Halifax and Paypal nightmare

hubballi

On the 20th of Sept I purchased a digital camera on Ebay. I made a request to my bank account via Paypal for the payment to be made. The paypal request has been pending since then and due to clear today. It still hasn't.

I phoned the Halifax to ask if they have knowledge of it clearing and to my horror, they say they haven't even had the request. This means no transaction and no camera.

A couple of weeks ago I tried to transfer some money from my Halifax account to Paypal. Yesterday I got an email telling me that the request for a direct debit (I didn't request a direct debit, just a one off transaction) had failed. I contacted the Halifax and gues what, yes, they know nothing of this refusal.

Paypal tell me I need to speak to my bank about it but I can't because they have no record of any requests or refusals. Paypal can't help me either so what on earth is going on? I have the funds in my bank account, I just want to simply purchase a digital camera and it up to now has taken 9 days. At the end of it it now looks like this e cheque payment will not go ahead.

Now I can't contact anyone because the offices are closed and I will probably get bad feedback from the store I (virtualy) bought the camera from.

I am livid, especially as there is no rhyme or reason and nobody seems to know why.Anyone else had a similar problem or know what may have happened?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hubballi

surely someone can help me?

masonic

You would probably get more help from the denizens of the Ebay board.

It sounds to me like you have not confirmed your bank account. As a security measure, paypal credit your bank account with two small payments that you need to check your statement for and enter those details into a form on the paypal website. This is to prove that you have access to the account. Until you do that, you will not be able to transfer funds from your bank account to your paypal account or send out echeques funded from your bank account.

Edit: Do you have a debit card for that bank account? If you do, then there is no need to go through any of the bank funding hassle.

hubballi

yes I do have a debit card for that account. How do I make payment then?

masonic

You just need to select paypal as your payment option then you pay though ebay, then after you have entered your paypal credentials you should be able to add the debit card as a funding option. Make sure it is selected before you press pay.

hubballi

Thats what I did and seems to be taking so long to process. My debit card is the same as the bank account. Isn't it?

masonic

hubballi wrote:

My debit card is the same as the bank account. Isn't it?

No, but ultimately the funds do come from the same place.

You say in your original post that you tried to transfer money from your bank account to your paypal account. That process takes 7-9 days, involves paypal setting up a direct debit to your bank account, and you going through a verification process before you can withdraw funds to your paypal account. This is not the way to pay for something you have already bid on.

The alternative is to pay for something directly using a debit card, which does not involve giving paypal your bank details and should be processed immediately unless there is a problem with your card.

At this point I am more than a little confused about how you are actually trying to pay for this item. Perhaps you could run through exactly what you did.

Are there transactions showing up in your Overview page within paypal? What is listed under the Name and Status fields for these transactions?

Check that your debit card is showing up under the My Account -> Profile -> Credit cards section within paypal. What does it say in the Status section for the card?

hubballi

Under the details of the pending transaction it says:

£945.00 GBP - halifax Current (Unconfirmed) XXXXXXXXXX (account number)

20 Sep. 2006 Add Funds from a Bank Account From Bank Account Uncleared

This has been cut and pasted from Paypal. My debit card is my Halifax current account but it does have Visa on it. Is this what I should pay with? It wasn't made clear during the payment process that I wasn't using my card.

masonic

Well it certainly looks like the payment is a bank funded echeque. It's possible that paypal is set up to offer echeques as the default payment method in your case. Echeques are generally very slow. It's not uncommon for them to take several days longer than they should to clear. However, it sounds like there has been a problem with your bank details in this case, based on what Paypal have told you when you contacted them.

Log in to your paypal account and select the 'Profile' tab. Under the 'Financial Information' heading, you should see 'Credit Cards' and 'Bank Accounts' links. Are your debit card and bank account listed? Are the details correct? What Status is showing against them?

roswell

I had the same issue with barclays but according to them its wasnt that they refused the payment as paypal said ... paypal refunded the payment ..... very confusing this happened 2 weeks ago I just hope that i dont get a similar problem next time i take funds out of paypal.

hubballi

I just had another reply from Paypal's customer services. They are very polite but they never seem to understand what I am asking. They always seem to repeat themselves and then send you an email asking if they did a good job helping you. Can you understand this?

"I apologise for the inconvenience and confusion this may have caused
you. I understand that you would want to enquire about the fund transfer
that you wish to do in your PayPal account. Upon reviewing your account
I see here that before the transfer for £920.00 was completed the direct
debit set up for your bank account was cancelled causing the transfer to
be denied. The echeck payment you have made
which is set to be funded by your bank account ending in xxxx would not
be able to go through since the direct debit set up for your bank
account was cancelled and because of that we will not be authorized to
get funds out of your bank account. Since an echeck payment takes 7-9
business days to clear the results of this transaction will reflect
after 7-9 business days as well."