smontanaro
09-30-2016, 06:46 AM
I suspect like many of us, I use PayPal as the source and destination of funds for this crazy bike habit. I'm happy to pay for the convenience when necessary, ponying up a percentage of stuff I sell on eBay, or (when my account balance isn't big enough) dinging me for the service charge on a friends/family payment which dips into my backing debit card. (I'd use my bank account, but it backs up my wife's PayPal account.)
A week or so, ago, with a zero balance, an Italvega frame popped up on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/201674043110) which I just had to have. Not wanting to dip into the back account, I asked Ellen to shoot me some cash from her PP account, which she did. Then I bought the frame. (Aside: it arrived yesterday, and is quite lovely.) However, it didn't use my now sufficient account balance to pay for it, it went through the debit card, which is supposed to be my backup funding source. I didn't recognize this at first.
I sold some other stuff on eBay, building up my balance a bit more, and bought a couple more small items. It eventually dawned on me that PayPal was never drawing on my account balance, always defaulting to my backup funding source. Now that I'm wise to the bug/scam/whatever, I check before making any payment. The default funding source seems to now always be my debit card, and I have to explicitly select payment from my account balance.
I called PayPal a couple days ago. The guy I spoke to couldn't explain why my account balance wasn't my default funding source, why this change happened in the first place, or how to put things right. I contacted PayPal through their website again last night, asking for them to have their bright back room peeps fix the problem. I've not yet heard back from that request.
I'm curious if other people have experienced this. Is this a bug, or some sneaky way for PayPal to extract fees from me? (If I send someone money via friends/family and it ignores my balance, I assume I get dinged for the 3% service charge even if I have plenty of money in my account.)
A week or so, ago, with a zero balance, an Italvega frame popped up on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/201674043110) which I just had to have. Not wanting to dip into the back account, I asked Ellen to shoot me some cash from her PP account, which she did. Then I bought the frame. (Aside: it arrived yesterday, and is quite lovely.) However, it didn't use my now sufficient account balance to pay for it, it went through the debit card, which is supposed to be my backup funding source. I didn't recognize this at first.
I sold some other stuff on eBay, building up my balance a bit more, and bought a couple more small items. It eventually dawned on me that PayPal was never drawing on my account balance, always defaulting to my backup funding source. Now that I'm wise to the bug/scam/whatever, I check before making any payment. The default funding source seems to now always be my debit card, and I have to explicitly select payment from my account balance.
I called PayPal a couple days ago. The guy I spoke to couldn't explain why my account balance wasn't my default funding source, why this change happened in the first place, or how to put things right. I contacted PayPal through their website again last night, asking for them to have their bright back room peeps fix the problem. I've not yet heard back from that request.
I'm curious if other people have experienced this. Is this a bug, or some sneaky way for PayPal to extract fees from me? (If I send someone money via friends/family and it ignores my balance, I assume I get dinged for the 3% service charge even if I have plenty of money in my account.)