eBay has now added back limits as to how many eBay gift cards can be used on their site. The max now is $2,000 per 60-days.
Here’s a link to the terms on eBay gift cards which were updated on July 15 (changes in bold, bolding is mine):
9. The Gift Card may not be used to pay eBay or PayPal service fees. The Gift Card also may not be used to buy other eBay Gift Cards or items generally considered to be “bullion” (for example, gold, silver, and other precious metals in the form of coins, bars, or ingots).
10. During the first 90 days after registering an eBay account, no more than a total of $1,000 in Gift Cards may be redeemed. For eBay accounts greater than 90 days old, no more than a total of $2,000 in Gift Cards may be redeemed over any 60-day period. Further, you may only redeem a maximum of eight Gift Cards in any single transaction (and fewer if you are redeeming Gift Cards in combination with other redemption codes, such as coupons or vouchers). Restrictions also apply to the purchase of eBay Gift Cards on ebay.com. See our Gift Card Policy for details.
And here are the old terms:
9. The Gift Card may not be used to pay eBay or PayPal service fees. The Gift Card also may not be used to buy other eBay Gift Cards.
10. No more than a total of $1000 in Gift Cards may be redeemed per eBay purchase. Further, you may only redeem a maximum of eight Gift Cards in any single transaction (and fewer if you are redeeming Gift Cards in combination with other redemption codes, such as coupons or vouchers). Restrictions also apply to the purchase of eBay Gift Cards on ebay.com-see our Gift Card Policy for details.
Two changes were added in the terms:
- Max $2,000 per 60-days in eBay gift cards can be used. For the first 90-days after creating an eBay account, you can only use $1,000 in gift cards total. (I suspect this is to discourage people from creating multiple eBay accounts.)
- Items considered as “bullion” can not be bought with eBay gift cards.
The new 2/60 limit will be enforced based on the eBay account, not the Paypal account, since eBay gift cards are now tied to the eBay account, not the Paypal account as it used to be.
It might not be a good idea to create multiple eBay accounts to skirt the limit. While eBay allows multiple accounts, they don’t allow it for purposes of skirting limits.
It’s not clear if 2/60 is being enforced yet or if the bullion exclusion will be enforced. I’m also not sure if we get to start over fresh now (since July 15) and spend $2k.
We’ll update the 31 Things to Know about eBay and Paypal to reflect the change in terms.
Update: eBay has changed the terms again and they now allow up to $2,000 per day and $5,000 per calendar month.
Hat tip to reader noturbizniss
ive run into the biggest problem in my life. i have bough 5 ebay gift cards in total and used them in span of 3 weeks. the other day, i tried buying an item with three different gift cards to make up a certain amount and everything went fine until the seller got a message saying something did not go through right and fraud seems to be a factor. i really dont know what i did because it seems i had done something to cause some sort of restriction on paypals side and please note i had bought 6-7 items as a guest and as soon as i bought the 8th item thats when the problem struck. i was looking for solutions and later that day made a paypal account, linked it to my ebay and still didnt work. i assume the transaction i first mad as a guest is the reason why its not letting me at all but someone at paypal told me that security would lift the restriction and evrything should be fine after. is there anything i need to know more about my problem. pls anybody help!!!!!!!!!
So is the $1,000 limit in a single transaction still in effect? I looked on the site and the only thing I see is 2k in a day
They changed the terms again. I added a link at the end of the post to where we discussed this. Thanks for pointing out.
No problem,but does that mean we can use more then 1k in a single transaction now? The terms aren’t clear on that anybody able to test it out?
The $2,000 limit has definitely kicked in and goes back 2 months- even before change in policy. I tried to spend yesterday and hit the limit. I have only spent about $1,100 in the past 54 days, but had spent $900 on June 8th. I can’t believe it at least didn’t start the counting on July 15th. So, now I have to miss out on that 10x ebay bucks offer they sent me for today. I had over $1000 in stuff lined up I wanted to buy and have been waiting for an offer.
I believe it is in effect as of today. My guess is that it counts any GC usage starting 6/28 as that is where my last $2k starts. I get this message:
We can’t apply this gift card. You’ve already redeemed the maximum amount of gift card funds allowed per order.
But that is after I apply the second gift card. Working backwards, I can see I have 1800 and change in GC’s since 6/28. When I apply a $100 it is fine, but I get the above message for anything after that.
Boo. 🙁
Any updates on the 2k limit?
Not sure if it’s in effect yet
just expect the worst and move accordingly… T&C has already officially changed. should be obvious what to do next…
Any uodates as of today? Gc still working past 2k?
Any update on whether eBay started implementing the max $2,000 per 60-day limit?
And is there any way to check how much eBay giftcards were used on your account?
I haven’t heard that it’s in effect yet.
For checking usage, see this post https://www.doctorofcredit.com/things-know-ebay-paypal/
Considering I’ve used around $4.5k in the last two days its safe to say the answer is no. That can change at any moment though.
Probably not a big deal, but I was able to purchase bullion today
Silver American Eagle coins (purchase of around $125) with Ebay Gift Cards.
and I just bought $1k in ebay gc from Best Buy using the Amex offer. Sigh, ebay keeps making it less attractive to buy from them.
Thanks for the update