Automatic Payments

[jyiesla]

Some years ago, I went into my PP account and removed any vendor who could automatically create a charge to my PP account and I turned on MFA so it would force anyone who wanted to make a charge to my PP account to have to log in and provide a security code. Since the authenticator I am using is on my phone only I can do this; even my wife cannot.  

Yesterday, I got an alert that some money had been sent to a person who was unfamiliar to me. I asked my wife about it and she confirmed that it was something that she had ordered from a vendor on Facebook. So, the order is real, but I had no idea how she was able to actually place the order using PP as the payment.  She had intended to use a credit card, but FB automatically processed the order using PP.

I checked my PP account today and there are a number of vendors in the automatic payment list; FB was one of them.  However, as I stated above, I was pretty sure that I'd removed all of them several years ago.  And I also saw some vendors in there that I do process payments against, but any time I use PP to send them money, I am always prompted to log in and I have to put in the code from my phone. 

I am relatively sure that I never say on the vendors web site that they are allowed to do automatic payments, so I am wondering how that's possible that some of these vendors were in the automatic payments list.  I have cleared out that list again and now no vendors are showing. 

Any thoughts?

thanx...

[PayPal_Meghan]

Hello @jyiesla, 

Welcome to the PayPal Community! 

I understand unrecognized merchants on the list of your automatic payments. When reviewing your automatic payments on your PayPal account, you'll be able to see the start date and first payment for each one. After finding that information, I recommend downloading a transaction statement to see if you can determine if you authorized the original payment. If you didn't, you can file an unauthorized dispute.

I hope this helps! 

- Meghan

[jyiesla]

So, yes and no.  I did not recognize the merchant, but confirmed with my wife that she had indeed made the purchase thru facebook. Now, at one time I probably had FB set up as an automatic payment... probably set that accidentally.  However, I am very certain that I went thru my automatic payments list over a year ago and removed everyone. Then I set up MFA so even when I log in I have to provide the google authenticator code. 

I guess my question is, if I had indeed cleared the automatic payments list over a year ago and since I have MFA set up, is it even possible for an automatic payment to be created at the vendor end unless I specifically have logged into PP and allowed that?  And are automatic payments even allowed if I have MFA set up?

Thanx...

[PayPal_Meghan · Accepted solution]

Hello @jyiesla, 

Thanks for reaching out on the Community again! 

I understand you have some additional clarifying questions about automatic payments. A merchant will not have the option to create an automatic payment/billing agreement for you without your permission. Someone will have to authorize it by logging into your PayPal account and initiating a purchase through that vendor. A billing agreement is a preauthorization for future purchases. Merchants typically use them to create a faster checkout experience or a recurring subscription. Enabling the second form of verification, such as 2-Step Verification, will not prevent a billing agreement from going through if it has already been created. However, it will stop someone else from logging into your account to make the initial billing agreement. 

Have a great day! 

- Meghan