Friends and family payment

[Liz1235]

I was told to pay $30 through friends and family to recover my Instagram account I didn’t know that it doesn’t give you any protection I think it should be like the banks do give more information so you can make the right choice there isn’t If you choose bank transfer your bank immediately flags up comments about being absolutely sure what you are doing PayPal should have this also so people can make an informed choice of how to pay If there had been a warning I would never have chosen to pay friends and family 

it’s not good enough for PayPal to say nothing can be done when there was no warning issued

[kernowlass]

@Liz1235 

The clue is in the title, if he was not a close mate or family member you should never use that option.

When you click to send funds there are 2 options and on only 1 of them does it tell you that you have buyer protection.

A friends / family (or gift payment) is intended as a transfer of funds from family or friends to one another. For this reason, there is no processing fee when payment is made with bank or PayPal balance.
However as it is a gift payment, there is also no buyer protection as no goods or services should have been exchanged.

You would also not be able to open a dispute (apart from one citing an unauthorised transaction), which would be automatically closed as you did authorise the initial payment.

Be careful as using that option for purchasing goods is against Paypal rules and can lead to account limitation.

If you funded your Paypal payment via a credit card then contact your card issuer and see if they will help you but unfortunately they may decline as well as it was a gift payment.

[Liz1235]

Hi

thank you for replying I actually was charged a fee for processing I was charged $1.50 on top of the payment Should I contact paypal about this As this is only the second time I have sent money I did not know about the difference in payments I must have been just lucky the first time

My credit card provider is going to look into getting this refunded to me I’ve also been told that it will be refunded tomorrow I just hope it works out

[kernowlass]

@Liz1235 

Friends/family payments are free within the UK but only if funded via a bank account or funds in your balance, if you use a credit card then you pay a fee unfortunately.

If you opened a dispute with your card issuer, that is your best bet to be honest as paypal would be unlikely you help you as it was an f/f  payment and also once you have done a chargeback via your card issuer you have negated any paypal help.

Stick with your card issuer and I hope that they can help you.

[Liz1235]

These people certainly knew what they were doing when they advised me to use family and friends. It is so like when the banks refused to help when people  who were scammed by paying by bank transfer. That’s why they now have to put the warning on screen if you choose bank transfer No doubt PayPal will be forced to catch up sometime

[kernowlass]

@Liz1235 

They do put a warning, when you click to send the goods/services option has 'buyer protection', the friends/family option does not.

But to be fair most folks know that you don't use that option if you are not sending to a close mate or family member.

[Liz1235]

I really only use PayPal to pay for goods on eBay so did not know there were different way to pay PayPal are angry that a possible scammer is using them They have said that they will work with my credit card company to try and resolve this I have managed to get myself back onto instagram through using my phone 

would you know how I can send a complaint to instagram about what’s happened 

[PayPal_Bindu]

Hey @Liz1235,

Thank you for the help @kernowlass!

I certainly understand how concerning this can be for you. You can report the incident to support by clicking the help option in the Instagram page.

Have a great day!

Bindu

[Liz1235]

I’ve tried their help and I’m getting nowhere All I can seem to do is report a problem I’ve done that and they haven’t replied or helped me I’ve also tweeted them several times and they haven’t bothered to reply Phoning isn’t an option as I live in UK