eBay is raising fees for payment processing through its Managed Payments program, and it's a major hit to sellers' pocketbooks.
eBay did not announce the change, but on Tuesday (May 21, 2019), it updated its
Payments Terms of Use to add a per listing payments fee.
Notice the term "per listing." Payment services like PayPal charge a "per transaction" fee. Presumably this means if you sell 5 items to a single buyer in a single transaction, you would pay eBay 25 cents times 5 in addition to the "payment processing fee," which is currently 2.7% of the total order amount. (See update below.) Using PayPal, you pay 30 cents on the total transaction (plus processing fee), no matter how many "listings" are included in the order.
Sellers who have completed the managed payments onboarding process prior to June 4th will not have to pay the per listing payments fee. But while they are grandfathered in to the original rates for now, there's no guarantee those terms won't change in the future.
We expect there to be pushback from sellers on per listing fee. While sellers can opt in for now, Managed Payments will eventually become mandatory for all sellers.
Here are three excerpts from eBay Payments Terms of Use showing how fees have changed.
Posting Date: May 21, 2019
Payments Processing Fees
If (a) you have successfully completed the managed payments onboarding process (in accordance with Section 4) prior to 00:00:00 (12:00 AM) Pacific Time on June 4, 2019 and (b) your eBay account has remained continuously enabled for managed payments: Your payments processing fees are calculated as 2.7% of the total order amount, including shipping, handling, sales tax and other amounts owed (the “payments processing rate”).
If you successfully complete the managed payments onboarding process (in accordance with Section 4) on or after June 4, 2019 (starting at 00:00:00 (12:00 AM) Pacific Time): Your payments processing fees are calculated as (i) the payments processing rate plus (ii) $0.25 per listing sold (the “per listing payments fee”). Notwithstanding the foregoing clause (ii), for sellers who onboard to managed payments on or after June 4, 2019 the per listing payments fee is waived through September 30, 2019 at 23:59:59 Pacific Time (11:59 PM plus 59 seconds) and will take effect beginning October 1, 2019 at 00:00:00 Pacific Time (12:00 AM).
Payments processing fees do not include any sales tax, which will be added to this fee on your invoice if applicable.
Payments Dispute Fees
Upon the conclusion of a Dispute investigation and/or re-presentment that results in you being found responsible for the chargeback or other disputed amounts, we charge a $20 payments dispute fee, excluding any applicable sales tax, for each Dispute. You may appeal the payments dispute fee within 30 days from when we invoice the payments dispute fee if you believe that you have been charged in error.
Posting Date: May 16, 2019
Payment Processing Fees
Payments processing fees are calculated as 2.7% percent of the total amount owed to you, including shipping, handling, sales tax and other amounts owed. Payments processing fees do not include any sales tax, which will be added to this fee on your invoice if applicable.
Payments Dispute Fees
Upon the conclusion of a Dispute investigation and/or re-presentment that results in you being found responsible for the chargeback or other disputed amounts, we charge a $20 payments dispute fee, excluding any applicable sales tax, for each Dispute. You may appeal the payments dispute fee within 30 days from when we invoice the payments dispute fee if you believe that you have been charged in error.
Posting Date: November 16, 2018
Payment Processing Fees
Payments processing fees are calculated as 2.7% percent of the total amount owed to the seller, including shipping, handling, sales tax and other amounts owed. Payments processing fees do not include any sales tax, which will be added to this fee on your invoice if applicable.
Chargeback Fees
Upon the conclusion of a chargeback investigation and/or re-presentment that results in a seller being found responsible for the chargeback amounts, we charge a $20 chargeback fee, excluding any applicable sales tax, for each chargeback. Sellers may appeal the chargeback fee within 30 days from when we invoice the chargeback fee if they believe that they have been charged in error.
Update 5/25/19: Dan Davis made an interesting point: the new fee is per listing, not per *item,* and that's an important distinction, not just semantics.
Dan based this on a response he received from an eBay employee
on Twitter who used the handle @AskeBay, who said, "If two items are purchased from you for a single listing, one payment listing fee is charged of $0.25. If two items are purchased from you from different listings, two payment listing fees are charged of $0.25."
Warning: eBay Raises Payment Processing Fees
by: The End