We’re bidding goodbye to Success Fees for casual sellers

Today we’re announcing some big changes to the way casual members trade on our Marketplace, marking a huge milestone in Trade Me’s history.

Starting Tuesday (10 March) and concluding by Sunday 15 March, casual Trade Me members will notice changes as we restructure our fees across all of our 17 Marketplace categories.

What’s changing

• We are removing the 7.9% Success Fee for casual sellers on Trade Me Marketplace
• Ping, our swift and secure payment option, will be offered on every listing. Ping comes with a 2.19% transaction fee for the seller.

• To enhance security, we are removing bank transfer as a payment option. 

• Going forward we will offer Ping and Afterpay as our supported payments options, while still allowing cash for those who prefer to trade in person.
• Buyer Protection for purchases made with Ping or Afterpay will increase from $2,500 to $5,000.
• We are introducing a Service Fee for buyers on casual listings which will be tiered based on the item’s value. This Service Fee helps keep our platform operating and ensure we can continue to provide local support.

Service Fee tiers
$0.00 - $20.00 = Free
$20.01 - $100.00 = $0.99
$100.01 - $250.00 = $1.99
$250.01 + = $4.99

“Our members have told us secondhand selling on Trade Me Marketplace has become too costly and it’s time to bid goodbye to Success Fees. We’ve listened and we agree. From 10 March, casual sellers will no longer pay a 7.9% Success Fee when they sell things like their couch, dress, lamp or TV,” said Trade Me’s Head of Marketplace Lisa Stewart.

Boosting safety with payment changes
“While most fraudulent activities on Trade Me are resolved quickly, 90% of the scams that we couldn't help our members with last year involved bank transfers. These payments happen outside our system, making it much more difficult for us to step in and help when things go wrong. Once a buyer sends money this way, those funds are often gone for good, and we have zero visibility over the transaction. That’s not a risk we want for our community,” said Ms Stewart.

"We’re committed to making every trade safer, which is why we’re moving away from bank transfers in favour of our secure payment systems. Going forward, we’ll offer Ping and Afterpay as our supported payments options, while still allowing cash for those who prefer to trade in person.”

If you have any questions about how these changes will work for your current listings, you can read more on our Help page.