AliExpress Purchase Coded as Cash Advance

[orrly]

RESOLVED/// 

I reached out to AliExpress, and they say they didn't change their payment methods on the backend so to take it up with PayPal, who is also not taking ownership. I called my credit card's affiliated bank (Chase) again, and the rep waived the fee for me this time--I have good credit history and have been a customer for 10 yrs so YMMV. Also, my previous call to Chase was unsuccessful so you might need to call a few times and hope to catch a nice rep. Good luck to everyone except PayPal, who NEEDS TO STEP UP WITH THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE.

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I'm in the US and recently purchased an item off of AliExpress for the first time. I couldn't find the item I was looking for elsewhere on the web, and since they had a PayPal payment option, I thought maybe it would be safe enough. I paid just shy of USD 7 for the item.

Fast forward a few days later, I noticed that the credit card affiliated my this PayPal purchase had a USD 10 transaction fee--I called my bank, and they said it's because it was coded as a Cash Advance.

I reached out to AliExpress and they said to talk to PayPal who processed it. I filed a dispute with PayPal under "billing issue" because none of the other choices seem any better--I included a copy of my purchase receipt and a screenshot of my credit card statement showing the extraneous fee. Today PayPal just denied my name because it's "not a billing issue". Could someone advise what I should do? Out of principle, I do not this it's right for me to be charged this fine because some weird billing on the back end.

[jerrytim]

UPDATED: I called Chase, they waived my $10 transaction fees, however, they won't waive the interest occurred, and that keeps rolling bigger day after day, it's around 25% interest!!! I just did a regular purchase and was charged this much interest. Not happy at all.

I had this exact issue today, thanks for sharing your solution. I will call Chase

[manhong888]

I had the same problem on 3 different purchase with AliExpress. All 3 transaction resulted with a $10 transaction fee each. The services rep from Chase Bank on my first call, she said no to me on waving the fee and told me to talk to PayPal to have it resolve. The next day, I send a secure message to Chase Bank to complain that they allow the merchant illegally submitted Cash Advance transaction without the consent of the credit account owner. Later in that day, I received a secure message from Chase Bank and stated that the 3 transaction fee would be waived in next billing. I hope this will come true. No matter what, I have that promise in writing.

[manhong888]

Update: 

The witten message I received from Chase Bank explained that AliPay Singapore E-commerce "is categorized as a Financial Institution - Merchandise and Services. The option to change categorization is unavailable. It dependents upon the merchant how he categorizes the charge." Based on the Chase's explanation, PayPal is not in any position to correct the issue.  Therefore, anyone has the same issue, he/she must get his/her bank to wavie the fee or get AliExpress to reimburse the fee. To avoid any future problems like this, I would strongly recommend not to make purchase from AliExpress and pay with PayPal using credit card as source of fund. If using PayPal to pay AliExpress purchase, be sure to selection your linked checking or saving account or cash balance with your PayPal account.

[Misschris10]

I have the same issue recently. To advise however, even if you have your credit card attached, it comes through as a cash advance! I can't believe this is allowed without consent at come point. I didn't make a cash advance - I made a purchase. 

[yyf]

"PayPal is not in any position to correct the issue"

That isn't true. There are multiple reports, on reddit and doctorofcredit, that if the transaction was billed directly to the card, there is no cash advance fee. But when billing through Paypal, there is. This is true for very large number of cards from 10+ banks. I don't know the exact detail, but the way Paypal bills the credit card companies cause them all to think this is cash advance. This is problematic and Paypal should either fix their billing, or just display a banner that says "this may be billed as cash advance, please use your debit card to avoid this fee" at checkout.

(Even if you think Paypal isn't at fault because the billing code comes from a merchant, Paypal has the responsibility to notify the customer the implications of using a credit card because Paypal received the code from the merchant and Paypal can tell it is a cash advance)

[Misschris10]

I just saw my cash advance charges today...and have been stewing on it. Out of principle, I am going to my banks credit card security division - I think that's the play. I didn't advance cash, I made a purchase. The cash advance charges are fraudulent (like any false charge on my card...). I'm reporting itand getting my money back. If the bank is inclined, they can figure it out. 

[hisenbug]

Did you try talking to PayPal again with a different issue category? I had this same issue today and the Chase Sapphire rep flat out refused to have any control in refunding Cash Advance fee. Or reducing my cash advance limit to 0 for that matter.

It's high time PayPal does something about this.

[orrly]

Re: PayPal I tried to appeal the denial, to explain that they don't have a better category to sort into, but they flat out threw out my case again. Paypal customer service sucks big time--it seems they simply outsource this, and their reps just follow a script with no common sense or any obligation of duty to *try* to resolve issues. I would call Chase again and see if can convince the next rep. I started my call with "I'm Really hoping I could get your help on something.... " and told them that I'm a long time Chase customer who has been mindful of the 5% PayPal cash back category so have been using my Chase card instead of other CCs. That I repeatedly reached out to AliExpress and PayPal to resolve but neither is taking ownership, and that I have seen this issue reported for a dozen people on the internet so something is wacky with PayPal. But ya, YMMV. Good luck. Also, how do we submit a complaint to PayPal about PayPal? Really poor customer service.

[MERCHANT2020]

I faced the same issue in UAE with First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB)  They charge me 100 AED plus vat plus interest as Cash Advance Fee, on 70 AED purchase from Ali Express, I have requested my bank to waive the charges and waiting for reply. Probably Paypal doesn't want their customer to use their services for purchase of any product from any Chinese company or they want to discourage buying product from china.

But even then i feel that paypal should have send at-least some warning sms, email or alert before transition is complete that our bank will charge CAF.