Why do I get a bill from Pay Pal when I have a credit card linked?

[katazoom]

I used PayPal to buy a pair of shoes online. I have an active credit card (yes, I checked) linked to my PayPal account, so I assumed it would just show up on my credit card bill. But I got an email from PayPal telling me my payment is due later this month. Do I assume the charge will NOT appear on my credit card and just pay Pay Pal directly? What is the point of linking a credit card? 

[DPCreations]

What are the detils of the email?

What is the sender's REAL email address?

Are there any messages in your PayPal account on your computer?

What do the PayPal transactions show on your account on your computer?

[sharpiemarker]

@katazoom

No.  When you make payment with PayPal, you may select a funding source linked to your PayPal account during checkout or set your preferred payment method to a funding source linked to your PayPal account ahead of time on the wallet page so that when you log in to pay, the preferred method is preselected which you can also override diring checkout as well if you want to switch on the fly.  PayPal also has a couple of ways of paying for purchases in additional to your own funding sources, such as Pay After Delivery, or PayPal Credit which PayPal will bill you later and you pay PayPal.  Locate the shoe transaction, click on it to see what the payment method was used.  

If you paid with your own credit card during checkout, the charge will go directly on your card and you pay your CC bill as usual.  You do not pay PayPal for the credit card charge.

[katazoom]

So I think what happened is that I had a credit card linked to my account, but you have to go one step further and tell Pay Pal to use that credit card to pay, which I hadn't. I went in and selected the credit card as a preferred method of payment and got an email from Pay Pal saying they had updated my preferences and will use the credit card.

My question now is....since the bill was sent BEFORE I set the credit card as my preferred methog of payment, will it go back and retroactively charge my card? Or do I have to pay either by snail mail or linking my bank account and paying online?

Thanks for your input!