November 9th, 2008
by
Brett Bumeter
In case you have ever attempted to make a credit card payment (ergo a payment to your credit card) directly from say your PayPal account where you receive 1% cash back, its not technically possible.
Credit card companies typically only accept payments on the phone or online directly from your bank account. So this means you can not use your PayPal account to get a 1% discount on the payment of your credit card bill.
There are several reasons for this that include but are not limited to the following:
- Making a payment to a credit card account essentially with a credit card number or the full 16 digit debit card number, could enable money laundering (transferring funds back and forth between accounts very fast to hide something)
- Enabling this would make it possible for some kind of loop to be setup whereby you could borrow money from your credit card at 0% interest and then pay it back with your paypal account taking a 1% discount on the total(less the credit card transaction fees). PayPal likes to work with the credit card companies not against them.
- Credit card companies may want your payment, but they do not necessarily want your pay ‘offs’ to be easy. Paying with another debit or credit card number such as paypal might make it too easy for you to make rapid micro payments, decrease your balance faster, increase the number of transactions they have to process and decrease the amount of the finance and interest charges they might accrue.
If you need to get funds from your PayPal account to your credit card fast, your best bet is going to be to withdraw the funds (3-4 days for free) or pay for electronic transfer, and then once the funds have cleared and are in your bank, you can transfer them in a payment to your credit card using a check over the phone or possibly through your normal bill pay service.
If the amount is small and you need the paypal withdrawal fast, then go to an ATM, use your debit card to withdraw cash, and then redeposit that cash into your bank account.
possibly redepositing the cash into the same ATM using your back account ATM card.
All in all this micro finance stuff is not necessarily designed to be easy, on purpose. So be prepared to work within the system and not skate outside of it. It may not be as easy to work with as installing door hardware, but it can work to your advantage if you know what is allowed and what is not allowed.
October 3rd, 2008
by
Brett Bumeter
So even though PayPal notified me that they would fix the transaction, that apparently was not correct.
So I was then told to log in and submit a dispute on the charge. Unfortunately, a duplicate charge is not a category option within the PayPal system. This resulted in the new operator asking for feedback and putting me on hold at least 3 times. He kept telling me to select options that were not on the form.
I distinctly got the impression that he wanted to hang up on me and force me to go through the form by myself, but the form was obviously not the right form for this problem so I had to stick with this joker to get my account fixed and money back.
Now before I began working on the internet, I used to be an accountant and worked extensively with commercial collection agencies such as The CIT group and others. I do understand that these call centers don’t like to keep people on the phone as this essentially costs them money. As I write this, I’ve been on the phone for 32 minutes, which is probably completely screwing up the call centers response metrics.
Not my problem, but it shouldn’t result in agents trying to dump me off the phone before they have actually helped me with a problem.
October 3rd, 2008
by
Brett Bumeter
This week I experienced a first with PayPal. I was double charged for a debit card transaction. I charged X Amount of money on my Debit Card.
The firm that I paid received X Amount.
PayPal then reduced my account by X Amount once.
Then PayPal reduced my account by X Amount a second time.
This was not a transaction where they initiate the charge just to confirm my balance. This was a completed transaction.
This happened at the end of September. About 5 days after the transaction I received the following email:
Due to a processing error, you were debited twice for a PayPal Debit Card transaction(s) you initiated on September xx, 2008. We apologize for any inconvenience our error may have caused.
We are in the process of correcting this matter and will refund the duplicate payment(s) directly back to your PayPal account balance.
If you have incurred any banking fees as a result of this issue, please contact us within 10 business days to request a refund. We may request copies of statements or receipts showing the amount of banking fees or charges that you incurred.
Please know that this is not intended functionality and future PayPal Debit Card transactions should function as normal.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at (888) 221-1161.
Three days after receiving this email, I still had not received a credit to my account. I phoned in to PayPal to find out where my money was. The merchant did not have it, I did not have it, and PayPal had not apparently done anything yet.
The phone menu system of PayPal was extremely troubling, I finally was put in touch with an ‘Agent’ who promptly became confused by completely unrelated transactions with different amounts on my account. 
They gave up and transferred me to someone in the debit card section of PayPal, where I am on hold now.
Bottom line lesson here is always follow up with your PayPal account.
Currently, I’m out a bunch of money waiting for PayPal to get their own accounts fixed, which they knew were out of whack. Fortunately, I did not immediately need this money for bills or fitness equipment or food or something.
