Paypal Now The Only Method of Payment on eBay

eBay recently annoucned that it will be making Paypal as the only method of payment for buyers and sellers. eBay plans on eventually phasing out all other methods such as bank deposit and direct credit card payments.

eBay claims they are doing this to protect customers from being the victims of fraud as Paypal is a much safer and easy way of paying for items and receiving payments if you are a seller. This is because when a customer pays by Paypal, their bank or credit card details are not shown to the receipent. When a customer signs up for paypal, they provide Paypal with their banking or credit card details which are linked to their Paypal account. Paypal acts as a link between the buyer and seller.

I do believe there are benefits from doing this but I also believe this is a direct stab in the back, particullary for sellers. For sellers who make their living on eBay, everytime they receive a Paypal payment, a small slice of that payment is taken in which paypal keeps for themselves. Alot of people should also be aware that Paypal is in fact owned by eBay. On top of this, sellers are also slugged with insertion fees by eBay for their items and a final value fee (a percentage of the sale price in which eBay keeps). In one sense this is double dipping and greed by eBay. I believe that if Paypal is the only method of payment that customers can make then there should be no fees at all as eBay is already making a huge profit from their own site let alone the fees that Paypal brings in.