Two charges on account

Danien

I just wanted to warn people about an issue with some sites when you pay with PayPal.

For some sites you will checkout from your basket and the delivery charge/vat will not be added yet. Checking out via PayPal then takes you to PayPal where a preauthorisation is done and then you go back to the website to complete the purchase. At this point the delivery charge or vat will be added and then the purchase gets completed.

What this does is add two pending charges to your bank account. The preauthorisastion and the completed charge which are different because it now includes delivery/vat. Normally PayPal match the charges so you only get one pending charge on your bank account, but they are unable to do this if the charges are not the same - for all they know you made two purchases from the same site.

This isn't an issue if you have plenty of funds in your account - the preauthorisation drops off your account within 10 days and you are only left with the charge for what you purchased plus vat and delivery.

But of course if you are on a low income and or have a low account balance, having that preauthorisation stuck on your account means you cannot access the funds for up to 10 days until it drops off your account. Which could leave some people unexpectedly unable to buy essentials.

I've tried to take up this issue with a few sites, explaining that it's better to add delivery/vat on before taking the customer to PayPal, but they really don't care.

So just a warning. If you have a low balance on your bank account and use PayPal, before you go through to PayPal for authorisation, check everything is included in your checkout basket first including vat and delivery, and if it is not, use another payment method.

I know it can be quicker checking out as a guest to use PayPal as it fills in all your details for you, it's certainlywhy I sometimes . But you could find your account balance much lower than expected.

TadleyBaggie

I use PayPal a lot and have never seen this happen.

Jaybee_16

I've never seen two charges for one transaction in my bank account.

PHK

I think OP has missed out a bit. I think this could only happen if you checked out as a guest using PayPal. You log into PayPal and this transfers your name, address etc across to the site. If the site has different delivery rates then they calculate the delivery at that point. 

soolin

I routinely use PayPal on websites , ordered some GF bread a couple of weeks ago, had to confirm my PayPal details at the box cost, then was directed back to site where postage was added and then I completed the purchase. Only the final total was taken from my account (I had no funds in PayPal so it came straight off the back up card).

As above, it might be different if you check out as a guest . 

Danien

OK, maybe I didn't explain properly.

In two cases this last couple of weeks checking out as a guest on two different sites. When checking out was taken to PayPal, a pre authorisation was done for the basket contents, then you get taken back to the website where delivery is added on then you complete the order.

What this caused on the 'pending' transactions list in my bank account was two pending charges which are 'ring fenced' (so you cannot access those funds in your account) until the transaction completes, usually within 10 working days.

So one charge £22.00 (basket contents)
One charge £26.00 (basket contents plus delivery)

Within 10 days the £26.00 transaction will complete and end up on the final bank statement, and the £22.00 preauthorisation will eventually just disappear. 

So in the end you don't get charged twice.

BUT

For up to 10 days you don't have access to the ring fenced pre authorisation of £22.00.

It wasn't a big deal for me, and normally I wouldn't have noticed it, but happened to be looking at my account and saw two charges pending for only one purchase.

But I have had situations where not having access to the ring fenced money for up to 10 days would have meant not being able to buy food or petrol and caused me serious issues.

So I wanted to put a warning up for people with limited funds to not use PayPal where delivery hasn't been added to basket prior to going through to PayPal.

Take the warning, don't take the warning, I was just trying to be helpful to those with not a lot of funds in account.

soolin

Then it must be something to do with the guest checkout as my bread only ever showed the one pending transaction which was the amount including postage. Obviously I can’t now replicate it as the pending dropped off and converted to a debit quite quickly. Next time I order I’ll check again.