PayPal Business Debit Card is removing backup bank account funding

[moorewmla]

I am not sure I am posting this in the correct location but we just received an email from PayPal informing us that starting September 12th the backup funding from our bank account to our PayPal Business Debit Card function is going to be removed from ALL PayPal accounts. I called and spoke with a wonderful customer service rep Lori who spoke with her supervisor (and they had to speak with their supervisor). Apparently no one had informed them of this major change in PayPal business account functions. 

We really rely on this benefit as we are fully self-employed with three businesses and live in a very rural area. The Debit Card backup funding gives us the peace of mind to know our accounts are running smoothly and we don't have to constantly check balances. Ours is a perishable product business and our sales are cyclical on a weekly basis, we don't have customers making purchases every day of the week.

Bottom line: booooooo to PayPal!! You just made our businesses HARDER to run on a day-to-day basis despite your claim in that very email stating your "ongoing focus on helping your business to thrive". I imagine there will be a lot of folks shopping around for other options since PayPal thinks it is fine to cut major functional benefits to their customers with no information or basis in doing so.

[ShayP1]

The worst part is I had so many things set on autodraft and getting declines left and right, but they never say WHAT or How much was declined, so I can't tell what's what.  Getting late fees up the yinyang, too, because of late payments for the declines.  

I guess i'll be cutting this off, too.  I tried transferring money, but it left my bank account on Thursday and didn't show up for paypal until the following Wednesday.  It's just too slow and cumbersome to use for business anymore. 

It's too bad.  This was SO great in the beginning as I pay cash for everything, so I have no credit and I can't get an actual credit card that will let me pay large invoices.   Even my actual bank won't go higher than $2500.00 per day on debit card, so this was literally the only thing and slowly they've broken it to where it's useless for business.  

I'm really curious what the logic was behind the change.

[adittmer02]

If I use my PayPal Debit Card and there is a $0 balance in my account, will the card default to the funds in my connected bank account, or will the transaction be voided?

[josephxburke]

Welp, it appears I'm in the exact same boat as all you fine folks – just hit into a series of declined transactions a couple weeks back, my first in over a decade of using a PayPal Business Debit Mastercard – and I automatically assumed something was majorly wrong. But alas, I'm learning now that this card that I've relied on for myriad balance-funded and connected business account-funded transactions is now unreliable and mostly useless.

I've scoured my emails looking for a notification of this policy change, but no dice. This is the first place I've found others describing the exactly same policy change that has been wreaking havoc in my world for the past couple of weeks. To bridge the gap, I attempted a transfer to my Paypal account from my bank to cover a few transactions, but the transfer took *6 days.*

This is untenable and breaks the function of the card for those it purports to support. I didn't even care about the cash back rewards like a lot of folks, but understand the universal frustration. I get slapped with ridiculous ads every time I log into my Paypal account, but I have to dig to find an update to card use policies? Like others, I'm being proactive and removing my reliance on this card ASAP to avoid further headaches.

[ddjanni]

I can't believe PayPal has gone backward to how it was when they first offered cards (like what 15 years ago?) - where you had to have money in your balance to use it. Backup funding made Paypal useful. They did away with pulling from it now???? What kind of moron exec made that decision?

I know, I see now I'm late to the party, but I usually have some money going in and out so I never noticed this change was a thing. They sure as hell didn't advertise it or let anyone know very well. I had my first decline this week and I didn't understand how it was possible. Sure enough, my balance was out. No point in me using Paypal anymore and I'm sure this is the same for a large portion of users.

Well done PayPal well done. Simply amazing.

[PortrayalPress]

This was a colossally poor decision on the part of Paypal.

1.  We used Paypal to process cc's until they unilaterally suspended our account for NO reason - no chargebacks, disputes - nothing.  It took 8-10 hours of hold to finally get a supervisor who agreed that the suspension was incorrect.  Nothing happened.  We repeated this scenario 3 times before we got our funding released.  By that point, we changed our processor to Stripe.  Much better.

2.  We used to run our business primarily off this card.  Since Paypal eliminated backup funding sources and we no longer use Paypal as our processor, the card is mostly useless.

3.  Less than 20% of our customers choose Paypal on our website.  Paypal - you listening?

[syrasha]

I'm angry that paypal made this change. I hope that as many people leave paypal as possible over this change. I've had it. 

[Teanbriegirl]

I have a feeling that it is a legal issue dealing with banking laws.

[Mitaha]

Send bank

[Richardl1986]

If PayPal does decide to bring back bank account backup funding like it was before Sep 12 2023, they should inform us about that too.