I dunno. It's all too complicated for me to bother figuring out.
When I pay for stuff with PayPal.com, I pay with my credit card as a
funding source. That way, if there's a problem, I have the credit
card issuer to back me up in the settlement of any dispute, including
any screw-ups by Paypal.com. And particularly if there's any fraud
involved, I am not liable for any claimed proven fraudulent postings
with my card... part of my card's service package is fraud protection.
Godfrey
On Apr 26, 2006, at 4:43 PM, Tom C wrote:
I had a PayPal transaction go awry today. Over the weekend I made
an eBay purchase using BuyitNow and then immediately paid.
PayPal transferred the funds to the seller's account that day.
Today, when the transaction hit my bank, it erroneously rejected
the transaction even though there are sufficient funds. PayPal
then attempted to use my VISA backup funding source, but the one on
file had expired, and so the charge was denied. The seller
subsequently received an e-mail from PayPal indicating that I had
used "unauthorized funds" (Filthy Liars) to pay for the purchase
and that the money was being debited from his account. Naturally
the seller is inquiring as to what's going on as he has shipped the
item.
My *PayPal* account balance is now in negative territory and
according to them it will be credited within 3-4 business days. I
still owe the money to the seller.
I had two 10-minute phone calls with PayPal and both customer
service agents could not understand plain English, nor could I find
a plain and clear answer after searching the PayPal site for the
same length of time.
The question is (and I think I know the answer): When I *add funds*
to my *PayPal* account, is the money transferred (debited) from my
bank balance at that time and held in abeyance by PayPal just
waiting for me to make a purchase, or am I merely *authorizing*
PayPal to allow purchases up to that amount?
It's been a long time since I originally set up my account, so I
really can't understand why I need to add funds to begin with, but
I assume the latter, that I am merely authorizing the use of funds,
not transferring them.
Tom C.
