Ebay to hold onto funds and earn interest on our money!

RFW

Spoonie_Turtle said:

RFW said:

Just on one point on the title of the thread, it's an offence for a company to earn money on "held" funds. If they do earn interest then they should pay it to the client.
It stems from solicitors holding money on property exchanges but applies to any company holding client money.

Does this also apply to energy companies hypothetically earning interest on credit they hold, do you know?

(Just out of interest, as it's an accusation bandied around every time prices increase and I genuinely don't know whether that happens or not.  Not wishing to derail the thread though, sorry.)

It's possibly different with energy companies as that money is advanced payment for a service rather than something they will be giving back, even though they sometimes do. I would assume/guess that if they had earned interest and gone on to pay the credit back then there could be some form of recompense due.
Many moons ago I started a business and had a retired old business adviser, he'd been various things including a high up in an energy company. One of his bits of advice was to only pay your energy bills on the final reminder. "Never leave them holding your money, when you could be making it work for you." The direct debit world has made all that harder but it still applies and is much more valid as times are tough. So whether they earn interest or not I'd rather keep hold of it than let them have it. I say that having just struggled to get back a decent credit from a utility company.

Pollycat

RFW said:

On one other point, any seller should be pleased by this. Ebay have finally managed to resurrect something some people have been asking for since they stopped having payments go through Paypal. I'm surprised it's taken them so long and it should be a big boost to their turnover.

I'm a seller and not pleased - see my post on page 1.
When eBay introduced managed payments, I set up a current account specifically for eBay sales and purchases and it's worked fine for me.
I now have to manually move my money to that account.

soolin

Pollycat said:

RFW said:

On one other point, any seller should be pleased by this. Ebay have finally managed to resurrect something some people have been asking for since they stopped having payments go through Paypal. I'm surprised it's taken them so long and it should be a big boost to their turnover.

I'm a seller and not pleased - see my post on page 1.
When eBay introduced managed payments, I set up a current account specifically for eBay sales and purchases and it's worked fine for me.
I now have to manually move my money to that account.

If they follow the. Vinted model, and they have so far so perhaps the withdrawal systems are designed to work the same, it will be just a click box along the lines of ‘withdraw now’, a 20 second job at best. 

vacheron

For those that run businesses, does this mean that you have been considered to have recieved the money when it is paid from the buyer or from eBay? 

Maybe this is the reason they’re pushing the funds out every three months if you don’t do it? To stop people holding onto it in the account until future tax years, etc?

soolin

vacheron said:

For those that run businesses, does this mean that you have been considered to have recieved the money when it is paid from the buyer or from eBay? 

Maybe this is the reason they’re pushing the funds out every three months if you don’t do it? To stop people holding onto it in the account until future tax years, etc?

Business accounts are unaffected. Ebay will still pay out automatically on Tuesdays, but giving businesses a chance to schedule payouts whenever they want, or on demand. It's only private sellers who will have to click a withdrawal button.

The tax situation hasn't changed, it doesn't matter where you store your money - on ebay or in a bank account, you received it when you received it. Again nothing has changed there. 

soolin

Also - not for anyone on here as I think we all get the difference,  but as I saw it mentioned on other forums - it doesn't affect the reporting to HMRC requirement. There has been some discussion elsewhere that business sellers trying to stay under the radar and masquerading as business sellers could now spend their ebay money back on ebay and reduce what they withdraw to their bank account below the £1000 reporting limit.

It does seem very obvious that this isn't how the reporting limit works at all , but I have seen some links to MSE on other groups so for the benefit of the doubt I thought it worth mentioning. The reporting figures are based on what goes through your ebay account and is reported automatically. If you have more than one account that hits the reporting level that doesn't help as both get reported - and will be linked to you via your NI number. The same applies to Vinted, Amazon and any other online site. The report is based on your account and doesn't have anything to do with withdrawal amounts or where you spend the money once you receive it.

Money_Grabber13579

From my perspective, I preferred getting the payments into my bank account almost instantly, but this change is a very small price to pay for not having to pay any fees for selling!

soolin

Money_Grabber13579 said:

From my perspective, I preferred getting the payments into my bank account almost instantly, but this change is a very small price to pay for not having to pay any fees for selling!

Good point!

RFW

soolin said:

It does seem very obvious that this isn't how the reporting limit works at all , but I have seen some links to MSE on other groups so for the benefit of the doubt I thought it worth mentioning. The reporting figures are based on what goes through your ebay account and is reported automatically.

I totally agree. I don't think for a second that HMRC will be asking for further info from everyone who turns over more than £1000. One point though is that if someone is, for example, selling their kids' old clothes and then replacing it with newer stuff that would certainly reduce any idea that HMRC would think that they were running a business.

RFW

Pollycat said:

RFW said:

On one other point, any seller should be pleased by this. Ebay have finally managed to resurrect something some people have been asking for since they stopped having payments go through Paypal. I'm surprised it's taken them so long and it should be a big boost to their turnover.

I'm a seller and not pleased - see my post on page 1.
When eBay introduced managed payments, I set up a current account specifically for eBay sales and purchases and it's worked fine for me.
I now have to manually move my money to that account.

I can understand how, if you have a system in place, any change can be unwelcome. I was just pointing out that there will be more money to be spent on Ebay from other sellers with money in their accounts.

I don't think I'd mind if they changed it for business sellers too, although I don't turn that much over on Ebay. On Amazon, where I have the bulk of my turnover, I have to manually transfer or wait 14 days for sales funds. There are also an increasing number of sellers on Amazon who have to wait seven days after confirmed delivery to be able to withdraw funds.
I also sell on one platform that makes you wait for 60 days to get paid.
I don't see why Ebay couldn't allow you to manually add the option to return to automatic withdrawals and that way they'd keep more people happy. It may be worth communicating that to them.