Ebay & Credit cards

[Hatta]

So in the past, I've always been able to pay for items on ebay with a credit card without logging into a paypal account. Even if an item is listed as paypal only, paypal has handled the credit card transaction for me with no account on many occasions. I prefer to do it this way as I do not want to link my credit card to my paypal account.

But now, for some reason, this no longer works. I spent a while in a chatroom with an Ebay rep trying to figure this out. He flatly denied that it was possible to use paypal as a credit card handler without having an account. This, depsite the fact that I've done so twice in the past couple months. I checked out the items I recently won, and the payment details were the same. Simply "paypal". He could not tell me what the difference was between the auctions, or what had changed between then and now.

So, wtf. Does anyone else use eBay like this? Are you able to pay by credit card without a paypal account? Is it just me?

Edit: My suspicion is that eBay found out that I have a paypal account (though I've never used them together), and decided to force me to link my credit card to paypal this way. Bastards. I'm this (><) close to deleting both accounts.

[jeffro11]

I'm in the same boat as you are. I caved and setup a PayPal account with the Credit Card... eBay rep told me the same thing.

[vlame]

why don't you want to use paypal acct?

[Niode]

Possibly something a long the lines of claims. Most credit card companies offer you fraud protection by giving you a refund should anything go awry in an online transaction. However when you use Paypal to pay for things it's no longer a 'credit card transaction' and is a direct debit/debit of your account which isn't covered by the same guarantees. If I had a credit card I know that I wouldn't use paypal.

[vlame]

but paypal/ebay have buyer protection too!

[Hatta]

I just don't want my CC linked to my paypal account. Linking a CC to paypal basically authorizes them to charge whatever they feel like to it at any time. And if someone happens to break into my account, I've waived my right to do a chargeback. Simply having paypal process a credit card as a one time thing seems less risky.

[Niode]

but paypal/ebay have buyer protection too!

Yeah, but they're nowhere near as reliable as the guarantees that the credit card companies offer. As has been noted before the paypal refunds process can take weeks if not months of emails just to get a simple refund of as little as £4 (I had issues with ebay not refunding me for a PS2 memory card that never arrived after a full month, 2 of those weeks spent pestering the seller for confirmation and receiving only broken english in reply). Plus Paypal aren't exactly the most competent of companies to deal with, I know credit card companies aren't much better but at least with CC companies there's always the risk for them that you will move your balance to a competitor. With paypal you don't have that luxury, you're stuck with them, they have a total monopoly.

[CFFJR]

I don't have anything to add to the argument as it is, but I can be one more person to confirm for hatta that I have used paypal to process credit card transactions before.

In fact, I do have a paypal account, and whenever I do this, the system will detect that I have an account and ask me if I want to log in. If I refuse, I can continue the transaction normally, filling out the information without ever entering my account for even a moment.

In short, that rep is lying through his teeth, and while I don't know the reason this is no longer working for you, I agree that its a bunch of crap.

You might try paying for something else through paypal this way, but with something completely unrelated to ebay. If it works, it might confirm your suspicion that ebay is dicking around with you.

Good luck.

[vlame]

don't come credit card compainies have 1 times use numbers? just for this reason.

[Octopod]

Plus ebay can charge fees for using paypal. I have paypal directly linked to my bank account. Probably not a good idea but I have never had a problem with it.