Pay Later charged me the full amount

[onceinabluemoon]

Yesterday I chose Paypal's Pay Later option and thought the initial payment wasn't bad at all so I said "why not." Just checked my bank account and I was charged the full amount (pending transaction)even though I remember clicking Pay Later and even on my receipt online it says Pay Later. What am I supposed to do now? The reason I chose pay later was so I could stagger the impact of my purchase. Do I request a refund? Is this just an error on Paypal's end? Any help/advie is greatly appreciated. 

[pkkh]

Hi @onceinabluemoon 

Thank you for posting in community. 

I see you've questions about a Pay later payment. If the payment has gone through in full and is showing as pending in your PayPal account, no need to worry the funds will be refunded back in 72 hours and the payment will be taken out as per the schedule. If you have used your bank to fund the payment, the funds will take 1 to 5 days to reflect in the bank.

For more details on this kind of transaction refer to the Article .
I hope it helps. 

Regards,

Punith  

[jackblack17]

Hello So let me get this straight, the merchant charges the full amount while PayPal charges the first payment due the same day. Then paypal then refunds the full amount the merchant has charged 72 hours later? If that does not happen then I basically get charged twice, full payment from merchant and once all four complete payments to PayPal? That totally negates the service of pay in 4. Plus the lack of customer service given many people have been in this situation with little to no resolution.

[BoloSolo]

This is still an issue for most people. They DO NOT expect the full amount to be taken, and it should NOT BE. You are overdrawing a lot of people due to it. Also, it does not always fall off, it's all over the Internet of occuances. And, mine did fall off, but THEN you pushed the entire amount through 2 days later. Your customer service had no answers to any of this. They do have a script that if you walk them through it's EASILY proven that none of those mistakes occurred.

[MandaLew]

This just happened to me too! What was your outcome with this? Thanks in advance

[torimichelle]

This literally just happened to me!! I’m on the phone with them trying to resolve now i don't understand. did you get it worked out?

[Oldtimeradioner]

I was told to contact the vendor. They stated that the vendor may not have seen that pay in 4 was chosen. I didn't bother to reach out too vendor cuz I figured it would mess up the order.

[BoloSolo]

This is the first lie they are trained to tell you. They did that to me. The receipt said "pay later" on it from the vendor even on the hard copy invoice. They then went through a "script." They ask you what you saw/did. They will try to stop you at steps and say here is the "error.' However, none of that is true either. Once you are approved, sign the acknowledgement etc, and it processes through to the vendor it's completed. Period. In fact it's a contract, because the pay in 6 or 12 esp is a loan through Webbank. Unless YOU change something after that on the sellers page if redirected for the final step, you've been approved. They have an algorithm to detect risk, the issue is sometimes it suggests you pay the full amount and they don't tell you in a manner that is clear. It's a deceptive practice. And intentional. As you can see here and all over the Internet this happens ALL THE TIME. It overdraws people and causes lots of financial hardship, or lowers balances to the point they can't use their account for other things they need. It also does not always fall off in 72 hours, and even if it does they WILL push it through a second time a day or two later. It's a very viable class action lawsuit for deceptive practice.

[MandaLew]

Nothing they just took it and never fixed it. I was out the money and still am. They still have not answered me either when I contacted them!!

[PayPal_Meghan]

Hello @Oldtimeradioner, @MandaLew, and everyone! 

Thanks for stopping by and posting in the PayPal Community; welcome to those that are new!

I apologize for the frustration caused by seeing the full Pay Later charge when you were expecting only the first amount. I hope I can help shed some light on the situation. When a Pay Later option is selected, like Pay in 4, the merchant is immediately credited the full amount by PayPal. The installment agreement is made with PayPal; the merchant is not aware of any of the details and wouldn't adjust how your payment is collected. 

During checkout, PayPal may first place an authorization or temporary hold on the full amount with your payment method. Once the transaction is completed, only the first installment is debited from your account. Once that debit goes through, some banks release the original authorization, but others will continue to hold it for 7-10 business days. At most, I've heard some banks continue to hold the authorization for 30 days, but it's uncommon. 

If you see that two completed transactions went through your payment method, I suggest reaching out to Customer Support by selecting 'Contact' at the bottom of any PayPal webpage. They might direct you to file a duplicate payment dispute, but depending on exactly what happened, they may have other options as well. 

I hope this helps clarify what may have happened! 

- Meghan