Refund vanished

[LarkBea]

I received a refund for an online game purchase from a reputable games website. 

It originally appeared in my PayPal balance, but it has subsequently vanished.

I used my PayPal debit card (with my bank for back up funding) to purchase.  The money was not transferred to my bank account and the initial hold that was placed on the refund was lifted 10 days ago.

Does anyone have any idea what happened to that money and how I would go about finding it?

Thank you.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi LarkBea, and welcome to the forums!

It sounds like you may have made a purchase since the refunded amount became available in your account. If you made any purchases after that time, those available funds would have been used before your backup payment source.

If you go to transaction history and view All Activity (with balance), you'll be able to see your transactions in reverse chronological order, along with their effect on your balance. For a great visual aide that shows this feature, take a look at this post by sandypurins.

I hope this helps! 🙂

Olivia

[LarkBea]

Hi, and thanks for your reply.

Yes, I have made subsequent purchases using my PayPal debit card, but again, that card is backed by my verified bank account and not my PayPal balance.  The purchases that I made after the one in question were debited from my bank account.  There were two and each show "Add Funds from a Bank Account".  

[LarkBea]

The mystery has been cleared up.

I have two PayPal debit cards, one in my name and one in my wife's name.  Mine is funded by PayPal Buyer Credit, hers by our verified bank account.

I have a recurring monthly charge that is funded by buyer credit.  For reasons unknown to me, PayPal funded that payment with the refund that was in my PayPal balance and the remainder from my Buyer Credit.  I was not aware of this policy and would have never thought to check that transaction as this had not happened in the past.  "Deb" from PayPal found it for me.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi LarkBea,

When using your PayPal Debit MasterCard, the balance upon which it is drawing is your PayPal balance. It will always use these funds first. If no balance exists or the balance is insufficient, that's when the Backup Funding Source is used.

I hope this helps!

Olivia