New eBay Gift Card Usage Limits Just Went into Effect

As reported last week, eBay added new language to their gift card terms which cap the total amount of gift cards which can be used at $2,000 per 60-day. We’ll call this the 2k/60 limit; full details in this post.

At that time, it wasn’t being enforced, but just a few hours ago it went into effect.

We can’t apply this gift card. You’ve already redeemed the maximum amount of gift card funds allowed per order.

Screen Shot 2016-07-28 at 11.38.56 PM

It’s in effect retroactively, meaning that you don’t get a fresh start; if you’ve used $2k within the past 60-days, the system won’t allow the gift card to be applied.

I’d guess that the new bullion exclusion is also in effect.

We’ll update the 33 Things to Know about eBay and Paypal to reflect the change in terms.

Thanks to friends Matt and others who pointed this out

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26 Comments
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Mike
Mike (@guest_285114)
August 18, 2016 11:38

Staples appears to no longer be selling EBay GCs….are there any sources left for 5x?

Dad Shopper
Dad Shopper (@guest_281611)
August 5, 2016 17:30

Ebay continues to help me save and not spend my money with them. I am a collector of certain items important to me. I ALWAYS use ebay cards. If they will limit their own cards, I will be EXTRA careful what I purchase. (ie not buying from them standard, non-collectable items available elsewhere – coffee, tea, sharpening stones, socks etc.) Also, I have bought so much less since they started the random log-in requirements which made Auctionsniper, etc, risky to use. Spent thousands less with ebay this year. Will spend even less with them in the coming year. How can this help them? Bravo ebay. Stupid.

Meow Meow
Meow Meow (@guest_283670)
August 13, 2016 09:32

I’m finding the same thing — these new limits have seriously curtailed my spending on eBay. I’ve had a number of purchases in the last two weeks that I normally would have made on eBay, but instead went to Amazon, Best Buy and others. What also gets me angry is that I had just converted $4000 out of Gamestop (with a ton of hard work) into Best Buy GCs and then into eBay GCs. So, of course, that $4000 is now frozen.

I can understand why eBay might choose to enact various limits to limit fraud, but ironically, I feel like eBay has perpetrated a fraud on me by preventing me from spending their own legitimately-purchased GCs. I will be calling them, but I’m pessimistic about eBay doing anything about this.

Chris
Chris (@guest_279978)
July 31, 2016 21:12

Here we go again. No tool provided by ebay or paypal to know how much you’ve spent in the past 60 days. Crazy.

Sande
Sande (@guest_279741)
July 30, 2016 10:14

such garbage. All I use are gift cards and I do the buy sell thing…guess NO MORE SHOPPING for me! I added up the purchases and they are 2065.25 which doesn’t include shipping….

no more shopping for me I guess!

JJ
JJ (@guest_279704)
July 30, 2016 03:55

So I am assuming this is rolling limit?

Chad
Chad (@guest_279669)
July 29, 2016 22:04

Anyone check to see if gold/bullion is restricted from being used with gift cards now that the new rules are in effect?

Bryan
Bryan (@guest_279747)
July 30, 2016 11:09

It is.

calwatch
calwatch (@guest_279853)
July 31, 2016 03:36

You can still purchase any gold product which you will earn eBay bucks on with GC. Generally eligible gold costs about 4-5% more than gold bullion, but I normally only purchase gold when there is a eBay Bucks bonus anyway so know to steer my purchases to the eligible categories.

anthonyjh21
anthonyjh21 (@guest_279568)
July 29, 2016 12:54

I haven’t had the chance to look but does anyone know if the PayPal excel trick still works to determine your usage over the prior 60 days?

I agree with others too, having this be retroactive is bad business. Wouldn’t surprise me to learn of class action lawsuits in the future.

aloha
aloha (@guest_279603)
July 29, 2016 15:03

What is “PayPal excel trick”?

thanks

DXO
DXO (@guest_279639)
July 29, 2016 17:27
anthonyjh21
anthonyjh21 (@guest_279653)
July 29, 2016 19:09

Yeah, I was referring to the link that DXO provided from Noah. I wasn’t home so I didn’t have a chance to test it out. I just used it again though and it’s still working, however instead of being labeled as “PayPal Gift Card Services, Inc.“ it’s now “Voucher.” So you’d follow his instructions and unclick everything except Voucher.

There is however a problem with this that you’ll need to adjust for. Any eBay bucks redemption is included in Voucher. As such, I’m not entirely sure whether or not the 2k/60 includes ALL redemptions (perhaps other coupons like $20 automotive codes). I suppose in my case it’s a moot point given the fact that I’m at $13.5k lol. To the sidelines I go!

Dan
Dan (@guest_279745)
July 30, 2016 10:40

My ebay bucks redemption is labelled as “eBay, Inc.” as opposed to “eBay Gift Card Services” when using a gift card if that helps. Like you said not sure if it is taken into consideration when calculating 2k/60. Man, being retroactive is a bummer 🙁

Rookie
Rookie (@guest_279479)
July 29, 2016 01:31

Being affected by this as well… Just got the error message, really don’t think I’ve spent $2k in gift cards total in my life, let alone past 60 days. Did the math and I think it’s been about $1600. Super frustrated I can’t spend my card!!

Mooned
Mooned (@guest_279471)
July 29, 2016 00:36

And PP just limited my acct while trying to buy some jcpenny gc. The activity to verify was my purchase of overstock gc from earlier in the week. I was signed into my business PP and was trying to pay with my personal PP. Only the personal PP acct was limited.

eBags
eBags (@guest_279468)
July 29, 2016 00:26

Anyone up for a class-action lawsuit for retroactively declaring limits terms on old cards?

aloha
aloha (@guest_279475)
July 29, 2016 00:54

Sounds good. I can’t believe that eBay put this into effect retroactively without emailing its customer! It sucks:(