by Rainier Wong

Created on: May 17, 2009

I have been using PayPal for almost five years and this was not the first time it caused the balance of my bank account that I am using as my primary account to fall to a negative value. In addition, I had to pay a fee of $40.00 causing the item to cost an extra $40.00. This was how it happened. When I got to the page to confirm my payment, I saw a statement on it which said that PayPal would use the alternative funding which was my credit card to fund the transaction. I thought PayPal would really do it. Instead they overdrew my primary account causing me to pay the extra fee.

This was not the first time such thing had happened to me. On a previous occassion, I emailed to PayPal regarding the matter and here are some statements in the reply I got from them

"We at PayPal take pride in our service and it's a pleasure for us to know that you're a satisfied PayPal customer."
- If I was satisfied, I would not have complaint to them in the first place.

"I apologize that we currently do not have direct access to your bank details, specially to the availability of your bank account balance."
- If this was really the case, then, PayPal should not have told their users that they would use their alternative funding source if there was not enough fund in the primary account. If PayPal did not know how in the world were they going to decide when to use the funds in the alternative account.

A few years earlier, I had some automatic subscriptions with PayPal. I thought by cancelling all the subscriptions that problem would be a thing of the past. Unfortunately, it cropped up again a few days ago.

One way to ensure that PayPal will not overdraw your primary account to have sufficient fund in your PayPal account itself. Unfortunately it takes more than five days to have your funds transferred from your bank account to PayPal. This is definitely no good if you need to purchase an item in a hurry.

Another thing to do is if there is an alternative payment method available and you do not have problems with that method, used that method. For example, if there seller allows you to use your credit card, use it instead of PayPal. However, make sure you have sufficient fund first before using any method. Although PayPal had angered me a few times, I do not have problems with receiving money from other people or organization with it. I hope this article with help me to earn enough to get back my $40.00.

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