I have been considering for some time developing my own web site and this latest T/Me decision is convincing me that it would be the best thing to do.

In these harsh economic times how stupid it is to make payment more difficult. Someone there needs to think radically. By lowering listing and payment fees inevitably it will lead to an increase in sales and a corresponding increase in success fees. I used to always have about 100 items listed but now that sales are slow and listing/re-listing fees too high I list only 50 items  at time and alternate the listing of each 50. Hasn't affected sales and saves about $30.00/week.  

Never had a problem with bank account payments regarding safety as the banks have sorted that, nor has it not been a streamlined process. I understand your motive is to extract more money from sellers by trying to force people to use Ping.  However it will make little difference as those customers who don't pay by Ping or cash always request bank account details.