Will eBay gift cards still work if PayPal acct cannot be used to buy things on eBay?

[ploughman]

OK, here's the situation: eBay longstanding stealth account, also PayPal stealth.

I DO NOT want to give SSN to PayPal. So as of tomorrow they're limiting the account to transfers out to a bank acct. and for paying eBay fees.

So I'm looking for a new way to pay for the occasional item bought on eBay. I have one item I need to pay for now, as luck would have it, and the seller is starting to get a bit surly.

And so the question: Do eBay gift cards still work in such a situation if I can pay for the whole purchase amount with the gift card? Or does the restricted PayPal keep it from working, even when the entire amount can be paid from the gift card?

I wouldn't want to go out and buy one and have it not work, especially on an $83 purchase.

I notice in the terms that it says you need a PayPal account to be able to use it, but I don't see any mention of that account having ability to pay for eBay purchases (though I don't want to assume too much).

I s'pose I could also get a gift credit card or VCC (if it supports AVS) and enter that directly into eBay for the purchase, though I haven't done it that way before.

Has anyone used eBay gift cards successfully when your PayPal account can only transfer funds out or be used to pay eBay?

[agent006140]

You can go thru the motion of making payment and see where you can choose paying with Ebay gift card,or go to Ebay seller/buyer forum and ask.
I know for Ebay bucks,one has to choose making Paypal balance to pay and then Ebay bucks ,this is how we spend our Ebay bucks

[ploughman]

Looks like today was the likely last day of paying for eBay purchases out of the PPal account, though I still didn't have enough money in the account to cover the $83. So I went to a nearby grocery store and bought 3x$25 eBay giftcards.

As you mentioned, it makes you select a payment method and log in (to PayPal) before going back to that eBay payment screen. Initially it showed a hybrid payment method (charge all the PPal balance, then a prepaid credit card, then debit the PPal-linked checking account), but in entering the codes for the three $25s, that updated to where it only needed to take the $8 difference from the PayPal balance.

So I wasn't able to answer my own question today but am thinking maybe it still works if PayPal only gives payment options that are allowed after the changes (linked credit card, etc., but no PayPal balance).

I hope so and hope the giftcards are still usable because: a) they can be bought and activated more or less instantly at retail (also online, but you can't pay cash online and have to wait for the activation code e-mail), b) there's no extra cost for the giftcards, unlike with gift credit cards, c) there's no AVS-match hassle, d) cards retain residual value if not totally depleted by the purchase, and e) funds don't expire and you can use up to 8 of them for a purchase.

[agent006140]

GOOD TO HEAR EBAY CARDS WORK,there is a section on Ebay which explain how it works,and how it works when you have to return an item bought with such card

[ploughman]

UPDATE: OK, my (stealth) PayPal account now cannot be used to pay for items bought on my stealth eBay account. I paid for something today successfully using the eBay gift card despite that. For some reason you still have to select PayPal or PayPal Credit as the payment method, but if the giftcard balance is enough to cover the whole purchase then the screen updates and reflects all that before you hit the Pay button.

Gift cards also retain the remaining value...I paid for a second item for $6.59 that I got as a Buy It Now off the same card, and now it has just $4 left on it. If I read the online info correctly you can stack up to 8 cards on a purchase if you have some with small amounts needing to be burned off.

I guess there's some possibility of the account getting flagged if I use giftcards all the time, but it's a "bridge" until I get something else set up. The cards are also widely available and it looks like lots of places carry the $25-200 variable-amount ones.

[agent006140]

if you dont want to give your SSN to paypal,your only option is t o transfer the fund to your linked bank account,this is my understanding or has it changed?

[rsot]

Originally Posted by agent006140

if you dont want to give your SSN to paypal,your only option is t o transfer the fund to your linked bank account,this is my understanding or has it changed?

That's correct for US pp

[hawkeye3211]

You can just go to the store and buy a prepaid gift card like visa and also pay with that in checkout.

[ploughman]

Originally Posted by hawkeye3211

You can just go to the store and buy a prepaid gift card like visa and also pay with that in checkout.

The Visa giftcards usually have a fee to buy them, whereas the eBay giftcards don't. Am also not sure if you can do it without having to set up an AVS match on the linked Visa card. With the eBay giftcard you also get to bypass AVS, at least if using the PayPal option as backup (I haven't tried it using the linked credit card option as backup...the registered address for the eBay account is a stealth, and the send-to address is one from the address book that's not the same as the registered address).

I'm not saying any of this is ideal and I'll probably have to link an Amex giftcard of $100 or more to PayPal with AVS and hope I can also use that to verify the PP account for a nice long time). For now the eBay giftcards are a kind of least-worst stopgap.

[Xaviery]

I have eBay gift card with enough balance to cover the entire purchase. However, it still asks me to log in Paypal to finish the transaction. :/

[ploughman]

Originally Posted by Xaviery

I have eBay gift card with enough balance to cover the entire purchase. However, it still asks me to log in Paypal to finish the transaction. :/

For some reason it does that. But it'll come back with a tagline under the PayPal option saying "gift certificates" and the whole balance showing as deducted from the gift certificate before you hit the Pay Now button for the last time.

It also should remember the remaining balance in the gift certificate so you don't need to enter the number the next time you use.