PayPal Backup Account

[SavannahLion]

Let me say that I hate PayPal. ---smurfing--- hate it. But... it is a necessary evil. Just wish the ---smurfs--- at eBay would quit running it like a damn bank. By that I mean make it easier to work with the finer details of the account and not just ---smurfing--- hamfist it. Of course, now that eBay likes to screw their sellers 56 different ways doesn't help either. Prime reason I long stopped using eBay for selling anything at all. It's also humorous that I haven't been able to pay a 70 cent debt since 2008 because the "transaction amount is too small." 

However, I hate actual banks even more. They're a ---smurfing--- scourge but, as consumers, there is no Tyler Durden to put the pain where it hurts for them. Anyhow, I once held an account with one, in the not too distant past. Which was tied to Paypal for the express purpose of God only remembers why. That bank account is closed now... or it should, knowing the banks, they'll Zombify the account even though they claim they don't.

So here I am, soldering 0603 parts when I realize I ran out of parts. So I hit up eBay for some cheapo parts (not wanting to use my more expensive parts in the test rig I'm building) and order them. Hit Buy-it-Now. Click PayPal. Make the payment before I realized that I used the closed bank account as the primary means of payment.

Sludging through PayPal documents at 1- -30 in the morning does not make this  happy. Apparently, I have my backup defaulting to my CC. Does anyone have any inkling know if PP charges "service fees" or whatever the ---fudgesicle--- they charge if they have to use the back up source of payment if the primary source of payment (a closed account) doesn't go through?

[ark_ader]

You are not the only one.

I had paypal take funds out of my bank account (£300) without telling me in advance and make me go overdrawn.  Did they care?  No.  My fault for using them.  Now I use an escrow account via a linked credit card.

Unfortunately if you want to play in the toilet called ebay, you have to learn to get ---smurfy--- with paypal.

Besides the better the devil you know....

[kahlid74]

So high level, it depends.  It depends who you buy it from, what you buy and who your credit card is.  Typically there isn't a service fee for using credit cards and I've never seen one for using a credit card as a second method HOWEVER, I've seen plenty of service changes that are dependent on the seller's system.  If they don't use a regular payment system then sometimes credit cards can require service changes.

[Malenko]

AFAIK the seller eats transaction fees, thats why ppl here say "add 3% or send as a gift" and saying that is actually a violation of Paypal's ToS. As a buyer you're only on the hook for the total shipped from the seller.

[JDFan]

I finally broke down and opened an account with them but before doing so signed up for an American Express Bluebird prepaid card to use exclusively for that.  The nice thing with the Bluebird card is there is no sign up fee if ordered online (think it's like $5 at walmart for a setup fee if using them rather than online signup)  you can go to any walmart and add funds at the register with no fee and there is no monthly fee for the card ( so you're not losing any of the balance if you don't use the card for awhile. That way the only banking info Paypal has is that card and it's easy to make a run to walmart and add funds before buying things.

As far as any fees for using the backup account I do not think there is as they mainly use that so they can take the funds to pay if your initial purchase option fails -- now the Bank may charge a fee if the backup account didn't have the withdrawal covered (or several fees if you had other checks out and that withdraw lowered the balance so all the others become rubberized ( which is why I don't have my bank account linked there as they like to start processing payments from large to small so they can get extra fees if more than 1 small payment doesn't clear rather than just 1 larger one !!)

[SavannahLion]

I received three separate emails from Paypal regarding this, all sent at the same time. 

The first was to notify me that my payment from the bank account did not go through. As I expected. It also stated that they had to use the backup card, as I hoped. The itemized list shows no additional charges. Fortunately, the bank account didn't zombify which is what I wanted.

The second was to notify me to update my PP account information and to take care of the problem right away by calling PP. Woah! An actual phone number? Too good to be true.

The third email was to notify me that because the bank responded with an "invalid account" response, I have lost my "verified" status on Paypal.  Like I gave a ---fudgesicle---. I remember the verified status was supposed to make transactions between two verified transactions easier and faster. Considering that Paypal notified the unverified seller of payment within the hour of the eBay transaction, I see no purpose for verified anymore. I suppose I'll take the time out of work to browse the rules to figure out what verified means anymore.

Oh well. I'll talk to my Credit Union and see if the virtual accounts they let wife create be applied to something like this. Otherwise, I'll do what JDFan does.

[JDFan]

IIRC not having verified status just means that you can not directly add to your paypal balance since they have not verified it belongs to you (just in case the US treasury suspects money laundering or something)  You can still add credit cards etc. as payment sources and pay for things. I believe it also means that you can't remove funds from the account but not positive since I usually don't sell items and the few times I do the funds are usually used to buy something else rather than removing the funds.

My account was the same since they couldn't verify that I was who I said I was since I did not put in any banking info for them. They then verified the account once I sent them a scanned pic of a photo ID with address for proof of address and identity. ( almost didn't bother since I was able to use the unverified account just fine but figured it was easy enough to scan the ID) 

[kahlid74]

When you call, if you ever have to, you literally get right to someone who can help.  I was speechless when I was paying a guy in the UK for fixing a sound board for me that the first person I got knew everything within seconds and was working to help resolve my issues.  They couldn't however resolve my issue but I wound up getting it resolved later.  Either way I was pleasantly surprised by their level of customer support.