How to delete your eBay account
eBay calls it closing your account. Pay your fees, clear your balance, cancel subscriptions and finish open bids, then submit the request from eBay's Closing your account help page. It takes 14 days, up to 60 if you had recent activity.
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Step by step
- 1
Settle fees and balance
Before you submit a request, your fees need to be paid and your available funds should be zero. If you owe money, make a one-time payment first.
- 2
Finish open bids and pending transactions
Closing needs no open bids or pending transactions. Wait for them to complete or resolve them first.
- 3
Cancel your subscriptions
Cancel any eBay Store or selling-tool subscriptions. eBay asks for all subscriptions to be cancelled before it closes the account.
- 4
Submit the closure request
Open eBay's "Closing your account" help page and submit the request there. If your account has restrictions or doesn't meet minimum seller performance standards, eBay says you need to contact customer service to close it.
- 5
Wait for the account to close
eBay says closing takes 14 days from the date it receives your request, up to 60 days if you had transactions, payments, claims or disputes in the previous 30 days. After that, the account is permanently closed and your data is deleted.
Watch out for
- You lose your feedback, purchase history and sales history once the account closes.
- If you change your mind while the account is closing, contact eBay and ask to have it reopened. That only works if the account is in good standing, not restricted or suspended.
- Your PayPal account is separate. You don't have to close it when you close eBay.
- Deleting the app doesn't close anything. The account stays until you submit a closure request.
Other ways to do it
- 1
Stop selling but keep buying
If you only want to stop selling, you can keep the account open. Remove your preferred payment method and cancel your selling-tool subscriptions. You can still buy.
What stays out there
Closing your eBay account stops eBay from adding new data to it. It doesn't reach copies of your details that other companies already hold. Old listings or reviews with your name or username may have been scraped by people-search sites, and a phone number or address from past shipments can sit in marketing databases.
If you want to know what's still out there, look yourself up before and after closing. Serus finds where your details are listed and removes them: see how Serus protects you.
Frequently asked
Can I deactivate my eBay account instead of deleting it?
eBay doesn't describe a deactivate option. Its help pages cover closing the account, or keeping it open and only stopping selling by removing your payment method and cancelling selling subscriptions.
Can I reopen a closed eBay account?
While the account is still closing, you can contact eBay and ask for it to be reopened if it's in good standing. Once it is permanently closed and the data is deleted, that's no longer an option.
Does closing my eBay account delete my PayPal account?
No. eBay says your PayPal account is separate and you don't have to close it.
How long does it take to delete an eBay account?
eBay's help page says 14 days from the date it receives your request, or up to 60 days if you had transactions, payments, claims or disputes in the previous 30 days.
Sources
Related guide Guide: How to Delete Yourself from the Internet Something changed? If these steps no longer match what you see, tell us and we'll re-check it.
