Why was I charged a fee for an error in registration?

[ryutoshi]

I tried to register a prepaid credit card before realizing gift cards arent supposed to be usable to transfer funds to my paypal account. I tried multiple times to see if my error was from putting in the info wrong. Anywho, I went to the American Express site to register my name and address to the card, after putting in the card information I was taken to my card's history of transactions. For each error I got for trying to register the card to paypal, they took $1 and it's labeled as a "transaction" called "PAYPAL INC MARK - Purchase with AVS".  I went from a $50 UNUSED gift card to $41.

How do I go about getting my money back for something that shouldn't have taken it to begin with?

[PayPal_Adrian]

ryutoshi -

Welcome to the Community!

Any time credit or debit card information is entered, altered, edited, or changed in PayPal, that information has to be verified with the card issuer in order for the change to take place. The credit card industry has a pre-approved method for merchants to verify this information - the $1.00 temporary charge (often known as a pre-authorization).

These charges are not permanent, and will never become permanent, though they are absolutely necessary to confirm card information. This is done to ensure the safety and security of every member who uses our services.

The $1.00 charge is released back to your card balance after a period of time determined by the card issuer themselves, not by PayPal.

For example, PayPal has their own brand of debit card. When we receive a $1.00 pre-authorization from a merchant on our own card, we automatically release them on day five after the charge was placed. Your card issuer may have different policies regarding when they release, however, so you'll want to check with them as to how long they will remain.

Thanks!

Adrian