eBay Now Allows Gift Cards Usage without Paypal

We can now enter a gift card or promo code on eBay without using Paypal at all.

Back in mid-2015, eBay split Paypal off into a separate company, though there remains a 5-year agreement between the two about certain key partnership operations. In April 2016, eBay began tying an eBay gift card to the eBay account where it began it’s use, not the Paypal account. Sometime later, eBay introduced the option to checkout without logging into Paypal by simply entering your card information on the eBay site directly (though these payments are still processed by Paypal, whatever, it’s complicated…).

More recently, perhaps within the past month, eBay began allowing eBay gift cards or promo codes to be entered directly on their site, entirely without Paypal. (Hat tip to reader JasonP) Oddly, the eBay gift card terms have not yet been updated to reflect this change.

[Update 3/31/19: this is no longer working; you now need Paypal to apply a gift card or promo code. Terms are all the same, but they are now being enforced.]

As an aside, the current limits on eBay gift card usage are $2,000 per day, $5,000 per calendar month, and max eight gift cards in a single transaction. This used to be more interesting to us back in the day when it was possible to buy third party gift cards with eBay gift cards. Those days are long over.
    Chuck
  • On January 30, 2018, 09:30

View Comments (28)

  • Have eBay acct and PayPal. Cannot use my eBay gift card. When I go to check out it automatically goes into PayPal account

  • I was able to buy an item with (debit card + eBay gift card). However I am trying again and it won't let me. At first I thought it was due to the seller because I had to switch sellers in order for the combination to work (debit + gift card). But I have been trying several sellers now and it won't work anymore.

    04/18/2019

    • First time using ebay gift card works but the second time doesn't so that you have to give them your bank account info to get a PayPal account, and your gift card number is now linked to your ebay account and you can't use it any other way but through your ebay account.
      PayPal has legally stolen you money!

    • The first time works just using a gift card and the second time won't allow you unless you use paypal or paypal credit to use the gift card code! PayPal is a criminal organisation.

  • @chucksithe This expired within the past month.
    I avoided white ($25) and red ($50) GCs w/ fine print, "you need a PayPal account registered in the U.S." and only used green ($25) and purple ($50) GCs w/ fine print, "you must have a U.S. registered eBay account and a U.S. shipping address." Now, eBay points out that their online T&Cs never really did change.

  • Sadly, the limit is only $1.500 per month now. "no more than a total of $1500 in Gift Cards may be redeemed per calendar month"

  • OK, here's something I have to try out, gosh would this make my year better.

    My daughter (hmmmm) back in 2015 used some ebay gift cards to buy some metal, and shortly thereafter the purchase was reversed. We no longer use her ebay/PP acct. But those damn ebay gift cards got stuck in her ebay acct and PP refuses to unlock them from her account unless we send copious amounts of paperwork, which is not going to happen.
    So if this changes somehow unlocks those gift cards, it's a really good day.

    Keeping fingers crossed.

  • Kudos to whoever the ebay exec was that was able to launder all of that money under the guise of rolling gift cards. You da real MVP

  • So I assume the 2k/5k limits are limited to each eBay account now? Seems like an easy way to skirt the limits by just having multiple eBay accounts

    • I've had 4 out of 5 accounts shut down and "banned" for doing that but its probably due to me being sloppy with IP address/shipping address

      • If you don't mind sharing, what kind of items were you purchasing?

        Also, were you collecting eBay Bucks?

  • "and max eight gift cards in a single transaction"
    this used to be the case, but i recently checked out using 20 gc in on transaction.

    • Interesting, I was wondering whether these limits are actually enforced. Maybe some of the other stated limits are not enforced either, IDK.

      • Based on my experience, the 8 cards per transaction limit is not enforced. Both the $2,000/day/account and $5,000/calendar month/account are enforced.

        Edit: that is per eBay account, not per PayPal account

        • It appears that as of today (or at least the last few days), new eBay accounts (less than 90 days old?) are being subject to $1,000/day in gift card redemptions. It also appears that there is a monthly limit of $2,000 or $2,500 for these new accounts. I have 3 new eBay accounts, and 2 of them were hit with the "it looks like you've been using a lot of gift cards lately, try again in a few days" message when I broke the $1,000 daily limit (this was over multiple transactions so it wasn't the $1,000/transaction being enforced as far as I can tell). The third new account gave me that message when I inputed the first gift card today, as I've already spent $2,700 on that account this calendar month.

          I wasn't being subject to these limits on these new accounts in February, as they were able to go 2k/5k without any issues.

          I didn't try redeeming any eBay GCs on my established accounts today, so hopefully they are still okay at 2k/5k.

          • My established accounts (>90 days old) are also hitting the same 1k/day limit. I imagine that there is also the same lower monthly limit that I've experienced on the newer accounts.

            So I see 3 possibilities here:
            1) there is a glitch in eBay's system
            2) eBay is actually enforcing a 1k/day limit rather than their stated 2k/day limit
            or
            3) I'm special

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