eBay is really not the most appropriate venue for selling with lay-by (in my opinion). The whole online purchasing environment has changed dramatically since the early days of eBay.
OP, you know you’ll be charged the full FVF by eBay immediately, unless you indicate within the timeframe permitted that the purchaser hasn’t paid?
The buyer doesn’t need a credit card or debit card. (That’s been the case even with PayPal.) All that the buyer needs is a funding source - bank account. Mind you, they’d be foolish not to have a debit card (checking T&Cs to ensure it has protection of chargeback in the case of a dispute).
Under AfterPay and ZipPay, ditto (As far as I’m aware). These bodies only need a way of grabbing the money, and the buyer only had to click onto the permission field to give the company that defined access to his/her bank account.
I think lay-by works well in bricks and mortar shops and department stores, but in the eBay environment it is now fraught with difficulties.
