FUCK PAYPAL

[Dark.Revenant]

So I have $1 in the bank. To rectify this and make it so that I can pick up my last essential computer part from a local store, I grab most of the money from paypal, about $85, and ACH it to my bank. About 8 hours later, I notice a steam sale that I liked and picked it up for $10. My PayPal had only $3 so it automatically did an ACH to my bank for $7.

1 + 85 - 7 should = 79.

Nope.

Instead, they changed the order:

1 - 7 - 23(overdraft) + 85 = 56.

But at least I'm working on the day I'm buying the parts, so I should make up the difference in cash that day, right? No, because then I owe back my dad $10 that I borrowed. Yes, this literally degraded into small change nickel-and-dime differences in cash that screw me.


A few effects of this are that I can't get those parts, so now I'll probably be stuck with a nonfunctioning but otherwise complete computer for a long time. Also, my parents are pretty pissed at me, especially my financial expert (by profession) dad who refuses to talk to me except for quoting "if you spend every dollar you make, you'll always be broke."

Worst part is I'm still just a selfish bastard for using donor money on a computer instead of, say, getting a EU copy of SC2. If you want a refund, though, you're out of luck unless you want me to be bankrupt and on the streets.


PS. Before you donate out of pity, let me remind you that donations go to paypal and won't help this problem; I've got to make physical money to get out of this.

[AdmiralCain]

I hate PayPal for using numerous unfair and deceptive business practices. (And yet I still use it because they kind of have a monopoly in the online payment industry because of how widely PayPal payments are accepted by merchants. It's like the way I used to get cable from Comcast, even though I loathe Comcast and its various scams, because Comcast had a monopoly in the city where I used to live.)

You were hit by the combination of two of PayPal's cheap tricks:

1. Withdrawals from your bank account to PayPal are executed ASAP, whereas PayPal takes 3-4 business days to make deposits to your bank account, just "because they can," so that they can get the use value of the money (e.g. interest), for those 3-4 business days, which in most cases means 5-7 calendar days.

2. When you make a PayPal payment and you don't have sufficient funds in your account, the default payment source is your bank account, not your credit card. This default cannot be changed permanently (because PayPal maximizes its profits by forcing you to withdraw from a bank account rather than using a credit card, so that PayPal doesn't have to give Visa/MC a % of the purchase price). You have to manually change the payment source to a credit card with every transaction you make.

I honestly think that PayPal should be sued in a class action for this and other crap they pull.

But, now that you've learned this lesson about how they operate, you can avoid making the same mistake again. Expect to wait 5-7 days for any money from PayPal to reach your bank account, and don't send any PayPal payments drawn on your bank account unless the money is available in your bank account IMMEDIATELY.

One way of getting money out of PayPal instantly is to apply for the PayPal debit card, which you can use at merchants like any other debit card for free (or I think you can also do an ATM withdrawal, but PayPal hits you with a fee if you do it as an ATM withdrawal). Personally, I do not recommend this method out of principle, because I never recommend consumers to give PayPal even more of their business. But if it works for you as a merchant (in order to get paid faster when you receive PayPal donations), you may consider it. I make no recommendation either way.