can paypal take money from a/c without permission?

spinning_hamster_wheel

Hello,

I was browsing through paypalsucks and I found a thread where someone said that if your paypal a/c is in the negative, ie if someone does a chargeback, then they themselves (paypal) can take money from your bank a/c or credit card (whatever you happen to have on your paypal account) without your permission to make up the difference.

Is this correct?

lush_bucket

Yes it is, I had an issue with a buyer where they bought an xbox from me for £80 they paid straight away by paypal, a few weeks later i started getting emails galore saying it was faulty and they wanted an offer of a refund.... (it wasnt faulty) I refused at first and then said that if they wanted to return the item to me I would then refund. She didnt want to return it and then did a chargeback through paypal saying the item wasnt as described. Obviously I could only prove id shipped it. I had already spent some of the money and d/loaded the rest so my paypal balance was zero. paypal froze my account, then took £80 from my card to "hold" while the dispute was resolved. Nightmare! They also took £24.85 without my approval to pay seller fees on ebay yesterday. I have a tonne of auctions ending tomorrow and had intended to use the money from them to pay but paypal beat me to it. pain in the neck! i will now have to wait till all the buyers have paid and download the money to replace what they took.. 5-7 days to reach my account. Joy!

smartie-rolo

:mad: eeeek.....thats awful......l use paypal all the time.....makes you think..eh?

lush_bucket

smartie-rolo wrote:

:mad: eeeek.....thats awful......l use paypal all the time.....makes you think..eh?

Sure does. I hate paypal, I think the fees you pay for receiving a payment are totally excessive, but its the fastest way to get payment. I only really find it good if i want to buy something from ebay using money from things ive sold.

Esoog

Hmm. Would removing your card details from paypal each time you've completed a transaction "beat" this? Surely if you've taken the info away they would be breaking some form of law if they still took it

angelcake

This is a starange one, as you say they take then money without your permission, yet I had a chargeback done and my paypal account is on -£22 and I need to put money into my account to make it balance!!!

Baby_J_2

Angelcake is right.

alba37

angelcake wrote:

This is a starange one, as you say they take then money without your permission, yet I had a chargeback done and my paypal account is on -£22 and I need to put money into my account to make it balance!!!

That was my belief too. I didn't realise they went ahead and take money when there is no balance.

Still, safer than Nochex though so there is little choice unfortunately.

soolin

They can't take money without permission that's why we always suggest that buyers back paypal payments by credit card so if money cannot be recovered they can fall back onto their credit card.

Like Angel says they can put a sellers account into a negative balance but what they do then is chase seller for the payment or mor commonly send in the debt collectors. They have actually been warned about their heavy handed tactics with certain debt collectors they use.

Don't believe everything you read on the anti paypal sites, quite often people have misunderstood what is actually happening. It is possible for someone to transfer moneyto their bank account and for it to be recalled before it gets credited. That isn't the same as pulling funds from a bank account.

nightswimmer

soolin wrote:

Don't believe everything you read on the anti paypal sites, quite often people have misunderstood what is actually happening.

The other problem with these sites is that they tend to be US'centric. People should be aware that they have different banking/credit card regulations in the US and different PayPal t&c's, so just because these sites say something is possible, doesn't always mean it's possible here.

soolin

A good point nightswimmer, paypal is of course a lot bigger and more widely used in the US than here in the UK and I forgot the fact that US rules differ to those in the UK.

I gave up even bothering with the anti paypal sites after reading several pages of 'I've been cheated' bcause paypal (deep intake of breath) actually refunded the buyer when an item failed to arrive. The fact that people completely fail to understand that sellers must protect themselves against loss by Royal mail is hardly paypal's fault and the fact that no one seems to read paypal terms and conditions concerns me more than a bit.