The use of Checks and Money Orders on eBay

EBay says that checks and money orders will no longer be accepted on eBay after this fall. The company's reasoning: it says that check or money orders are 80 percent more likely to result in an "item not received" (INR) than those paid with credit card or PayPal. However, buyers can still use these payment methods for item pick-up, at the seller's discretion. EBay also says this change is prompted by its upcoming checkout system that will only support electronic payment methods, including a seller's own Internet merchant account for direct payments. Obviously merchant accounts will be a huge benefit to many bigger and business-focused sellers, but this still leaves the many casual and part-time sellers out in the cold.

Currently eBay's Mature Audience category is one that prohibits the use of PayPal, but on the eBay Discussion forums, some sellers are speculating that by the time eBay removes paper purchase options in favor of electronic payments, PayPal may very well be accepted in this category. EBay has long said that it will never make the auction site PayPal-only, however, by removing the ability for sellers to accept checks or money orders, eBay has removed all payment options that are cheaper than PayPal.