What is going on with this charge?

ephemeral25
Contributor
Contributor
I recently purchased a few items online using PayPal (used my linked card) but decided to return them. The total of the refund was $334.56. When I was issued the refund through PayPal, I saw that PayPal charged my card for the exact amount that the refund was for ($334.56). PayPal has never done this in the past. I checked my bank account to confirm this is what happened and there’s a payment that PayPal has charged my card for the exact amount that the refund was for ($334.56). The transaction that PayPal charged to my card is currently still pending as of now. PayPal charged my card $334.56 (the refunded amount) 22 minutes before the funds from the refund went into my bank account. Basically it’s as if I was charged for a duplicate order of the same amount, even though I never placed another one. My card also wasn’t used unauthorized or anything, neither was my PayPal account. I don’t believe anything was compromised by a third party. I took a closer look and the payment that PayPal charged to my card doesn’t show up on my PayPal account. It only shows up on my bank account, and my bank account says that the PayPal transaction is still pending. What confuses me is that since the transaction says it was made by PayPal, shouldn’t it show up on my PayPal account? It doesn’t though. It’s only showing up on my bank account. I contacted my bank to see if they could provide any insight or help, because I don’t know what’s going on. In the past when I’ve been refunded through PayPal, PayPal has never charged my card for the exact amount of the refund, placed the funds back into my bank account, but still leave that initial charge as pending. That doesn’t make any sense. Because it’s as if I was never refunded in the first place. At the exact moment (8:32am) that the refund was issued, I was charged for it. It just doesn’t make any sense why this would happen. Does anyone know what could be going on? If you’ve read this far ty so much!
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2 REPLIES 2

PayPal_Meghan
Moderator
Moderator

Hello @ephemeral25

Thanks for visiting the Community! 

I'm sorry to hear a charge was processed at the same time as your refund. Since this is such a unique situation, I would recommend contacting Customer Support to have this investigated. To contact support, you can click 'Contact' at the bottom of any PayPal page. Support is also available if you send a DM to @AskPayPal on Twitter or a PM to facebook.com/PayPal. 

I hope this is sorted out soon!

- Meghan 


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ephemeral25
Contributor
Contributor
Hi, I did contact both PayPal support through Twitter and through my account messaging portal. They basically said they can’t do anything for me and have no idea what i’m talking about 😂. It’s definitely frustrating bc I can clearly see the charge was made by PayPal. But for some reason the charge only shows up on my bank account. Not in my PayPal account summary. My bank said they suggest I contact PayPal, which I did and they’ve been of no help. I keep going in circles with them. My bank also said they would help me with filing a dispute. But that’s kind of the last thing I want. I know that disputes can take forever, and just simply want my money back that PayPal is currently holding for whatever reason. I don’t have any outstanding balances with PayPal or anything. My PayPal account has always been in good standing. The only thing I can think of that’s recently changed is that I signed up for a PayPal Cash Plus account Debit Mastercard. It hasn’t arrived yet though. So it’s not activated. But I’m thinking when I signed up for the PayPal Cash Plus account, it might’ve caused something to change or glitch within my normal PayPal account, and that’s why I’m being charged for the refund.
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