How to Sell on eBay – Safely Accepting Buyer Payments

If you sell on eBay, you obviously have to accept payment for the items that your customers purchase from you. The question is what is your best option for safely accepting payments for your eBay sales?

We previously wrote about using PayPal to collect payments, and this is the only method that we use for our eBay sales. eBay has an Accepted Payments Policy that clearly outlines what forms of payment are acceptable. Oddly enough, they don’t allow you to solicit cash via mail from your sellers. Must be something about the great lack of security with sending cash via the Post Office.

Other than PayPal, eBay allows the following forms of payment for eBay transactions:

• Credit cards
• Debit cards
• Electronic bank payments
• Cash on delivery (COD)
• Cash payments made in person between the buyer and seller
• Personal checks
• Money orders
• Cashier checks
• Certified checks

eBay specifically prohibits the following methods of payment:

• Western Union (high rate of fraud)
• Moneygram (high rate of fraud)
• Google Checkout (a large PayPal competitor – funny how that works!)
• And a slew of other online payment services, most of which we have never heard of.

As you can see, as someone making money on eBay, you have a wide range of acceptable payments methods that you can choose to accept. Some are better than others, and some will cost you more than others.

Accepting credit cards, debit cards and electronic bank payments will cost you a fee for utilizing these services. You might consider using PayPal to accept these forms of payment, as there is no way around paying a fee using one of these payment methods. Or, you could have your own merchant account to accept credit and debit cards, though this might end up costing you more than just using PayPal.

Accepting credit cards, debit cards or electronic bank payments, especially if you use PayPal, are safe forms of payment. Yes, they cost more than other payment methods, but there is the potential for more protection for both the buyer and seller. Selling on eBay is all about limiting your potential liabilities.

A less secure form of payment would be personal checks, money orders and cashier checks. There has been a relatively large amount of fraud through the use of money orders and cashier checks, and the potential also exists if you accept personal checks. The problem lies in how long it takes these forms of payment to clear the banking system. You might hear back from your bank weeks later that you accepted a fraudulent payment, at which time your item has already shipped and you are out of luck!

If you want to accept personal checks, we recommend using PayPal for this. You will still have to wait several days for the payment to clear, but once PayPal says the money is in your account, the money is in your account. One less thing you have to worry about while you make money on eBay.

Hopefully, you now understand that you have many choices when it comes to what types of payments you want to accept as you sell on eBay. Some are more secure than others, and some will cost you more in fees.

Ultimately, it is up to you to decide your risk levels and what payments you want to accept. Just be aware of the potential risks involved with certain payment methods (though no payment method is totally without risk). Decide what methods you are going to accept as you continue to sell on eBay.

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