eBay Says It's Making Express Payout Simpler, But Watch Out- It May Be More Expensive Too

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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eBay has announced changes to their Express Payout offering, promising it will make the process "simpler" while glossing over the fact they are also making it more expensive for some sellers.

Sellers received the notice in an email, advising as of July 1, the fee for Express Payouts to a debit card will be changing for the previous 1.5% to a flat rate $2.

It's not clear what exactly eBay believes is "simpler" about this change, as Express Payouts to debit card have always provided access to funds within 30 minutes even on weekends and holidays since the feature was introduced in June 2022.

In fact, the only actual change reflected in this email is the fee structure.

With the previous fee model based on a percentage, sellers were charged 1.5% of the total funds being transferred, capped at $15 per withdrawal.

That means anything up to ~$130 would have previously cost less than $2 in additional fees to transfer via Express Payout.

By changing to a flat rate fee structure, sellers will now either have to pay more for express payouts of lower amounts or wait longer to accrue more funds before withdrawing (allowing eBay to collect additional interest on the funds) - neither of which is likely to be considered "simpler" by most sellers.

In typical eBay fashion, the page linked to in that email to "get more details" has not been updated yet and is still reflecting the current fee structure, so it's unclear if the $5 minimum will remain the same but I'd say it's likely it will.

Mercari recently faced pressure from angry sellers and a slew of FTC complaints when they unceremoniously changed their payout terms to require a $2 for standard ACH payouts without proper notice to sellers.

Mercari Temporarily Waives $2 Payout Fee As FTC Complaints From Angry Sellers Rack Up
In the wake of massive pushback from sellers, Mercari is temporarily waiving new $2 fee for direct deposit payouts instituted earlier this week.

It appears eBay may have learned a few things from watching their competitor's struggles, both in terms of fee amounts and in seller communication.

Importantly for eBay, standard ACH payouts are still free from any additional charges at this time and sellers will only be charged a fee for using the optional Express Payout to debit card if they choose to do so to gain faster access to funds.

eBay has recently been conducting surveys about payments and financial services, gauging thoughts on funds availability, fee structures, access to capital and other features, though I'm not sure this change to the Express Payout fee would have high on sellers' priority lists to tackle first.

Ever since the rollout of Managed Payments, sellers have been pressing eBay to provide missing features and functionality they used to have with PayPal.

When eBay first introduced Spendable Funds (the ability to use sales proceeds immediately for purchases on the platform) to the US in 2022, many sellers said they'd be much more likely to leave their funds on account or use them for purchases if they could earn rewards points and/or have a debit card linked to their eBay Payment Account just like they used to have with the PayPal Business Mastercard that would allow them to use those funds for off site purchases as well.

eBay Spendable Funds - What You Need To Know
eBay Spendable Funds lets sellers use Payments balance for purchases on the platform - here’s what you need to know.

Earlier this year, eBay dropped LendingPoint as their seller capital loan partner in the US, pivoting to Funding Circle, which they were already using in the UK market.

Through Funding Circle, eBay is able to offer UK sellers loans with payback terms based on a percentage of sales, rather than fixed monthly payments, similar to the way PayPal Working Capital loans used to work - another feature US sellers have been anxiously waiting for eBay to make available.

eBay Drops LendingPoint, Pivots To Funding Circle For Seller Capital Loans
eBay abruptly ends partnership with LendingPoint , will use Funding Circle for eBay Seller Capital loans, in sudden unannounced changed.

And of course, sellers are sure to see the irony in the timing of this fee increase for Express Payouts as eBay just announced last week it is ending its acceptance of American Express due to "unacceptably high fees."

eBay To Cut Off American Express Amid Credit Card Fee Negotiations
eBay will no longer allow buyers to use American Express on the site starting in August as credit card fee negotiations hit a standstill.

What do you think of eBay changing from a 1.5% fee to flat rate $2 for Express Payouts to debit cards? Let us know in the comments below!

eBayFees & PaymentsSeller Updates

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Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.


Recent Comments
Avatar PlaceholderConcerned12 hours ago
It is Slowwwwwww and is more expensive to the buyer. In the past items I have ordered will sit at the hub for around 2 weeks. I avoid ebay unless I cannot get it elsewhere.
Avatar Placeholdermarks304716 hours ago
Hi, I have a friend who had an interesting experience recently that fell under this issue. They sold an item, packed and dispatched to the UK Ebay hub, this was midway through the period as the pause occurred. They then received a message from the buyer that they had checked tracking and discovered that the item had disappeared on ebay, no advice. It then turned out that the tracking had been fudged and the package was with them but not forwarded on to the USA. A few hours of to and fro to get the answer that it was due to the tariff dilemma. NO fault of the buyer(who had paid) or the seller ((who had been paid) and a strange response that the item could not be delivered. The buyer would be refunded in full, the seller would keep payment and the item would not be returned. Strange, Ebay must be hurting paying our both sides of the deal+
Avatar PlaceholdercwiYesterday
  1. Start building out the brand and promoting the heck out of Canadian sellers to our domestic market. Work with Federal/Provincial level governments in the push to build a strong presence here in Canada.

  2. Add other calculated shipping options than Canada Post UPS/FedEx for domestic shipping - partner with couriers nationwide, leverage agreements and software integrations with courier reseller platforms such as Stallion Express. Build out a crowd sourced network using national/regional retail locations as drop points for rural regions, leveraging transport networks to move packages to courier pickup points, akin to the UK courier model but adapted to the Canadian realities.

  3. Create a centralized international shipping clearing house to aide micro businesses with affordable shipping rates and customs clearance to avoid pitfalls and complexities (akin to US eIS).

  4. Bring features forward to the platform from other localizations, such as prepaid best offer acceptance, etc.