I've noticed a lot more lately buying or selling. payments delayed for a full week as an E-check instead of the instant payment. They are making intrest the longer they can delay-holding onto ebayers payments.

The E-check issue is not mentioned here, they just found a different angle to continue holding peoples funds for shorter periods , calling it an E-check.
http://www.change.org/petitions/ftcs-bureau-of-consumer-protection-investigate-paypal-ebay-business-practices

I have a thread here about paypal and ebay. They suck, I quit them.

One of the paypal user agreements was just way too far over the top. It reads like an oath of fealty. Welcome to ebay and paypal, bringing you the Dark Ages via the Internet.

First, please understand that the PayPal payment system is designed so that the default settings provide maximum profit to PayPal, and also maximum disadvantage to you the buyer. If you have any cash balance in your PayPal account, that will be used first, followed by a direct transfer from your checking account. A credit card will only be used if you actively modify the payment to reflect a credit card every time you make a payment.

1. Make sure you keep the cash balance in your account at zero by transferring any cash to your bank account.
2. When making a payment, the PayPal payment summary sheet will show two "Pay" buttons; one near the top of the page, and one near the bottom. If you don't scroll to the bottom, you might not see the very fine print stating the default payment method as an "Instant Transfer" from your bank account. You must remember to click on "More Funding Options" otherwise when you click "Pay", the money will be taken from your bank account! Once you have selected "More Funding Options", go ahead and select your favorite credit card. Mine is an online generated credit card number from Discover Card.
3. There will be a reminder/propaganda page that pops in from PayPal that tries to convince you to pay by bank transfer. The arguments are almost the opposite of what I state above in the first section. Click "Yes" that you wish to continue to use a credit card.
4. Once you have returned to the payment summary page, verify that the payment method has changed to your selected credit card. Now it is safe to send the payment.

As I said these steps are fairly simple. However, many e-Bay buyers (even experienced ones) unintentionally draw from their bank accounts because the structure of the PayPal payment pages makes it very easy to make this mistake! Hopefully this reminder page helps everyone.

What if you were to link Paypal to a bank account, then close the account entirely? They only verify once. This should make them 100% unable to draw from your bank account.

Use a different PP address for accepting payments.

Thats probably one of the techniques being used to open new ebay accounts and nix the paypal tumor off it right from the start.Then switch to one of the other -free merchant or merchant or propay.

Correct. A merchant cannot ACH out of a closed account.

Better yet, set the account for credits only if your bank will allow you to set your account that way. Some will if you go in person since its a back-end status used to prevent fraud while leaving the account open.

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