If there are insufficient funds in my primary bank account what does paypal do?

[johnpineal]

I had insufficient funds in my primary bank account for a purchase. Will paypal take the money from another of my listed bank accounts automatically? Or does Paypal just refuse payment?

[sandypurins]

PayPal will make 2 attempts to complete the bank account funded payment before switching to your backup funding source. Your bank may charge NSF fees for each failed attempt, and so... it's best for you to immediately add sufficient funds to your bank account so that the payment is successful on the first attempt.

[TooManyFees]

I had this happen.

eBay, without my authorization or knowledge, automatically deducted $14.95 in fees from my Paypal account. Since my Paypal account only had $10.17 in it, Paypal charged my primary bank account for the $14.95 in an attempt to add funds to my Paypal account, a bank transfer that was unauthorized and unknown to me. Since the primary bank account had no money in it, I was charged a $35 overdraft fee by the bank. Not once, but twice! Paypal's computer just kept sending the request to the bank automatically, instead of going to my second bank account, which did have money in it.

Paypal's position is "we don't know your bank account balance". Well, Paypal knew it was insufficient the first attempt, why did Pyapl try the second time?

I tried deleting the bank account that has no funds, and Paypal won't allow it because, as the message says, "there is a transaction pending".

Fortunately my bank was willing to forgive one of the overdraft fees. But Paypal has yet to remove the transaction from the computer, despite the fact that I've closed out that bank account and paid my eBay seller fees.

Paypal is a classic case of automatic computer payments run amok. After being on hold for 45 minutes and trying every single option in their web interface, I am still unable to resolve this nonsense. What a lousy customer experience.

Boo Paypal. Paypal has terrible customer service.