How to Link PayPal to eBay

Lately, eBay has introduced new forms of payment through their manage payments¹ programs such as Google Pay and Apple Pay. But if you’re looking for ease of payment and convenience, it’s fine to stick with the traditional PayPal payment processing.

Though PayPal means convenience for eBay clients, the costs of other types of services such as sending and receiving money domestic or international can be quite steep. Services like Wise Business can help you send and receive international payments with low fees.

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Do I need PayPal for business to sell on eBay?

PayPal is a safe way to shop and get paid on eBay, if you have an existing Personal or Business Account, either of those two will work fine.

Although PayPal Business account offers more features than having a Personal account such as Website Payment Pro which allows you to link PayPal or your credit card to your website and upon checkout buyers can choose between these payment options.

So if you’re still thinking what to choose between PayPal Personal and Business accounts here’s how it works. If you’re a buyer or just a casual seller, PayPal Personal Account is good enough. So, if you’re planning to have a garage sale you can get away with your PayPal Personal account.

In comparison, PayPal Business Account is generally recommended for people who want to scale up their eBay business. Aside from the advanced features that you can get, you can also boost your eBay business because of millions of users who shop and sell on this online platform. It's also easier to file income tax if you register as self-employed.

How to Link PayPal to eBay

Here are simple steps to link PayPal to eBay:

1. Login to your eBay account and go to My eBay.

2. Click the Account tab

3. Click the PayPal Account link.

4. Select and click the Link My PayPal Account button.

5. You’ll be asked to log in to PayPal to finish linking your accounts.

6. If you don’t have a PayPal account yet, you can click the Sign Up button instead.

If you have more than one PayPal account and you want to know what account is linked to your eBay store, just go to My eBay, go to Account tab. Click the PayPal account and then you can see PayPal account information at the top side of your computer’s screen. Select and click See your PayPal account summary and from there it will take you to your PayPal account so you can verify your PayPal account information.

Final step in linking your PayPal account to eBay is to verify your PayPal account. After you have confirmed your identity as a merchant it will allow you to raise your sending and withdrawal limits and will allow you to sell internationally.

To verify your account, just login to PayPal and follow the steps on your Summary page, as soon as your profile is at 100%, it only means you are fully verified and you’re good to go.

What to keep in mind

Offering PayPal as a payment option on eBay (using either logos or text in the item description), will require you to accept all forms of PayPal payment methods, including payments from an existing PayPal account balance bank account transfers, and credit card payments. You can’t tell buyers that you only accept specific forms of PayPal payment. When a buyer makes a payment through PayPal, the money is usually available in your PayPal account right away. However, in some cases, the payment might be “pending” for a few days, or it might be held by PayPal for up to 21 days.²

Managed payments sellers

Managed payments sellers are when payment experience is being managed end-to-end by eBay. This allows you to sell and get paid in one place, with payments going directly into your bank account, and will provide more payment options to buyers.

In 2020, eBay will start managing payments on the marketplace in the UK. The majority of UK business sellers will be expected to enable their account for managed payments by the end of this year.

The aim of this is to simplify the buying and selling experience on eBay. You’ll be able to manage your payments information and operations all in one place, and your buyers will have more ways to pay when they purchase your items.

eBay will automatically place PayPal as a payment method in your listings. However, the listing is in a category that doesn't accept PayPal, they’ll remove it as a payment method for your buyers. When a buyer sends you a payment through PayPal, the money is sent to your pending funds and then to your bank account through a daily payout.

To work out your managed payments fees, use our eBay fees calculator.

Cost

ebay doesn’t charge a fee to use PayPal.³ However, PayPal charges a fee for each transaction amount you receive. You can use this PayPal - eBay calculator to calculate your profit when selling on eBay with PayPal. Selling goods and services requires you to have a PayPal merchant account. Here are the fees associated with a merchant account.⁴

If you’ve collected some payments in a different currency using PayPal, you might have to convert it to your local currency before you could withdraw it. However, PayPal’s conversion fee can range from 2.5 to 4%. To reduce this conversion cost, use Wise Multi-currency account to collect payments in different currencies from PayPal and convert it using the real market rate and with low transparent fee.

Reduce the cost to withdraw your money from PayPal

Withdrawing funds in a different currency from your PayPal account can cost you a fortune. For instance, withdrawing €500 costs €12.5 - €20 on conversion fee. Using Wise, you can reduce this fee to €2.72. You can withdraw funds to the multi-currency account in EUR, USD, GBP, AUD, NZD and PLN. For a comparison, you can calculate PayPal fees for sellers with this easy to use PayPal calculator.

Linking your PayPal account with Wise

It’s important to remember that the account details you’ll need and the process of adding it to PayPal vary according to currency. For example, if you’re withdrawing EUR, you’ll need an IBAN number and BIC and for GBP, you’ll need the account number and sort code. Wise will generate these details for you once you’ve set up the account.

Here’s how you can connect your Wise account with PayPal

1. Set up an account with Wise - select ‘business’ if you’ll use the account for business purposes. After its set up, you’ll also need to set up a personal account under the same log in.
2. Once the account is set up, go to ‘balances’ and click on ‘get started’. You’ll have to choose which currency to activate first. If you wish to add more currencies, click on ‘Open a balance’ from the ‘balances’ page.
3. Once the accounts have been activated, you’ll see your account details under each currency.
4. Copy your account details from your Wise account (make sure that you select the correct currency).
5. Log in to your PayPal account and select ‘Wallet’ from the menu then Click ‘Link a Card or Bank Account’- select the option to add a bank account.

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