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.

[Misschris10]

totally agree! How can a fee get processed without consent? It's invalid anyway as it was a purchase and not a cash advance. I wonder if the same will happen if I purchase directly from Ali Express with my cc - and not through Paypal....?

[manhong888]

I guess that no one willing to gamble $10 to find out the outcome by paying with CC directly.

[Robertotoledo]

I am having the same problem and chase refuse to refund me. I got 5 fees of $10.00 for 5 purchases that I made using Aliexpress. Some purchases were of $1!!! This is stealing money from us without our awareness. Called chase, paypall and Aliexpress and none of them are willinv solve the problem. Will never buy from Aliexpress and Chase just lost a loyal costumer! I think Paypal has nothing to do about it.

[orrly]

Ugh, sorry to hear about your situation--that sounds annoying and ironic for sure. I'm willing to give Chase benefit of the doubt because I never have this issue with them, and some people report mixed results with reversing the charge. I really think it's either PayPal's or AliExpress' fault for coding the transaction as cash. The difference is the reps I spoke to at Ali and Chase at least *seem* like they're trying to be helpful. Nada from PayPal. They simply dismissed my appeals so they're likely the weakest link IMO. Steering clear of Ali sounds like the smart thing to do until this gets sorted out by PayPal.

[hisenbug]

orrly is right about YMMV for refunds, but going forward the best way to continue to use PayPal with foreign merchants is to use cards with Cash Advance limit set to 0. Citi, Discover, Synchrony - all allowed me to set the limit to 0. But not Chase. Chase can't lower it below $100.

[manhong888]

Agree. Luckily I got Chase to reverse all my cash advance fee. But PayPal dismissed all my claims.

[Robertotoledo]

Hey Paypal team, Chase costumer service is pointing fingers at PayPal as root cause of the problem. See message from them below using the secure message center from account: Hello Roberto, Thank you for contacting us. We understand your concern about your account and will be more than happy to help you. Roberto, let me share, we rely on information provided by merchants and your applicable payment network to categorize transactions among Purchases, Balance Transfers, or various types of Cash Advances. For more information you may want to refer to the card member agreement (CMA). CMA's can be found on chase.com without having to login to account. You are a valued cardmember and we want you to be completely satisfied with our services. We have forwarded your feedback to our review team. Please continue to contact us with any feedback or questions. We are committed to delivering the high level of service that you expect and deserve. Transactions that may be treated as cash advances: -Cryptocurrency, purchasing lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track wagers or similar betting transactions - Purchasing traveler's checks, foreign currency, money orders, wire transfers or similar cash-like transactions - Making payment using third-party service We appreciate your business and thank you for your feedback. Thank you, Roohi I suggest that Paypal step up and solve the problem because as per what they saying, using PayPal (Third Party) can be the only reason why they are charging such fees. So... no PayPal for me from now on. I do not want a $10 charge on every web purchase I make!

[lululuu]

same issue happened to 4 of my aliexpress transactions, I was charged 5$ each cash advance fees. I feel this is an issue on PAYPAL, the customer service doesn't seem to be too active these days. I will try to avoid paypal next time.

[iMinDee]

To anyone who had this issue, I too was also a victim of this...

Made 3 purchases during their 11.11 sale and each of those accrued an amount of $10 per transaction ($30 total) since on Aliexpress's end, their Paypal payments go through as Alipay, and Alipay charges it as a cash advance purchase rather than a regular credit card purchase... I found this out because I called Paypal to ask what this fee was about and called Aliexpress about it as well. Aliexpress told me this is an ongoing issue that others have encountered that they're working to fix, and that they'd add my name to the list of affected accounts. But they are not sure when this issue will be fixed so I should contact my bank to get the fees reversed.

Thankfully, I was able to call Chase and explain to them what I had learned and they told me they were able to credit back those charged fees, which I should see back on my account in 1-2 business days.

My recommendation is to not use Paypal to pay on Aliexpress, ever again.

Hope this helps!!

[1kjp1]

apparently this has been resolved as of today (Dec 3rd) and new transactions will no longer be processed as Cash Advances.