I was charged twice both on paypal and bank account for a transaction

[Paul515]

Hello. Hope you're well if you're reading this.

I have an issue which I wanted to get some help and input on. 

So I paid a friend of mine to get some artwork made for me. I did the usual stuff of sending him money and paying the little fee that comes with it. I wasn't sure at first but I think I selected to take the fee amount from my bank account. Now here is where things get odd. for a couple days my money in paypal didn't change and then the money got taken out. Which is fine I figured it was a delay due to some technical issue. 

But yesterday night I checked my bank account to find the amount was also taken from my bank balance. So basically I have been charged twice both paypal and my bank account and I'm not sure what steps to take to get the missing money back. I checked with my friend who confirms they only have the one payment via paypal and nothing else so any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[sharpiemarker]

@Paul515 

What might be happening is your bank account is being used as back up funding source to the PayPal balance. Does the bank activity say the transaction is Pending? If yes, the transaction will update in a few days to return the funds if your PayPal balance has sufficient funds or only take the difference from your bank account if your PayPal balance was insufficient.

[jingles7]

Hi Sharpie and Paul,

Hoping for your insights on my situation, which sounds similar.

When making a purchase recently, PayPal took funds from my non-preferred account, then reimbursed it and took from the preferred account. The vendor is happy because they've been paid, and I've received my product. However, the non-preferred account went into overdraft when the initial spend went through, and I've received a fee from my bank for this overdraft. When I've tried to flag it with PayPal it's saying I need to take up the case with the company I bought the product from, but I'm not contesting the purchase, just the account that PayPal took the money from. Any suggestions or tips for how I can get the fee reimbursed by PayPal and prevent this happening again?

[Paul515]

Hi there. Unfortunately the transaction is not pending. Both the Paypal transaction and the bank one both show as completed. I certainly had enough in both accounts to cover the costs so I'm still rather perplexed. 

[PayPal_Bindu]

Hello @Paul515 and @jingles7,

Welcome to our community help forum!

I completely understand your concern about your funds. Thanks for the help @sharpiemarker!  @Paul515 If you're sending a PayPal payment, we'll always use your preferred funding method or any available money in your PayPal balance to fund the payment. If you don't have enough money in your balance, we'll try to take the money from your bank account. It could be possible that the payment you are referring might be partially funded by your PayPal balance and bank account. As you mentioned that the fee was selected to be debited from your bank account, I would recommend you to review the debited amounts from both your bank and PayPal balance. You can also view your account statement for more clarity. If you still notice the billing error after reviewing the statement, please report it in the resolution center of your PayPal account. 

@jingles7 To provide one of the safest online payment services, our internal security system reviews every payment before it's approved. Occasionally, we must change a payment method if there's a pattern associated with higher-than-normal risk. You may reach out to your bank to request the fees to be waived.

I hope this information helps,

Bindu