Mixed fixed and Pay in 4 purchases

[BernardW]

I want to buy something costing over $1500, but also want to take advantage of Pay In 4. If I have a PayPal balance, I want to use that first, then the remaining amount to be paid with Pay In 4, but I don't see a way to do that. I recently made a purchase of almost $1500 and had a balance of $150, which I expected to be used first, but at the checkout page for the purchase I saw that my $150 balance was not used and the whole amount was divided into 4 payments. So the starting PayPal balance was useless.

Is there some way I could mix payments, so for example to buy a $2000 purchase, put $500 on it either with my PayPal balance or from my bank account through PayPal, and then make the $1500 balance over Pay In 4? Or, even for smaller purchases under the $1500 Pay In 4 limit, how can I either use my existing PayPal balance first, or pay part of the price from my bank account, and just set up Pay In 4 for the remainder? That would be a helpful option.

The only way I can see to do it is to contact the seller and ask them to take 2 payments for the sale - first, pay the $500 in the example with a single payment, then make a Pay In 4 arrangement for the balance. But not all sellers will do this or even have an easy way to contact them or make separate payments. It's a real limitation to PayPal that there's no easy way to do this. You might have 2 or more bank accounts, and want to make one part payment from one, and the rest from another or from wherever the Pay In 4 is taken from.

Does anyone know a better way to do what I have in mind? Preferably without having to work around PayPal, I'd rather it work for me

[sharpiemarker]

@BernardW 

Here’s what clause 1.2 says in the Pay in 4 terms say:

PayPal Pay in 4 allows you to pay in interest-free instalments for Eligible Purchases that you make using your PayPal account, where the Transaction Amount is between AUD 30 and 1,500. The Transaction Amount is the value of your purchase less any PayPal account balance or special funding arrangement applied. We will automatically apply any merchant or transaction specific balance linked to your PayPal account to fund an Eligible Purchase and this will reduce the amount which is available to be funded through a Pay in 4 Plan. Pay in 4 will not be available where the Transaction Amount is reduced below AUD 30 and may not be available for purchases with certain merchants.

Repayment: Payment by your chosen credit card, debit card or bank account (if PayPal makes this functionality available) linked to your PayPal account as a funding source. (One source, no mixing to keep things simple). 

It seems to me that PayPal will automatically use your PayPal balance or coupons which will reduce your installment payments by that amount but you choose your preferred repayment method out of your linked credit/debit card, or bank account.

Alternatively, make one order that uses up your balance with a back up source and make an order for the rest with PayPal in 4.

Just try it, choosing your repayment method at checkout: bank account, debit card or credit card and let the chips fall where they may. If it don’t use your PayPal balance to reduce your installments, resign to withdrawing your PayPal balance afterwards to your preferred linked bank account to pay for the installments with your bank account, bank debit card or pay off your credit card with your bank account, no biggie.

Be sure to read the fine print on bottom of this page:

https://www.paypal.com/au/webapps/mpp/paypal-payin4

Full terms and conditions: 

https://www.paypal.com/au/webapps/mpp/paypal-payin4/terms

The more you know how the program works, the less surprised and disappointed you’ll be later.

[BernardW]

Thanks for the reply. I was expecting to see my existing $150 balance be used first and the Pay In 4 arrangement to apply to the remainder, but there was no option offered to use that balance, and after the purchase, the 150 was untouched. All I could do was to transfer it back to my bank account to put towards the 2nd payment (1st one was taken automatically as a condition of the Pay In 4 arrangement).

It's disappointing, there doesn't seem much point in having any balance in there if PayPal doesn't apply it to Pay In 4 payments. There seems to be something in the clauses about whether each seller will or won't apply it to the transaction, that seems weird to me as it's up to PayPal to determine how they administer the account; the seller just gets paid once at sale time and the arrangement after that is between the buyer and PayPal.

And given that it takes so unbelievably long, even after all these years, between when you add money to your PayPal account from your bank to when it shows up ready to use at PP, it just discourages me from bothering to keep a balance in there at all, even for non-Pay In 4 arrangements. I just let it use my bank to fund the purchases instead, otherwise money in there is usually just dead funds.

I didnt expect the Pay In 4 system to be unlimited, but when you actually do have funds in your PayPal account you expect to be able to use them.