Low Paypal balance - can I still purchase items?

[pineapple]

Hi all,

This is probably a really silly question but I haven't been able to find a definite answer anywhere!

If I want to purchase an item but do not have sufficient funds in my Paypal account, do I have to add money from my bank account and wait 5-7 days until it clears before I can purchase the item? Or can I go ahead and buy it (and go into negative Paypal balance, which will be sorted out once the money from the bank is transferred)? 

If someone could put me straight I'd be really grateful!

I keep wanting to buy things but am missing the bidding date because I'm afraid to bid until enough money has cleared - and I don't like the idea of always having lots and lots of money in my Paypal account, 'just in case'!

Thanks 🙂

[Cr8tonboy]

You do not have to add funds to your PayPal balance before you are able to make a purchase.  You can use your credit card or your bank account as the funding source directly.  PayPal will retreive the funds from your bank or credit card, and then send them to who you designated the payment to go to.

[CBSIMONSEZ]

^^^ i thought this was true, until last night.  I have had a personal credit card as my funds for PayPal.  I would never link my personal bank account to an online pay source like PayPal.  My credit card has a 5K$ limit, and is paid off every month leaving a balance of zero EVERY MONTH.  This card is used for PayPal, and PayPal only.  Every time i pay for an item either through Ebay or other online vendor and use PayPal the charge instantly goes to my credit card.  Again, i have been doing it this way for years now.

Fast forward to last night where i get a notice through my Email that im about to reach my "limit" with PayPal.  In order to aviod any issues i have to now log my bank account and all its info with PayPal to become a "varified" member.  I have looked all over and all keep getting is that PayPal wants my bank account info, which they will never get.

I did run into an instance a couple years ago with PayPal where somehow ( it was determined by my local PD and the credit card ) that my info was stolen and i was a victum of credit card fraud.  Over 5K$ and months later it finally got it all ironed out ... but as you can see from being burned before im sure as heck not giving my personal banking info to anyone, let lone PayPal to make me "varified."

[HexZyle]

No, you do not have to have funds in your paypal account.

Paypal will transfer the money from your bank account directly through to the seller. However, this will usually take about the same amount of time that it takes to transfer funds from your bank to paypal. The status of the transfer will be called "Pending" and the buyer will not (well, shouldn't, unless they are silly) ship the items until the payment clears.

I believe this method of payment is called "eCheque". A seller is notified that their payment is pending and via eCheque so you won't have to worry about them filing non-paying buyer complaints about you.

To speed up the process, paypal recommends you link a credit card to the paypal account (this may even be the credit card associated with your bank account that is linked with paypal) so that the transactions can be performed instantaneously. If you do not wish to link a credit card, you can simply transfer funds into your paypal account and they will be deducted from there instantly instead of having to wait for the eCheque to clear.

Please note that I am new here, but this is what I have deducted (or is it "deduced"?) from my small amount of experiences so far.

[jmznesky]

@HexZyle

What your saying is PP will deduct from your checking account if you have less than the price or no funds available in the PP account..This will also take as many days to process the now echeck as it takes to transfer money to your PP account. Unless you have and reaquest they use your (registered) credit card..

Does this include a mastercard bank debit card? Will it (like the credit card or the available funds in the PP acct.) be transferred immediately or will it take 5 to 7 days to clear (like the echeck)..?

[HexZyle]

@jmznesky

By default, PayPal will ignore the credit/debit status of your bank account and simply do an echeck payment.

Only once you link a credit/debit card (I am unsure which cards fall into this category, but I'm assuming it's anything with the "Buy now, Pay later" style, where you don't pay heaps of fees if your bank account goes below zero) to your account, PayPal will use the Visa/Mastercard to pay the payment instantly for you, then your bank account will be indebt to PayPal until the transfer from your account to PayPal clears.

So without a linked card:

You must wait for the money to transfer from your bank to PayPal, then PayPal pays the amount to the seller

With a linked card:

PayPal pays the seller for you, and then you are in debt to them until your bank transfers the amount to pay PayPal back.

Again, this is my first time internet banking, and this is what I've concluded from what I have seen