Weird issue with Paypal debit card...

[Kitsune Sniper]

Okay, so I have one of those Paypal debit cards. I use it to pay at the post office when I ship stuff.

A few days ago, I started getting these weird things when checking my balance, though. I think it was last wednesday. I basically went to an ATM and took out $300 bucks, right? Well, now the card's acting weird.

When I pay for an item, usually the amount of the purchase gets frozen while the payment is completed. So if I have $250 and I spend $25, the $25 gets frozen, and I'm left with $225.

Lately, Paypal's been doing something else. Using the same example as before, if I have $250 and I spend $25, the $25 gets frozen. But then, ANOTHER $25 gets frozen while the payment is done. So basically, I'm left with $200 until the payment goes through; then I get my other $25 back.

I used to think I was imagining things, but I've noticed this for several days. I'm afraid to spend lots of money because of this problem...

Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

[scorch56]

I haven't used my PP debit card in about a week now so I can't say for sure whether that's happening to me or not. I DO KNOW that this kind of thing was happening to me a few years back when I used to pay for things through PayPal with my BANK'S debit card. I called PayPal and they explained to me that it was because I was using the bank's debit card which was actually tied to my bank account.. which was tied to my PP account. They told me when I used the debit card it puts a "hold" (in other words.. it ends up being a "double" one) on the bank funds itself.. until the card "charge" clears. The solution they offered at the time was to simply pay for things WITH my bank acount as opposed to using the debit card. This was WAY before PP started offering a card of their own, and it probably doesn't apply to you since you're not involving your bank.. but the problem sounds similar.

However.. I believe they fixed that system because it was somewhat "unfair" and unnecessary. What with debit card purchases being almost instantaneously updated in financial rcords nowdays.. I thought that it had been fixed and haven't seen it happen in years now, but it sounds like they're doing the same thing to you.. in a similar fashion.

You might want to give them a person-to-person phone call about this. They explained it quite extensively to me at the time.

It SHOULDN'T happen with your PayPal debit card at all though. There is no reason it could as far as I can tell.. especially since the debit card is tied directly to your PP funds account and nothing else. It may be that suddenly your debit card is being ran and processed as a credit card though.. which would make sense; as some of my local merchants HAVE to run it that way (no debit card instantaneous network for them), but I've never seen it happen for me that way either when anybody's processed it that way.

Before this.. when you used it.. did it just show up in your account overview as "processing" or "pending" for a couple of days until it's then said "completed"? That's the way it's ALWAYS worked for me.

Wish I could be of more help.. but I'd call them on this. Good luck.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Before this.. when you used it.. did it just show up in your account overview as "processing" or "pending" for a couple of days until it's then said "completed"? That's the way it's ALWAYS worked for me.

Pretty much, yeah. PayPal always said that I should "Pay with your card as if it were a credit card to get 1% cash back!" So I do. Hey, those pennies add up over time. :p

I'm gonna start paying with the debit feature, see if this clears up. If it doesn't, I'll just start taking out the money in my account and transfer it to my bank... Thanks though. I'll try to call them tomorrow or on Tuesday. :)