even if your buyer pays cash on collection, which used to be a way to avoid PayPal fees, you’ll still get charged the same fee as if you’d posted it, albeit slightly less because of the absence of a cut of the postage amount (which is only there to stop people selling items for 1p and charging hundreds in postage costs).
If you’re now wondering if there’s any reason to switch to direct payments, then one of the main advantages is that people can now pay using a wider range of methods, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, PayPal Credit, plus the usual credit and debit cards.
How do I change from PayPal to bank transfer on eBay?
At the time of writing, eBay had begun rolling out the new system in the US, Germany and the UK. You can’t start the process manually. Instead you’ll need to look out for a notification when using the eBay app (or website) telling you that you need to update your account details in order to make use of the new system. The company states that ‘Most eBay sellers will be on the new eBay payments experience in 2021’.
In our case, we opened the eBay app on our phone and had a full-page notification informing us that eBay was simplifying the way to get paid on the service. At the bottom of the screen there’s the Update your details button. So, if you see this message, just tap that button and follow the instructions to add your bank account to the payment methods.
Of course, be wary of any emails that arrive asking you to click on a button and log into your bank account. If you see one, ignore it and go to your browser instead. Login into your eBay account there and if the email is real then you’ll be prompted to update your account, otherwise it’s likely it was a scam email trying to steal your details.