PayPal!

unphased

Is anyone else getting sick of this bank? I recently had to cancel a debit card and it was my primary card on PayPal. So accordingly I went on the PayPal site to register a new debit card and had to go through the process of getting it authorised. In so doing they took a pound from my current account, which they tell you is refunded, and asked for the 4 digit code that accompanied the transaction. Cheeky wotsits keep the pound in your PayPal account they don't refund it back to your bank! Why do they do this? Imagine all the millions of one pounds lodged in their coffers just for the privilege of registering a debit card. PayPal are given too much credibility in my view and quite how they have risen to such dizzy heights is beyond my comprehension. I very rarely use them but eBay is virtually impossible to purchase from without it. Is this a monopoly?

colsten

Not sure why you are up in arms over the £1 - if you aren't using Paypal, why do you register a card? And if you are using it, you surely will manage to spend the pound?

BTW, Paypal isn't a bank, it's just a payment service. It is not a monopoly as other payment services exist, and eBay sellers are allowed to offer other payment methods besides Paypal. Similar applies to eBay - they aren't the only place people can buy and sell stuff on. You don't have to use them if you don't like them.

nidO

They aren't keeping this pound, by my count it takes all of 3 mouse clicks from within your PayPal account (which you logged into anyway to enter the auth code for the card you're adding) to withdraw the pound back to your bank account.

Also:

unphased wrote: »

which they tell you is refunded, and asked for the 4 digit code that accompanied the transaction. Cheeky wotsits keep the pound in your PayPal account they don't refund it back to your bank!

Keeping it in your PayPal account is exactly what they tell you they'll do. From their walkthrough on verifying a card:

When you click ‘OK’, we'll charge your card £1. This will 'link' your card. We'll refund the money into your PayPal account within 24 hours of you confirming your card.

unphased

Thank you for your replies.

zerog

colsten wrote: »

Paypal isn't a bank

Within the EU, Paypal is a bank.

colsten

zerog wrote: »

Within the EU, Paypal is a bank.

Someone needs to tell Paypal then as they don't call themselves a bank https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/about

hoc

Not very unphased!

izzyeck

PayPal calls itself a payment processor! Which in itself is interesting as they are unable to delete payments. I recently bought a Fridge /freezer online and went to pay on PayPal. Everything appeared to work until the final acceptance by the seller, who had a connectivity issue. I phoned the seller and they confirmed the order had not been completed and I should resubmit. This time I decided to pay by credit card (remembering that PayPal was not as secure for larger amounts).

All was well, until, co-incidentally I received an account update from PayPal showing a "pending" transaction for the fridge freezer. I phoned PayPal to explain they could delete this pending transaction but they could not do it, it would have to be done by the seller and I would have to contact them to ask for it to be cancelled.

Eventually they reluctantly agreed to contact the seller. Now the seller was a reputable company and cancelled but had they not been they could have processed the pending transaction and PayPal would have left me to claim it from the seller. So not as secure as you would imagine and neither the ethics of a bank or the ability of a payment processor?

nidO

I'm not sure why you would expect PayPal to be able to "delete" that pending payment.
When you make a payment through PayPal you're authorising that money to be taken from you, sometimes the money will actually be taken immediately and sometimes it's down to the recipient to then approve the payment at which point your money is actually taken.

Obviously, there would be no point in even having the authorisation process if once you've authorised them to take the money you could then revoke it.

This is exactly how all credit/debit cards also work incidentally, although the process is generally a lot more invisible - When you make a payment with a card the money will either be:
1) Taken immediately
or
2) Authorised and held ready to be taken, but not actually taken until the recipient manually approves the transaction

In case 2 it's down to the recipient to reject the payment if it should be cancelled, you can't as being able to do so would defeat the whole purpose of the authorisation.

Your issue in this case evidently lies with the seller who told you your payment through PayPal had not been made when evidently it had.

unphased

nidO wrote: »

I'm not sure why you would expect PayPal to be able to "delete" that pending payment.
When you make a payment through PayPal you're authorising that money to be taken from you, sometimes the money will actually be taken immediately and sometimes it's down to the recipient to then approve the payment at which point your money is actually taken.

Because if you change your mind then why should PayPal NOT help you and delete the payment. This is one of the reasons I can't understand why they are so popular. It is all about TRUST. Clearly people can't understand why something can't be done because they presumably agree with the underhand tactics they play. Online payment is no different, or should be no different, to paying cash. If you pay for something you don't want then you get your money back. You shouldn't need to prove you bought it to the seller you should be able to deal with the payment processor. This is why I posted. If a payment processor needs to take money from you, albeit a pound, then why should you have to get it back yourself? If they can take it then they can also give it back. Having money reside in their coffers is NOT refunding the money it is withholding it. £1.00 or £1,000 it should make no difference. The fact that it IS only a pound seems to sway your opinion. I wonder if it was £10 or £100 you would have the same opinion!

colsten

unphased wrote: »

Because if you change your mind then why should PayPal NOT help you and delete the payment. This is one of the reasons I can't understand why they are so popular. It is all about TRUST.

Too right, it is all about trust. If you were a seller, would you send any goods to a person who just paid by Paypal but who could just ring up Paypal to say they changed their mind and want to cancel their payment? No, as you couldn't trust Paypal to pay you? So there's your answer.

If you change your mind about buying something, you have to take it up with the seller. In just the same way as if you bought something in John Lewis and then changed your mind. You would go back to John Lewis, return your goods and get a refund. You wouldn't go to the bank and say you changed your mind. Well, you rpobably would - - the bank would then just tell you to go to the Retailer. Just the same as Paypal would.