Credit card payment vs bank account payment

[Moejr]

If I have insufficient funds in my bank account will paypal use the credit card on file to pay the charge? I want to pay, but bank will not be open for a few days to make the appropriate deposit. I want to pay timely, but I also want to avoid insufficient fund charges.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi Moejr, and welcome to the forums!

Thank you for taking the time to do some research to find out how to correctly fund your payments. This definitely helps ensure that your sellers will receive their payments in a timely fashion and will also help you avoid insufficient fund charges.

If you make a payment and your bank is selected as the funding method, PayPal will make its attempts to use that method. If the bank responds with a reply that there are insufficient funds, PayPal will give it a couple of days before trying the second time. If another NSF response is received, then the backup funding method will be attempted.

It's vitally important to make sure that you have the intended funding method selected before committing to a payment, and that your funding method is capable of supporting the purchase. It's like writing a check - if you inadvertently write a check that you don't have funds to cover, both your bank and the receiving merchant may charge you fees. The good news is that PayPal will not charge you fees for "bouncing" a payment, but we can't prevent your bank from doing so, and they may do so for each attempt, resulting in multiple NSF fees. Double-checking your selections can help prevent that loss and inconvenience.

I hope this helps!

Olivia

[MelissaGClark]

I read the inquiry regarding the bank account vs the credit card back up. When I am certain I wouldn't have the funds in the account is there any way to by pass the bank account and go directly to the credit card, to avoid bank charges for returned check?

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi MelissaGClark, and welcome to the forums!

On each transaction, you can review the details before completing the payment. It will show the funding source that was chosen by default, and will offer an option to change the funding source. You can select to use a different funding method on that screen, then review the payment again, then click to complete it.

I hope this helps!

Olivia