PayPal bypassing "Option" to choose Credit Card to fund purchases; using bank account instead

[AlSharp]

This is the fourth time that I have tried to get an answer to this problem and this is the letter that I just sent to them, AGAIN:

We want to ALWAYS use our credit card to fund purchases through eBay and elsewhere. You are ALWAYS trying to pull the funds from our bank account and we are sick and tired of your deceitful practices. In many cases we are not given the option to pay with our credit card, you just take it from our bank account. We want to have the option to ALWAYS use our credit card unless we choose to use our bank account, instead of the other way around; the way you have it set up now, you are stealing from our bank account without our permission. Please set up our account to ALWAYS use our credit card!!!!!
Thank you,

PayPal seems to have a very fast way to bypass giving us the option to choose to use your credit card instead of your bank account.  They have done this at least 5 times lately and it really ticks me off.

I want to have the option to have paypal use my credit card FIRST, and have the bank account as a back up option.  

We all know why PP wants to use our bank account instead of our credit cards, but this is playing dirty pool in my opinion.  They NEED to include a standard mandatory step included to choose your funding source, and they currently do NOT provide that.  All of the sudden the screen flashes "Thank you for using Paypal to fund your payment" and then you look and they have just stolen the payment amount right out of your bank account with no option to use your credit card.

This, to me, seems like fraud and I want something done about it!!!

We just heard from the "man" behind the curtain after emailing them:

I understand that you wanted to make your card as the primary funding source.

Since you have a confirmed bank account on your PayPal account, it is always your primary funding source every time you send a payment , provided you do not have money on your balance. If you want to use your credit card, you will need to make sure that you click on “Change” every time you send a payment. Otherwise, if you will submit your payment without making any changes, our system will automatically use your bank account.

For the account’s protection the PayPal system follows a funding hierarchy, these are:

1.   Your PayPal balance if it is sufficient, will be used first

2.   If the balance is insufficient, you can select the next funding source for the remaining balance of what you need to send; it can either be your Instant Transfer using your confirmed bank account, or any of the credit or debit cards you added to your PayPal account. 

3.   If your PayPal account balance is zero, you can charge the full amount to these funding sources (either your bank account or credit/debit card).

I suggest that under the 'Review Payment Details' page, you first check and change your funding source and shipping address before submitting it. On the Funding Method section, your bank account is being displayed as your primary funding source. You will be given an option to change it to your credit card. All you needed to do is to click on 'Change' and select your credit card on the next page.    

I am glad I was able to clarify things to resolve your issue.

We value you as part of the PayPal family. We will continue to make sure that you will always have an easy, safe and secure online experience.

We are always here for you, you can email us back or call us at Login, Click "Contact", Click "Call Us"or Login, Click "Contact", Click "Call Us" during these hours:
    * 4:00 AM PT to 10:00 PM PT, Monday–Friday

    * 6:00 AM PT to 8:00 PM PT, Saturday and Sunday

PayPal aims to serve and satisfy our valued customers.

Thank you for trusting PayPal. Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,

And our reply:

You have NOT resolved our issue.  You have never resolved any of our issues that we have presented to you.

What we are attempting to get through to you is that many, many times we are never presented with a 'Review Payment Details' page or the option to Change' and select our credit card.  This part of the transaction is omitted, bypassed, deleted, skipped, whizzed past us, (call it what you will) by PayPal and you take funds from our bank account without any Option ANYWHERE to Change to our Credit Card for payment.

We have resolved ourselves to contact our Congressmen/women about laxity of Oversight regarding this issue and your company.  We are also encouraging everyone else we can contact to do the same.  

You need to give us the option to make our credit card our primary funding source EVERYTIME unless we choose another form of payment; and there is nothing stopping you from doing this except your greed for that extra 3-6% you have to pay on credit card payments.

You need reigned in.

We are just now grabbing the leashes.

Please join us.  Contact your Congressmen/women at both your state level and the federal level.  This is the only way to RESOLVE our issue with PP and the PickPocket issue that they continue with.

[PayPal_AshleyP]

Hi AlSharp,

I understand that this situation has been frustrating for you and apologize for the inconvenience it may have caused.

To keep our services highly cost-effective for buyers and sellers, your bank account is set as the default funding method. This is an industry-standard practice that is similar to payments made in the offline world. For example, when you swipe your dual-use ATM card at the grocery store, you are instantly prompted to enter your PIN for a debit card transaction. This is a lower cost way for the merchant to accept payments. In this situation, much like the situation on PayPal, you then have the option of telling the merchant to process the ATM card as credit.

As mentioned in our email response above, you always have the option of changing your funding source before submitting a payment and unfortunately, we do not have a way of making your credit card the default funding source. You would need to manually change your funding source for every transaction you want funded by your card.

AshleyP

[liberty2014]

Ashley,

I just now found this discussion forum for the same reason as the OP. I've been an eBayer since 1998, and a PayPal user since it first was created (and they gave new users $10 to sign up). Today I made an eBay purchase, and as soon as I input my PayPal password after doing the Buy-It-Now (I was still on the eBay auction page), I got the "payment completed" screen, and the payment had been automatically debited from my bank account. I ALWAYS use my credit card as the funding source, but I was not given the opportunity to select a funding source, nor was I given the chance to review the transaction before finalizing the payment. As soon as input my password, it went on its merry way completing the transaction by snatching the amount out of my bank account.

Is this something new? Did I "miss a memo" somewhere along the line??