Advice for UK people re: gift / credit cards

[jamesy]

regards credit and gift cards, I know a lot of stuff posted on here is out of the US and works for you guys, I thought it might be worth mentioning something for the UK people checking in.

have a look at cashplus.co.uk to get a new Credit Card. cost £9.95 for the card and gets to you within 7 days.

after 30 days you can change your address online via the members section so it matches any new address you've set up on a new ebay account.

also lets you add an additional card holder on for an extra 9.95 which gives a CC new number to play with each time you need to set up a new account. I just made up a name and didn't need any proof of who the name was.

I can vouch for it working to get past the ebay gatekeepers as the account I set up with it has been going strong since late december.

hope this helps anybody in the uk

[tpayton]

What I find interesting is the fact that you've been going strong since December on a new account.

What kind of volume do you sell? Also, how did you start out your account?

Can you tell me a little about how you got the account setup and your volume, etc?

I'm very interested as I've only been able to keep an account open for a month without linking it to another account or getting it shut down. How fast did you start selling, etc?

Thanks

[jamesy]

I opened 2 accounts near the end of last year. one is a sleeper that I bought a few things with then started selling a month ago. I've posted what happened with that in another thread so won't go into it now.

the other account I bought a few items at the start of january, then listed some items from around the house for a few weeks then started selling the items I normally sell. I had been selling over 700 items on the banned account but with the new one I listed 20 - 30 items in the first week then 50 the next, then up to a total of 95 for the month (including the stuff i'd sold from around the house). in total turned over about 1500 pounds for the month.

the next month I doubled what I sold in the 1st month. feedback is about 120 at the moment.

I also hijacked a mate's account who had a score of about 30 already but had the account open since june 2005. I built up to 900 listings on that very quickly (over a month) and have had no problems on that at all. I waited until I have a few people leave feedback for me before I did so.

what kind of volume were you doing which got you into trouble?

[tpayton]

Well, I first got suspended for shill bidding. Fun.

Then all my accounts kept getting linked.

Now, I've figured out how to keep from getting linked but I'm afraid I'll get banned for volume too quick.

We are needing to sell $100,000+ USD per month. We have a work around now - other people selling for us. Be we pay out percentages on that. Don't like that.

[jamesy]

I guess the $100k / month is in a different league to what I'm doing. my turnover on my main account is around GBP 1k per month so perhaps that hasn't triggered anything (so far)

[aspkin]

Good note on the giftcards jamesy, thanks for that!

[JackNoMore]

I'm in the small potatoes group too I guess. Which might explain why most of the time I get caught out of my own stupidity more than anything else. They have a lot bigger fish to hunt. Anyway, I'm wondering, do you find that when you sell internationally you're less likely to get the ebay kiss of death if you use an account that has just a few feedback but has been around a while than if you start out fresh? I thought that suddenly going from having a couple of feedback and starting to sell out of the blue after a year off would be a bigger target than a new user. Am I wrong? I need to decide between a couple of ID's now which to sell from, and which will be the less suspicious looking.

[anthonychan]

Hi,

I have been browsing through the forums but could not find a solution to my problem.

I want to create a sellers account, however I need 'giftcard' - I know simon.com offer these yet they do not accept payments from international buyers i.e UK citizens.

There are alternatives yet they charge exceptionally high charges! Is there a way to use normal VCCs?

Any help is appreciated.

[gorilla]

Hi guys. Another alternative to simon.com for UK users is 3vcash.com. Basically you register with them, they send you a top up card which u then take to a payzone newsagent(usually dotted all around the place). you top up the card at the newsagent and they print out a receipt with a visa card number on. then you get a text message with the expiry dates and CVV2 number for the card. Best thing about this is every time you top up u get a new visa number!

Here is some of the stuff 3vcash tell you....

"About the 3V Card: The 3V Card is NOT a credit card or a debit card. It holds no personalinformation. It has no balance or limit or any other associated financialinformation. --About the 3V Voucher: Each time you buy a 3V Voucher, you are buying a unique and disposable VISAnumber. Afterwards, you will receive the expiry date and 3-digit CVV2 code. You cannot merge the funds available on different Vouchers because each 3VVoucher has a different VISA number. "

I have just registered today so am waiting for the card to come before trying it on ebay.

(Just seen Longman has mentioned this site on another thread but no news as to how it went, I'll let you know when I try it tho).

Hope this helps...

G.

[bollock2ebay]

Various UK gift card issuers say you cant use their cards to open ebay accounts. What a load of rubbish! I just opened an ebay account using a NatWest gift card. Maybe "cannot" means "shouldnt" because there is no technical bar to doing it. This is funny but to be expected: its the usual bull**** propaganda we get in merry England to make people do as they are told whilst leaving the barn door open. Has anyone bought their tv licence?

[LongMan]

I know how frustrating it can be b2e living in the UK but you have to be careful here. They say that you can't use the card to open a seller account, perhaps they mean that if you do it'll get suspended. This is because eBay can tell the country & company that
the card was supplied from, and if they have a "hit list" they may act upon it later.

Funny you should mention not buying a TV licence I once let it expire for a month and they actually called me about on my mobile about it. HOW DID THEY KNOW MY MOBILE NO. !!!

[anthonychan]

Hi Jamesy,

Just have a question regarding your thread on the Cashplus for verifying an eBay sellers account.

You mentioned that you made up the name and address - was that for your main card or was that for additional card holders.

[jonathanmr]

Another thing to note is cashplus charge a subscription fee of £4.95 per month per account..

Any other cheap recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I have used mint gift cards a few times, twice they have worked and once it didnt for no apparent reason also..

[pauluss]

the cashplus card is £4.95 if you have your account set to unlimited monthly transactions

Call cust services and ask to swap to the other payment plan

Where they charge £1 per transaction used

It is also reloadable, so if you wanted to minimise your admin fees, load £5,000 to the card and pay your fees upfront then leave your account in credit

After all - every member on here pays their eBay fees like good little eBayers do.....................

[powerbid]

take my advice.. and get post-office-travel-moneycard... they were on offer for 1£ and you can have 3 per user per currency £,euro and $.. 1£ you spend toget it you get it on your cards balance.. but a peice of advice you cant ⊗⊗⊗⊗ your info so i better recommend to use it in away that you dont owe ebay any fees otherwise or should i say if you want to open an honest seller account..

another good tip is findout what is your invoice date it is mostly 15th of the month or the first.. it becomes visible on 18th or 19th of the month.. as soon as you see your entire balance pay it using paypal but dont logon to paypal and pay the entire balance using a non paypal linked credit or debit card.. keep that payment receipt for your tax-return purposes.. or anything of relevance.. that way ebay will never charge your card on file.. i have been doing this for the past 4-5 months on 3-4 of my accounts.. and its a releif.. no account suspensions since that period (touchwood)..

ohh and lastly.... i have figured out when ebay tells you your credit card is abut to expire and you should place a new one to receive uninterrupted service just dont worry about that and ignore the message.. dont change the card ebay wont stop you selling.. just make sure ebay never gets to the stage when it has to charge your card on file when it will find out it cannot access and flag your account.. any inputs welcome