Amex on Ebay, no longer

[Whisper2]

Just got the email from Ebay reminding me that Ebay has stopped accepting Amex from today (as announced several weeks ago).
I know we can still use it via Paypal – but I wonder will Paypal be next to remove Amex?
The fees Amex charge are higher, but just last November there were £15 off £15 spend at Ebay on our cards. To go from active promotion to scrapping the relationship in just over 6 months seem quite a change. Who pays for those 5 off 15 promos? Is it just Amex or is the cost shared with Ebay?

[Harrier25]

I think eBay were hoping that Amex would cave in and renegotiate the deal like Amex had to with Amazon last year. Clearly eBay isn’t as important to Amex as Amazon is

[JDB]

@Whisper2 – never say never, but eBay is just another merchant whereas PayPal is a financial institution that has privileged access and fee arrangements. Amex and PayPal are part competitors, but also have a partly symbiotic relationship that involves the exchange of transaction data. It probably suits both parties until it doesn’t.

I don’t know what happened between eBay and Amex but Amex has to be careful not to cut disproportionately favourable deals for the sake of volume. Amex had a similar bust up with Costco in the US. Amex in Europe is selectively super competitive on merchant pricing but the fact they operate on different systems to other providers is a pain.

[Maples]

Will just buy a 35mm GM with the Barclaycard Avios and see if I end up getting the welcome bonus after closing the card for 7-8 months. Might as well rather than taking PayPal.

[Harrods]

JDB wrote:

@Whisper2 – never say never, but eBay is just another merchant whereas PayPal is a financial institution that has privileged access and fee arrangements. Amex and PayPal are part competitors, but also have a partly symbiotic relationship that involves the exchange of transaction data. It probably suits both parties until it doesn’t.

I don’t know what happened between eBay and Amex but Amex has to be careful not to cut disproportionately favourable deals for the sake of volume. Amex had a similar bust up with Costco in the US. Amex in Europe is selectively super competitive on merchant pricing but the fact they operate on different systems to other providers is a pain.

Probably has to do with the fraudulent disputes / chargebacks they got. I know they were losing money there.

[RV]

JDB wrote:

@Whisper2 – never say never, but eBay is just another merchant whereas PayPal is a financial institution that has privileged access and fee arrangements. Amex and PayPal are part competitors, but also have a partly symbiotic relationship that involves the exchange of transaction data. It probably suits both parties until it doesn’t.

I don’t know what happened between eBay and Amex but Amex has to be careful not to cut disproportionately favourable deals for the sake of volume. Amex had a similar bust up with Costco in the US. Amex in Europe is selectively super competitive on merchant pricing but the fact they operate on different systems to other providers is a pain.

Based on all of the retailers that left eBay in the last 12 months because they are hiking fees and the customer volumes were declining in several categories, I think this movement tells more about the current situation of eBay rather than Amex…

[TGLoyalty]

The fact the eBay email actively encourages you to use PayPal if you want to pay by Amex says a lot.

I imagine it has a bit to do with fees and probably a bit to do with buyer protection/validation eBay adds in.

[Scottpat78]

I bought a couple of items this weekend from eBay and used my BAPP via Apple Pay at the checkout. Anyone know if this route is still valid?

I bought something on Sat night then again Sun morning.

[Harrier25]

Ceased from Monday 19th, but you can still pay by Amex via PayPal.