Add Funds by Electronic Funds Transfer via Direct Debit

[Moira2]

Problem still exists. However I did get a sort of explanation from PayPal Customer Service on 06 July 2017 :

" Thank you for contacting PayPal.

Our sincerest apology regarding the inconvenience in adding funds to your PayPal Account. I have carefully checked the status of your account and I can see that your PayPal Account was properly set up to be used at its maximum potentials. However, our engineers recently identified a technical issue in our main system which prevented us from completing and or process your request at this moment.

Do not worry as this issue is not limited to your account and I can definitely assure you that it's just temporary. We have already tagged this as a top priority issue since it is affecting multiple number of PayPal users across the country.

Rest assured that our highly devoted technical department is actively working to fix the issue at the soonest possible time. "

Reply was appreciated but that does not solve the problem. I rely on this monthly Direct Debit to get interest on my current bank account.

If nothing is done before the end of the month I'll be losing circa £12 interest which is nothing to PayPal but means a lot to me as I am unemployed !

Please PayPal : get it sorted sooner than later !

[Niki3]

I have had this problem since June 2017, yet despite several phone calls and promises it will be sorted, is still not fixed.

Most staff don't seem to know the problem exists with Paypal, and suggest the customer is not doing things correctly.

This is not acceptable.

[aleksmariusz]

Have some good news and some bad news regarding this (as I was looking for information about this myself). TL;DR, the bad news is, this is only available for business accounts now, not personal ones anymore. Good news is changing to a business account can be done within a minute, on your own via the website. There are some caveats (non-direct-debit add funds seems broken now), read below for more info.

The full story is that I noticed this issue in early September as well, as lacking the ability to add money to my PayPal balance via direct debit as well. Where I used to see this:

..I would now only see the left-hand side. I depend on the direct debit functionality for the same reason, to meet direct debit requirements from financial institutions I have accounts with.

So I called sept 4th, was told there's an issue with the website and they are looking into it and that a lot of people are calling about it actually. I called back on the 14th and was told it's an ongoing issue with no eta on it being solved, I asked my call to be escalated and was told it'll hopefully be resolved within a week.

So finally today I once again called, as it was still an issue, and now am told that this functionality (adding money via direct debit) is being removed from personal accounts and you need a business account to be able to do this. I was a bit annoyed that they did not inform us, but they told me they were "just informed" of this change in the systems. Later on, I asked when this happened and he told me it first took effect in early-mid August. So seems there's obviously some inefficient "disconnect" between the business side of PayPal and the customer service side (one didn't inform the other of a major change like this). Lame, but it's PayPal, what can you do 😕

So I updated my account to business, while on the phone (you scroll to the bottom on the left-hand side is an 'upgrade account' link), and after first verifying/asking the agent on the phone, was told the fees are not going to increase. Other than entering the name or nature of your business (can be made up), there's no other (business) verification process other than reviewing your name address and contact details. Pretty straightforward to upgrade. I was told that if you do a certain amount of transactions per month (assuming incoming), you can also request your fee's be lowered. w00h00!!

Once the account is upgraded, the "feel" (layout) of the website changes if you're a business account (a little unnerving but nothing you can't get used to), and the link to "add money" has slightly been changed/moved. You now have to select 'Transfer Money' and then you are asked which account FROM, and then to where (PayPal balance). Still, there's no mention of the method used, nor are you given a choice of that method either. However, processing time is listed now as 5-7 days, which indicates it should indeed be going through direct debit now. I have done a test transaction and will know in a few days if it went through.

Unfortunately, again, seems gone still is that 'choice' of the method of adding funds. It doesn't give you any. In fact, it feels like PayPal is 'dumbing down' their web interface in the guise of "making it simple" to use. To me personally, it's a bit of an affront to my intelligence that I should have choices taken away from me. But I digress.

I went and asked the agent on the phone about the apparent loss of the faster payment method (which would be the only option now available, if you still have only a personal account). He informed me that this is still possible to do (just no mention of it on the website), you just have to initiate , on your own, the transfer yourself from your financial institution's side (via your bank's app or website). You will of course need to have the sort code/account # and payment-reference to use. He gave me the info on the phone and I jotted it down. Most banks save your payee-list so this should be a one-time step. But, I find it can be a bit inconvenient not having this info available from PayPal's site easily, if say, you were to set up a new payee at a different bank (but most banks have an additional verification process so it's not like that was a painless process anyway??).

Unfortunately, I tried two different banks I have accounts with, Santander, and TSB, and they both rejected sending the payment, and returned the monies back to my own bank account balance when I tried to send to my own PayPal account. So I don't know if this is an issue with my paypal account specifically, or with PayPal's business accounts, or PayPal's incoming processing system in general. I'll probably call back next time I actually need this functionality (but, meh.. I rarely use it).

So at the moment, I now have a business account (instead of personal), able to add funds again via direct debit (well.. hopefully; I haven't waited the week or so to verify it actually went through, but the functionality 'feels' like it's returned), and "lost" (albeit hopefully only temporarily) the ability to add funds via faster-payments.  Now, I can't see any reason why that last part would fail with two different bank accounts, so i blame PayPal.. of course.. that would be my conclusion, as IMO, it's an 'evil organization', but sadly a necessary evil and no real (read: as widely accepted) alternative.  I just hope they haven't revoked this ability entirely if you're a business account.  That wouldn't make any sense (..but then again..)...

Anyway, assuming I'll get faster-payments working again at some point, I'd say I haven't noticed any downfall of upgrading to business so far (as there were some fee/receiving changes to my US account when i upgraded it a decade ago).. Ok, so the website layout (really the 'summary' page you're greeted with when you log in), looks a bit different and there's still 'less choice' on method of adding funds to your balance, but the direct debit functionality (which I think most of us care about more) can be restored. And if you need to use "faster-payments" to top up your PayPal balance, jot down the details and give this a try yourself (maybe before upgrading your account type, as well as after). The sort code and account is public information: 23-52-62 and 98675767. But the payment-reference is specific to your account (i asked to double check it so I think I have mine right), and seems only available from the PayPal website when you're still only have a personal account.

Hope this helps someone else, or at least spares you from having to sit through their lame IVR phone system trying to figure out what the problem you're calling about is 🙂