Adding a bank account to PayPal

Lightning360

I have just added a bank account to PayPal and now it wants me to set up a Direct Debit. Why do I have to do this? Will this mean they will take money out of my account?

colsten

If you want to pull money from your current account into Paypal (e.g. to make a payment), this is done via DD. It takes a few days to set up a DD authorisation, so Paypal do this now, rather than when you might need it in a hurry at a later stage.

No money gets taken by Paypal without your consent.

born_again

You either pay Pay Pal via Credit/Debit card or link your bank account. Which means they take payment via DD.
DD's take a few days before funds are taken, so you have to remember that.

clivep

In order to get my PayPal balance paid out to my bank, I needed to add the bank details and proceeded to set up the direct debit as requested. I then found out that the DD became the method of payment for PayPal purchases which I did not want (as I get cashback by using my credit card).

If you ignore the setting up of the direct debit, then your preferred method of payment is not altered and you can still transfer any PayPal balance to your bank.

born_again

clivep said:

In order to get my PayPal balance paid out to my bank, I needed to add the bank details and proceeded to set up the direct debit as requested. I then found out that the DD became the method of payment for PayPal purchases which I did not want (as I get cashback by using my credit card).

If you ignore the setting up of the direct debit, then your preferred method of payment is not altered and you can still transfer any PayPal balance to your bank.

It always asks what method you want to use on purchases. So just select you CC.

WillPS

You can select a default payment method in 'Wallet' section of the PayPal app/website.

They have an annoying habit of 'helpfully' applying any credit you have though, so do check on each transaction before clicking pay now.