Negative Balance, $40 return item charge, and $5 non-sufficent funds fee from where?

[AlphaEtOmega]

I usually make online purchases using paypal directly withdrawing money from my bank account for the past 4+ years now, however it seems there wasn't enough funds deposited into my bank account this time around (not knowing).

So when using paypal to make the payment (not knowing my balance), I got an error, rejecting it giving me a try a different browser clearing cookies generic message.
So I would try again. Repeat this 3 times, still the same result.
Frustrated I would go to the bank and check out what's wrong.

So I go to the bank they print out my bank statement.
I am in the negative $182.
For some reason paypal is charging me the item cost of $80, plus $40 of an returned item charge, plus an additional $5 for non-sufficient funds fee (bank I think). This happened 3 times or more as I mentioned.
So I deposit some cheques at a teller, which should be instant as its in my bank account this time around.
Sign a deposit record and leave.

Go home, make a payment again for the same item, but STILL same error.
Go on paypal website directly this time, now im in the negative $280.

Im technically paying for the item, paying for a return item charge and an additional non-sufficient funds fee but am not actually getting the product.

I don't know if this is a bank thing, paypal thing, or the website, but im very confused and frustrated at the moment.
And going back to the same bank branch just at a different location encase the teller made a mistake.

If anyone can help please let me know.

Im feeling sick from all of this.

Why am I being charged $40 for 'returned item charge'  and who is charging it? Paypal, the website I ordered from or my bank?

Same with the non-sufficent funds fee.

Why if you have a negative balance, when making a payment that paypal not tell you but rather give you an error has occurred try again later, switch to another browser, clear cookies message instead.

Why does paypal(?) charge you multiple times and not send you a message through e-mail indicating this?

What if your account was hacked (not that it was but using it as an example) and used your paypal multiple times to purchase something wouldn't that negative charge just keep piling up?

If necessary I can provide and upload my bank statement of earlier today Mar 28th, that the teller printed off for me.

A reciept of my deposit of money into my bank account.

As well take a screen shot of my paypal account of the negative balance, after the deposit.

[sandypurins]

@AlphaEtOmega

If the "Add money" transaction had been initiated, you would see that transaction on your PayPal Activity and PayPal Summary pages.

It looks like PayPal may have disabled your ability to use your bank account for PayPal transactions. Log in to your PayPal account and click on "Wallet" at the top of the page to see the status of your linked bank account.

If you can't use your bank account to add funds to your PayPal account, you will need to select one of the other options.

I'm curious, what was your bank's explanation for each of the fees ($40.00 and $5.00) they charged you?

-Sandy

[AlphaEtOmega · Accepted solution]

@sandypurins

Thank you for all your help.

I think every is finally resolved, and will be okay once the 6-8 day funds from my bank account transfers to pay off the negative balance on paypal.

As well I was able to complete the transaction later today using Chrome instead of Firefox, which prevented(?) the error from showing up.

As for your question:

$40 fee's was a 'returned item charge' coming from my bank itself for not having money in my account and was charged for every failed transaction. This occurred 5-6 times on my account adding to $200-$240 by mistake!I was however refunded $100 of it, after multiple trips to the bank, an e-mail then 2 phone calls one for in regards to the $40 fee and why it was happening, and another to explain the situation again to them as they had more authority to determine if it was worth/they could provide some refunding,

$5 fee was for non-sufficient funds fee (to be honest I am not sure why it is charged as there was the $40 one) however on my bank statement all of it was refunded the next 2 days after the initial transaction, along with the charged item, (from when you showed me how to view my activity on paypal with balances rather then the default shown completed transactions on payal.) so there was in fact no stacking/compunding $5 or item charge, just the stacking $40 failed transaction charge.

I would like to label one of your answers as a solution to all my problems as they were solved with your help.

But if anyone has this problem in the future I would suggest these steps.

This is assuming:

- Your paypal account is set to automatically withdraw money from your bank's chequings account

- You have a negative balance on paypal

- The negative balance is stacking up with each failed transaction shown on paypal

1) STOP dont panic, everything will be okay. Also STOP with any transactions even the one you are trying to complete.

2) Go to the bank, put money into your account.

- The negative balance is occurring because your balance is below 0

- Deposit cash, as some cheques has 'holds' on them to clear,

- Ask them to print off your bank account statement from when you think it started to happen.

3) Talk to your bank via phone, e-mail or directly with an 'accounts manager' and explain the situation how it was a mistake and if it would be possible to get a refund. They will probably redirect you or phone back at a later time and connect you with someone with the authority to determine if it is possible for a refund.

4) Now that you have money in your bank, you can use paypal again! use the 'add money' button and proceed to pay with payment of your choice.

5) You are no longer in negative balance.

Precautions in the future:

- Always have money in your bank account or paypal account through 'Add Money'

- If there is an error, STOP WHAT YOUR DOING, contact the bank through visiting phone or email, or try ONCE only on a different browser use Chrome. Continuing will STACK extra charges.

- The charges are coming from the bank, not paypal or the site you are purchasing off of.

- Have a recent bank statement printed off and check where you make a payment and get a refund as they could cancel out each other.

- Use classic mode of paypal and go to "All activity (with balance)" option, to see what is happening in addition to your bank account statement.

TL;DR

Negative Balance = Add money to your bank.

$40 returned item charge = failed transaction cost is coming from bank, stop making transactions, explain your mistake to the bank, get partial refund.

$5 non-suffient funds charge = non-exisistant as they are instantly refunded after 2 days from the inital transaction, and will just show on your bank account statement.

[AlphaEtOmega]

As to not confuse the with the solution above there are some underlying issues still.

- Paypal should notify you through e-mail when your balance is below 0 you sooner

For a real example: 

Transaction Date: March 16, 2016, however I recieved this message through e-mail from paypal on March 23, 2016.

Thats an entire week! Yet they are able to send a message on completed transactions within seconds of paying.

- Paypal needs to be more clear when error transaction paypal screen occurs: Suggesting to try again later, switch browsers or clear your cookies cashe is not really ideal when the realy problem should be to `contact your bank`` or ``your linked bank account to paypal has no funds!,`` or just to even list it as a possible solution would be helpful.

Anyways had to then wait till near the beginning on the week March 28th-30th to resolve it, as the weekend/Friday were Holidays of Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Monday, and when I end work, the banks are also closed on the weekdays.

- The bank has should of phoned, or e-mailed me as I have online banking, so they could of notified me, but they didn`t!

Until I contacted them through e-mail, phone and in-person.

- The bank could of taken actions to see where the source of withdrawals were coming from (paypal in this case), and see (not sure if they actually can) what e-mail account is linked to it. And contact or block that individual until the owner of the account goes in person, phones or e-mails to see what happened.

- The $5 non-sufficent funds charge coming from my bank were automatically refunded, as it wasn't able to be processed.I am not too sure why it was refunded, or why there is this charge and and a $40 returned item charge, as they should been 1 combined charge together, as having two seperate ones for the same case seems redundent, unless im missing something here.

I think overall it was the fault of my own lack of awareness of my balance on my end, and lack of information of the said errors occurring from the bank and paypal, in general and when informing the individual. But overall am glad that it was resolved.

Or will know when the 6-8 day transfer of funds from bank account to paypal finishes.

[sandypurins]

@AlphaEtOmega

PayPal is not able to immediately notify you about a "not sufficient funds" issue with your bank account funded payment because PayPal doesn't know that your bank account balance will not cover the payment amount until your bank notifies PayPal that the payment has failed. This process generally takes 3-5 business days for US PayPal accounts... longer for most non-US PayPal accounts.

You should have received an email message from PayPal about each NSF payment right after PayPal was notified by your bank.

Regarding instant payments... when you select Instant Transfer as a funding method, PayPal sends the funds up front to your seller while they wait for the arrival of the funds from your bank account. The payment will be instantly marked as completed even though PayPal doesn't know whether you have sufficient funds for it to clear.

Go here - http://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Tips-from-Moderators/FAQ-Using-your-bank-with-PayPal/m-p/420727 - to read a really good FAQ page written by PayPal Olivia.

-Sandy

[spanky69]

---

@AlphaEtOmega wrote:

@sandypurins

Thank you for all your help.

I think every is finally resolved, and will be okay once the 6-8 day funds from my bank account transfers to pay off the negative balance on paypal.

As well I was able to complete the transaction later today using Chrome instead of Firefox, which prevented(?) the error from showing up.

As for your question:

$40 fee's was a 'returned item charge' coming from my bank itself for not having money in my account and was charged for every failed transaction. This occurred 5-6 times on my account adding to $200-$240 by mistake!I was however refunded $100 of it, after multiple trips to the bank, an e-mail then 2 phone calls one for in regards to the $40 fee and why it was happening, and another to explain the situation again to them as they had more authority to determine if it was worth/they could provide some refunding,

$5 fee was for non-sufficient funds fee (to be honest I am not sure why it is charged as there was the $40 one) however on my bank statement all of it was refunded the next 2 days after the initial transaction, along with the charged item, (from when you showed me how to view my activity on paypal with balances rather then the default shown completed transactions on payal.) so there was in fact no stacking/compunding $5 or item charge, just the stacking $40 failed transaction charge.

I would like to label one of your answers as a solution to all my problems as they were solved with your help.

But if anyone has this problem in the future I would suggest these steps.

This is assuming:

- Your paypal account is set to automatically withdraw money from your bank's chequings account

- You have a negative balance on paypal

- The negative balance is stacking up with each failed transaction shown on paypal

1) STOP dont panic, everything will be okay. Also STOP with any transactions even the one you are trying to complete.

2) Go to the bank, put money into your account.

- The negative balance is occurring because your balance is below 0

- Deposit cash, as some cheques has 'holds' on them to clear,

- Ask them to print off your bank account statement from when you think it started to happen.

3) Talk to your bank via phone, e-mail or directly with an 'accounts manager' and explain the situation how it was a mistake and if it would be possible to get a refund. They will probably redirect you or phone back at a later time and connect you with someone with the authority to determine if it is possible for a refund.

4) Now that you have money in your bank, you can use paypal again! use the 'add money' button and proceed to pay with payment of your choice.

5) You are no longer in negative balance.

Precautions in the future:

- Always have money in your bank account or paypal account through 'Add Money'

- If there is an error, STOP WHAT YOUR DOING, contact the bank through visiting phone or email, or try ONCE only on a different browser use Chrome. Continuing will STACK extra charges.

- The charges are coming from the bank, not paypal or the site you are purchasing off of.

- Have a recent bank statement printed off and check where you make a payment and get a refund as they could cancel out each other.

- Use classic mode of paypal and go to "All activity (with balance)" option, to see what is happening in addition to your bank account statement.

TL;DR

Negative Balance = Add money to your bank.

$40 returned item charge = failed transaction cost is coming from bank, stop making transactions, explain your mistake to the bank, get partial refund.

$5 non-suffient funds charge = non-exisistant as they are instantly refunded after 2 days from the inital transaction, and will just show on your bank account statement.

---

Hey there , My name is Scott , and i'm having the same problem as sandy here . My bank refunded me for 2 other transactions  yesterday, come to find out theres yet another OD fee today !! I did call the bank again and breifly spelled out my dilema .She told me that they just refunded me for the other 2  and told me to contact PP .I'm a Newbie at this stuff , on limited income , and i really cant afford to keep paying those fees. Wheni spoke with the rep. from PP , I told him that I may have to quit using PP cuz of this . He did , however write a note to my bank kind of 1telling them what was going on . I cant keep a very normal balance at the bank , cuz as soon as i get my money from SSA , it goes right back out the door to pay my rent and bills.I'm hoping that the letter he wrote will squash the predicament .I would think that PP would not keep trying to debit my acct. cuz nobody will get paid . I thought my first online experience would be better than its turning out to be . Thanks for listening to my rant ,and hope the cards fall my way .Peace .   Sincerely , Scott Poole

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