Does PayPal Now Require Double The Total Amount in Your Account to Make a Purchase???

harshbdmmaster718 on 24/06/2022 - 18:01
Last edited 28/06/2022 - 19:57

[The issue has been resolved. Paypal just takes 6 days to return the funds.]

The title is a bit of a joke, but this happened to me recently and I think I might be too patient about.

I have used PayPal up until now with zero issues, usually I buy something and the amount due is withdrawn soon after.

I am thinking this is maybe related to the "cloudflare" outage a few days ago I read about in the news, but I made a expensive purchase recently from a reputable store and on my statement it shows PayPal withdrew the total amount. Then PayPal withdrew the exact same amount again 12-24 hours or so later.
The total amount is identical on both transactions, but one is showing as "PAYPAL *STORE NAME" and the other is showing as "DEBIT CARD PURCHASE PAYPAL *STORE NAME".

The amount was not exactly small, so it ended up being $XXX.XX withdrawn twice and my account was a negative balance until I noticed. I have double, triple checked and PayPal has definitely taken the same amount twice with no refund in sight.

So I have been patient and expected PayPal to "refund" the second identical amount in a day or so, but it has been over 2 days now and PayPal is still holding the money.
Since when did you need double the total amount in your account when you buy something with PayPal??

On my PayPal account it only shows 1 transaction.
The Banking App shows I am able to "dispute" one of the transactions, but the purchased item has already been shipped so I don't want to dispute the "genuine" charge and make the store think I am trying to mess with the payment.

Have any of you experienced this issue? Was it automatically resolved?

I am thinking this has happened to a lot of other people and PayPal is doing something funny?

I am a bit confused, and PayPal's "Help" section is extremely unhelpful with zero information about this issue other than one result which says You probably clicked the "Send money" button twice, which I did not because I did not use the "Send money" feature.

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Comments

  • orangetrain on 24/06/2022 - 18:16

    Ask the store? Maybe it was their error?

    • harshbdmmaster718 on 24/06/2022 - 19:17

      Nope. I have gone back and forth with the store, and it seems to be entirely PayPal related.

      Store and PayPal records show no history of the 2nd transaction. The only place I see it on my Bank Statement.

  • foxmulder on 24/06/2022 - 18:24

    Sometimes buyer do a double order, thinking they haven't ordered yet without realizing it. You didn't get 2 noticiation of payments?

    • harshbdmmaster718 on 24/06/2022 - 19:12

      No only 1 payment showing on PayPal account record. Store also confirmed the same on their end.

  • brendanm on 24/06/2022 - 18:28
    +2

    Call them?

    • harshbdmmaster718 on 24/06/2022 - 19:13

      Maybe I should call PayPal if they are still holding onto the money tomorrow.

      But then again the comment below seems to hint at it being "normal procedure" so I don't want a misunderstanding where PayPal support makes the mistake of cancelling the entire transaction and I don't get what I ordered.

  • Christown on 24/06/2022 - 18:31

    I have sometimes noticed separate 'authorisation charges' (where they check for sufficient funds) for the purchase price on my bank statement soon after making a purchase through PayPal.

    Usually this happens if the seller doesn't take the payment amount right away, and instead takes it when they process or ship the order. When this happens, a separate 'actual payment' is taken, often before the authorisation charge is released.

    The authorisation charges can sometimes take around a week to be released.

    This could potentially be what has happened here. It can be annoying when it's for a large amount and sometimes they do this but only charge a small amount, such as a few cents.

    • harshbdmmaster718 on 24/06/2022 - 19:14

      "Usually this happens if the seller doesn't take the payment amount right away, and instead takes it when they process or ship the order. When this happens, a separate 'actual payment' is taken, often before the authorisation charge is released.
      The authorisation charges can sometimes take around a week to be released."

      Ok this kind of explains it then. And it is likely what you said because the transaction on "Purchase" and transaction when "Shipped" seem to line up .

      Kind of surprising though that it is considered "normal" and means occasionally you actually do need double the amount in the account.
      It was definitely a shock when you can't pay for something small and check your account is negative balance. I thought I got hacked/scammed for a second.

    • harshbdmmaster718 on 28/06/2022 - 19:56
      +1

      Hi again.
      Took 6 days but the funds are back.
      As you said could take around to a week to happen.

      Thanks for your insight.

  • Ocker on 24/06/2022 - 18:49
    +2

    Too easy. Better to sit back and let the OZB community do the hard yards

    • harshbdmmaster718 on 24/06/2022 - 19:22

      Not sure what you mean (do you mean you know the answer and it is common sense to you?), but Christown seems to have explained something very similar to what I am experiencing.
      There are many similarities and looks like it is "standard procedure".

      Maybe I am an idiot for thinking it is "server related" I don't know.

      I did not know such a big authorization charge was possible. I even went through the whole "PayPal deducts $2 from your card then refunds it" process to "authorize" the card when I added it so I thought I didn't have to deal with such shenanigans.

    • AustriaBargain on 24/06/2022 - 19:44

      However, our PayPal support officer won't see this post until Monday morning.

      • harshbdmmaster718 on 24/06/2022 - 19:58

        Maybe that's a good thing. Because if it is what I suspect it is now then it turns out I am the idiot for not knowing it was possible?

  • harshbdmmaster718 on 24/06/2022 - 19:58

    Ok folks. I am satisfied the information Christown has provided me with.

    My initial thoughts were related to some kind of a server error, or possibly since I have my account and my card connected to PayPal that there was a error and PayPal charged both??

    But my experience lines up well with what Christown said, which means it is just an authorization charge in the exact same amount as the purchase charge.

    Maybe I have not had the experience of buying certain valuable goods online through PayPal before such as Whitegoods or Computers etc, so this was all new to me and apparently sometimes you need double the purchasing amount in your account in order for PayPal authorization to work. And apparently PayPal holds that charge for a week before refunding you possibly leaving you with a negative balance. Well you learn something new everyday.

    Thanks everyone.

    • randomusername2017 on 24/06/2022 - 20:15

      It varies between banks.
      Check your daily running balance, it should be reconciled within 24-48hrs.

      • harshbdmmaster718 on 24/06/2022 - 20:19

        "it should be reconciled within 24-48hrs."
        That's also what I thought.

        I ordered more than 48 hours ago. Just checked by balance it's still definitely not returned.
        Looks like I will have to wait a week.

        I have already requested this post be taken down. If I don't get my money back after a week I will make another post.

    • 7ekn00 on 25/06/2022 - 09:46
      -1

      You are latching onto what is called "confirmation bias" … you saw a post that confirmed your hopes and have latched on :/

      I have never had Paypal take more than the transaction and would dispute it quickly with the bank if I did!

      • harshbdmmaster718 on 25/06/2022 - 14:15

        Well it was a bit more than that I think.
        The timing of the email confirmations I got for "ordered" and "shipping" line up with the 2 separate transactions, just as described when the first charge is a "authorization" charge, and the next is the actual purchase charge upon shipping.

        I also saw the "dispute" option on one of the charges and thought about doing it straight away, but I decided to be patient thinking the authorization charge would be returned within a day.
        I now realize the 1 charge that has the dispute option is the actual purchase charge. So if I disputed that the store may think the payment was fraudulent and go ahead and freeze shipping then cancel the order.

  • justgooddeals on 24/06/2022 - 22:24

    Tldr

  • the Unforgiven on 25/06/2022 - 21:45

    Ring them, you can try tomorrow, but Monday will be better (u get the main crew back)
    Paypal 1800 073 263

    • harshbdmmaster718 on 28/06/2022 - 19:49

      Thanks for the number. Didn't take any action and it has been resolved automatically. The funds have been returned just took a lot longer than I expected.

      • the Unforgiven on 28/06/2022 - 22:21

        No sweat, you have the number for next time :p

  • harshbdmmaster718 on 28/06/2022 - 19:54

    Ok folks.
    After 6 days the funds are back in the account.
    As Christown said, most likely an authorization charge for the full amount which could take up to a week to be returned from Paypal.

    Weird thing is instead of showing as a "refunded transaction" the original charge has simply disappeared from the statement as the funds returned, so there is no proof of it happening.
    And according to another comment I guess different banks also handle this kind of thing differently.

    In any case, the issue has resolved itself it just took 6 days and in my case I will need to consider having double the amount available in the future for certain purchases which I was unaware of.

    Thanks everyone issue resolved.

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