PP Automatically Links to Your Bank?

[JewelFreak]

This morning when I ordered sweaters online & opened PayPal, I found it linked to pay from my bank account instead of my credit card. Quite a shock because I never gave them my bank number. When I signed up for PP I remember thinking it over & deciding not to. I NEVER give out bank acct. info to vendors. Oh, I did have a reimbursement from a returned gem go from them into my savings acct. a while ago. But never gave them permission to take payments from it.

I'm fairly steamed about this. Is it PP's usual practice? I couldn't find a way to un-link it. Has this happened to anybody else?

--- Laurie

 

[luv2sparkle]

I know mine is linked to my credit card. I am like you, I would never link or give out my account info.

 

[Enerchi]

once I verified my account, PP links first to my bank account and has a second option of my credit card. I just click on which ever one I want the money to come from, so I always double check prior to hitting send/pay/confirm.

I thought that was part of the verification process for PayPal - to link direct to your account? Hmmm...

 

[ame]

If you gave it permission to accept one, its going to automatically try to make all payments from the account. Each time you try to pay with it, you have to go in and change the payment method.

 

[justginger]

once I verified my account, PP links first to my bank account and has a second option of my credit card. I just click on which ever one I want the money to come from, so I always double check prior to hitting send/pay/confirm.

I thought that was part of the verification process for PayPal - to link direct to your account? Hmmm...

Yep. Your bank account details must be provided to get a PayPal account (or that's how I remember it working). They make a couple of penny-strong donations into your account, you verify what the amounts were, and your account is established.

I always manually change my payment to be from my credit card for every purchase. Hopefully that will pay off with my latest PayPal/eBay debacle and MasterCard reverses my transaction.

 

[bunnycat]

once I verified my account, PP links first to my bank account and has a second option of my credit card. I just click on which ever one I want the money to come from, so I always double check prior to hitting send/pay/confirm.

I thought that was part of the verification process for PayPal - to link direct to your account? Hmmm...

As far as I know, entering your bank account info is part of their verification process as Enerchi and JG said. I've been doing PP for about 12 years.

You can change payment methods when you make a purchase but I think default PP's preference goes something like PP balance>Bank account>CC on file. I'm not sure how Bill Me Later fits in this scheme. So if there's not enough in your PP, it goes down the line to fund the balance.

 

[VRBeauty]

If you gave it permission to accept one, its going to automatically try to make all payments from the account. Each time you try to pay with it, you have to go in and change the payment method.

Ditto. I think they do this (link to your credit card) automatically after a certain amount of use. It makes sense from their perspective - there's a fee involved with credit card use and not with your checking account. It doesn't make sense from my perspective though so I always to in and choose the credit card option instead. I think you have to choose the "other payment" option and you have to set it up the first time you use it, but after that you just make that choice and click a button with each purchase.

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

Yes, I did know that. That is considered a verifiable account. I think I did it with ebay, perhaps you did it then and don't remember.
You have to manually change payment method to credit card each time you buy something. My son bought something with my account and he didn't know either and scewed up my account. Now he knows, now you now. You probably gave it to them and don't recall when


Sorry.

Annette

 

[JewelFreak]

Thanks, folks. No, I did not give them my account number when I signed up, only my credit card no. I wouldn't have signed up otherwise; nobody gets permission to pull shekels from my bank except me & DH.

When I returned a stone to Brad Payne recently, I did have PP transfer the refund into my savings acct., which must be where they got that number. I did not tell them to link it & am ticked that they did it without clearance from me. Should've had them put it on my cc. Rats. I'll have to change it manually from now on, but I just hate their having the ability to go into my bank acct. On general principles.

Thanks for the info!

--- Laurie

 

[pinkjewel]

I know about a year ago that when I hit a certain amount (can't remember what it was) of dollar transactions, they required me to link a bank account. Since I don't ever link my bank account for anything- I went to a different bank and opened a separate account with the minimum balance for no fees and linked that account to Paypal. That way if the account gets compromised- there is not much money available. I still hit the "other payment option" and use my credit card for purchases, but I feel much better not giving them any of my main bank accounts.

 

[JewelFreak]

Smart, PJ!

 

[VapidLapid]

I am with the others who remember having to link to an account to become verified. as I recall they deposited a few cents into my account and I had to come back and tell them how much it was to prove that I was the owner of the account.
On what I hope is a different tack, I had a call from my bank a few weeks ago saying they needed to verify some suspicious
activity in my account, and yes there was a lot of activity that was not me! Thanks to the bank for catching it as I wouldn't have noticed for a few weeks, assuming they had left me enough to get by on, which they hadn't!!! As it is I am not responsible for any of the charges, my card and everything was changed, but I still dont know how it happened. The card has never left my possession. I am guessing that is was saved on a vendor's server without my knowing and the vendor later was hacked. Likely it is that I will never know.
Call me an old fool (most of you do already) but I still prefer to pay cash for most things.

 

[JewelFreak]

Glad they caught that, VL. It's unnerving, though, to know it happens. Banks seem to be more on top of card or account activity than they used to -- DH has had several calls about charges to his cards. They were all legit; he put them on there, but it's kind of nice to know they're paying attention.

--- Laurie

 

[smitcompton]

HI,

I read that one of the biggest culprits of credit card theft is restaurants. So now I pay cash for pizza, chinese, and anything else we use for eating except the supermarket. Yes banks are better. I found I did a stupid thing and the C.C.bank caught at almost the same time I realized i had been duped.

I'm embarrassed to admit this , but while browsing Diamond Bistro, I noticed an ad for Louis Vuitton handbags. I read it and it said LV was opening an on-line discount store and was selling bags at a reduced prices. Thinking I could snag one, I emailed my niece and gave her permission to chose one as well, as well as a sister-in law. I thought how wonderful. I was so worried these would sell out, I quickly ordered one for myself, waiting for the others to tell me what they wanted. I then went to check prices on a usual LV bag. I was shocked! It was then I realized this deal was too good to be true. Panic set in and just then the CC bank called to ask me about the purchase. The payment was going to China. They stopped it immediately, and I had a close call. My fault. I had to quickly e-mail people that my generousity had to be withdrawn as the whole website is a fraud.

The chinese still email me-thinking once a sucker, maybe always a sucker. Of course I had to get a new card. The ad was good and on Diamond bistro.

Be careful out there people.

Annette

 

[pinkjewel]

Yes- credit card theft seems to be rampant. Just yesterday morning I got a call about some charges on one of our credit cards- all of them not done by us! The person that stole it even used it to open an account on Paypal Even before the bank contacted us- they had already put a block on the card due to suspicious activity. So, yes, I think the banks have gotten very diligent about looking for odd expenditures.

 

[rubyshoes]

My husband is a banker and he is very uncomfortable with paypal. When I told him I wanted to get my paypal account verified and that they needed my bank account to do so, he refused to let me use our main bank account for this purpose. I actually had to go open another bank account and I keep a minimum balance in it so I could link it to paypal. I haven't really asked him why he mistrusts paypal so much but he said something about safety, internet security, fraud etc and given his experience in banking that was good enough for me...

 

[ame]

My husband is a banker and he is very uncomfortable with paypal. When I told him I wanted to get my paypal account verified and that they needed my bank account to do so, he refused to let me use our main bank account for this purpose. I actually had to go open another bank account and I keep a minimum balance in it so I could link it to paypal. I haven't really asked him why he mistrusts paypal so much but he said something about safety, internet security, fraud etc and given his experience in banking that was good enough for me...

They have a lot of issues with their handling of money. Not giving refunds to the rightful owner, accidently withdrawing money from the wrong account to pay someone, accidently depositing money into the wrong account...It's not a site I trust with our main account either.