Tired of ebay & paypal?

Yes, us too!  Having been a seller on ebay for many years (pushchair addiction knows no bounds and is easy to indulge with ebay saved searches...) I periodically swear off the whole site alone with the paypal payment system in disgust at a fee rise, change in feedback policy or listing guidelines or as recently all three at once.

There are reams of websites devoted to HOW evil paypal and ebay are, but realistically if you want to make a little extra cash there are few other options to do so online.  That said is there actually any money made in the end?  With buyers moaning about paying for packaging as well as postage, listing fees, final value fees, paypal payment fees and paypal transfer fees can anyone seriously expect to come out with more than they are paying the vast corporation that operates it?

Despite all the expenses involved my number one irk remains the inability to have even medium speed access to money you have 'earned' through ebay, never mind fast.  Having recently been away for a fantastic weekend at center parcs Nottingham I went into overdrive planning auctions, ironing baby clothes, finding old textbooks and hours photographing and listing in order to ensure whatever money was raised would hit the bank before we went away so we could have some extra treats.  And what happened?  None of the buyers paid on time they all delayed by several days and the funds we raised hit the bank when we got home.

So I was all excited to hear about a paypal top up visa card, excellent idea to be able to transfer smaller amounts of money free onto a more readily accessible format.  Great idea, of course subject to the usual paypal drawbacks.  Having decided to be sensible and not transfer my whole paypal balance (a whopping £60!) at once incase it all went horribly wrong I test transferred £10 to my shiny new paypal visa.  Of course despite the fact paypal state it would appear on the card the next day, it in fact took 3 days, although it whizzed out of my account instantly, as ever.  Having complained and actually received an e-mail reply which apologised for teething difficulties I decided to try again and transferred a huge £20, which dutifully left my account 2 days ago, I'm still waiting for it to arrive on the card.

So the moral of the story is, no quicker, no cheaper, same old story.