Postage labels to be paid only from eBay funds from September 2026
Summary: jlovie expressed concerns about eBay's new policy requiring postage labels to be paid only from eBay funds starting in September 2026. This change complicates financial management, as the funds may not clear in time. Other participants shared similar issues, noting the inconvenience for accounting and the lack of VAT receipts for postage transactions. Some suggested alternatives such as using external services or purchasing directly from Royal Mail. There was also discussion about eBay potentially being in financial trouble, which might drive their shift away from PayPal. Overall, participants found the new system challenging and less efficient for business operations.
Just had this notification when buying a label.
I currently use PayPal as it makes it a lot easier for accounting purposes, can easily download a file with all the payments.
Paying from eBay funds can get complicated when funds haven't cleared, or there's insufficient funds to cover labels cost.
Splitting payments across sources is even worse to account for.
Presumably if there's not enough funds it'll be charged to my card on file.
I guess I could withdraw every day before I buy labels & force it to charge my card.
jlovie
OP4 days agoI have the first monthly fees invoice since they started taking postage from funds.
I was hoping postage labels would be included in the invoice but they aren't.
They do appear to be included in the Financial Statements, but the fees figures there don't seem to tally with the invoice.
zorchmancometh
·1 week agohi , They didn't charge my card, they just stuck my funds into the red. I guess that they knew there was a pending payment from something that I sold and waited for that. I was disgusted as I was expecting the full amount, and instead I got the amount minus the postage label that I had just bought. Again, it's meant to take it from your bank account isn't it.???
andy20678
·2 weeks agowill this be for everyone or just for business sellers
sml192
·2 weeks ago · EditedIt applies to all sellers. It doesn't apply to Simple Delivery though so only Private Sellers using Custom Postage will be affected.
htcpaint
·2 weeks agoIt's a stupid system but what else do we expect from Ebay?
Another nail in the coffin.
It's like they're deliberately trying to drive people off their platform. I'm baffled at how badly mismanaged this company is acting.
I suspect the issue is because they didn't want to be putting payment through paypal anymore, presumably because they had to pay Paypal for the privilege. I suspect Ebay is in financial trouble.
jlovie
OPSep 8, 2026 at 2:06 PMFirst time I haven't had enough in account to cover postage labels.
Automatic withdrawal was today and I haven't sold anything since, but had a label to buy for an order yesterday evening.
I've bought the label. My account now shows a negative balance and a message:
The next attempt to charge your <card> will be on 15 Sep. Any new transactions may change this date.
That looks like I get till next withdrawal date to cover the shortfall with sales.
That doesn't happen when my shop sub takes it into negative, when that happens my card is charged a day later.
a1sovereign_print
·1 month agoWhen purchasing postage using Tracked services - as eBay recommend - how do we get the VAT receipt for the transaction? Royal Mail Tracked services INCLUDE 20% VAT (i.e. a £3.65 Tracked48 costs our business £3.04 with 61p VAT which we claim on our next quarterly VAT return... provided we have a VAT receipt meeting the criteria of HMRC Notice 700) . How or where do we find the VAT documents for postage purchased from Royal Mail by eBay on our behalf?
sparklesandshimmers
·Sep 7, 2026 at 5:27 PMBest of luck with that. eBay think every seller is turning over pennies and working from their back room. Getting a VAT receipt out of them is hard enough but getting a valid one is near impossible (see return invoices from Royal Mail which get duplicated on your monthly eBay invoice, have been for years and no one in eBay seems to realise that invoicing the same sum twice isn't actually legal.).
schulme123
·1 month agoI have the same issue its better to pay by paypal for accounts purposes so i have switched to buying all my postage direct from royal mail and still pay how i want to
jlovie
OP1 month ago · EditedWhat happens when there's insufficient funds to cover postage labels cost?
Are we not allowed to buy labels, is the eBay account allowed to go into negative, or is it charged, or part-charged to the card on file?
Do they use uncleared funds?
I can see this happening regularly on withdrawal day.
Do account funded labels show up in the monthly eBay invoice as fees?
kat@ebay
Hi @jlovie ,
Royal Mail postage labels will be paid from your available eBay funds. If your available funds don’t cover the full amount, the remaining balance is charged to your preferred payment method on file, such as a debit card or bank account. The postage label payments will show in your payments page as label transactions.
Thank you,
Kat
jlovie
OP1 month agoSo I have to wait a day for eBay to clear payments but labels are charged immediately?
reidscott1
·1 month agoNo, they will take the postage costs out of funds pending.
sml192
·1 month agoWell that isn't what Kat has stated above or what the help page states:
If you choose to pay using available funds and don’t have sufficient balance to cover the transaction, label purchases will be paid from your preferred on-file payment method
reidscott1
·1 month agoI already have my account set this way. When you check your balance after purchases the money shows in the pending balance. After I've paid for labels, the payment comes off the pending.
The above message is, certainly from my experience, counting pending funds as 'available'. They are available to ebay to use because they are holding the funds, but not yet available to you yet.
I pay for labels this way regularly.
sml192
·1 month ago · EditedYes, actually it does say on the Getting Paid help page that pending funds can be used to purchase postage labels, so as usual eBay are providing contadictpry information:
'Before your funds become available in your eBay balance, they’ll appear as Pending in the Payments tab in My eBay or Seller Hub. You'll be able to use your pending funds to purchase postage labels and issue refunds to the buyer.'
jlovie
OP1 month agoOK, that's clearer now.
It just leaves the hassle of split payments which is messy for accounting.
jlovie
OP1 month agoI'm now seeing a message:
PayPal will no longer be available for Royal Mail labels from 7 September 2026. If you use Simple Delivery, this change does not affect you and no action is required.
Otherwise, to continue purchasing Royal Mail labels on eBay without interruption, switch your payment method to 'Your funds' before 7 September.
dwhairandbeautystore
·1 month agoI also like using Paypal for my postage so if this becomes compulsory, it will be annoying as (when eBay was still busy) my postage costs could be over £100 a day. I like deferring that payment for a couple of days with Paypal!
I use eBays account summary each month though and that adds up all your transactions, fees and postage for you.
Much easier than keeping separate records and adding it up yourself.
I also have my account set up to automatically pay out every day, which it does at around 6am.
bizzy-lizzy99
·1 month agoJust had the same message. It also says 'you can still switch back to PayPal if you chose'.
jlovie
OP1 month agoThe message I got mentioned it becoming compulsory in Sept 2026.
boundarycoins
·1 month ago · EditedWithdrawing available funds so they take the payment from your card may not work cleanly as they seem to be quite slow in taking the payment.
I suppose you could manually force the charge through every time but as fast as you can head to do it eventually you will get sale/s come in that will put your balance back into the positive so I don’t think you’ll have a 100% success rate with it.
I would have suggested using Parcel2Go and crediting a chunk of funds onto your balance every so often to use up there. It would make your postage cost recording so much quicker having fewer but larger payments to Parcel2Go every so often but sadly I don’t think you’d be able to buy RM 1st / 2nd class there, it would need to be tracked.
I have just stopped doing the line by line recording and I’m going to rely on eBay reports so this type of thing has been on my mind too. Have you considered doing similar? This change with PayPal might be a blessing in disguise if it starts saving you some admin time.
jlovie
OP2 months agoI'm wondering if they'll allow label payments from uncleared funds.