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Saturday, May 9, 2009

PayPal Policy Change PSA

I've used PayPal only about a dozen times in my life and that's part of the reason I haven't eBayed much for about 6 months. However, I know a ton of you out there eBay and PayPal regularly so this might be of interest. I was surfing Reddit this morning and came across this post. A redditor recently received this in his e-mail inbox. Here's the transcript if you don't feel like clicking on the image:

We've updated your PayPal account.
Now you can pay without tapping in to your PayPal balance.

Hello xxxx

We're always looking for ways to improve and perfect PayPal to make sure you have the best possible experince. So from June 8, 2009 'til June 8, 2010, We're giving some of our members - including you! - some new payment options, and we'd love to hear what you think.

Up til now, if you had a balance in your PayPal account, that balance was automatically applied towards any purchases you made.

But from June 8, 2009 through June 8, 2010, your default payment source will be automatically set yo your bank account instead of your balance*. So, even if you have money in your PayPal accoun, when you make a purchase, wou can leave your PayPal balance for future use.

Don't want to pay with your bank account? No problem. Just click "Change" under "Payment method" when you're reviewing your purchase during checkout.

We'll check in with you after you after you've had a chance to try out your new options - any feedback you give us would be greatly appreciated. You could help shape the future of PayPal!

If you have any questions ar all, please visit our Help Center.

Thanks,
PayPal
Again, I use PayPal very rarely so I'm not real familiar with the process, but setting the default payment as a bank account seems dangerous to me. I checked the PayPal Help center for what is used as the default source and only found this, which lists the PayPal balance as the default for all payments. However, since this appears to be a Beta test only offered to certain users it is likely that that policy would not be changed on the help page. To be honest, I don't even know if this is an official policy or if itis a phish or a hoax of some type since I haven't gotten an e-mail like that myself.

But, since a lot of collectors use PayPal regularly to buy cards off of eBay or pay for boxes and cases, I did want to put this out there just as a warning to be careful when paying in the future. It wouldn't be good for someone to pay for a case with PayPal thinking they had a grand in the PayPal balance only to have the money taken out of your bank account causing mortages and car payments to go bouncy bouncy. Just be careful out there and don't just autopilot though the checkout when using Paypal. Double check to make sure where that money is coming from especially if it's a large purchase.

If anyone out there can confirm or deny this, or if they have received this e-mail themselves, I'd be interested in hearing about it just to make sure that this story is legit.

6 comments:

Nachos Grande said...

I didn't receive any email like that (though I've only used PayPal once in the last month or so). I don't like the policy though - why would I want to leave money in my PayPal account and pay directly out of my bank account ever?!

If someone isn't careful, it seems like an easy way to accumulate a huge PayPal balance while consistently paying out your personal account.

I guess they hope people then take the balance, say "what the heck", and blow it on eBay...

BASEBALL DAD said...

I have used PayPal a lot in the past. I have also received many phony emails claiming to be from PayPal. I clicked on the actual link ,which is sketchy, but it looks like it could be bogus.I've never seen them use little icon faces before.Just a possibility.

dayf said...

The little icon face was photoshopped in by the guy who posted the link. He didn't want to reveal his name online and covered it up with the smiley face.

Duane said...

I use my credit card through paypal and for the last couple of weeks, when I do checkout, it wants me to add my bank info to make it the default. I just hit skip. I use the CC, b/c I get credits towards free trades with ETRADE. So yes it is legit that paypal is wanting to make your bank account the default payment method, but you have to give them your bank info first. Which I won't. I have no payal balance, I guess I need to sell something, but then what would I have to trade.

deal said...

my story is the same as Duane's. I have no interest in linking my bank acct. they have teaser offering a discount if you accept the offer. I can't see it being worth it.

James said...

I can't stand PayPal. They froze my account last year because they wanted me to prove that the tickets I was selling were legit. I have close to 1K transactions with them, all positive and they treated me like this was my first sale/purchase. They are a complete waste. It's no wonder they and eBay are losing people.