Do not use my PayPal Balance for payment.

[chzuck]

It is far too easy to use my cash balance towards a credit card purchase.  It has happened several times to me.  How can I make it harder for that to happen.  Can I set the default NOT to use my balance?  If I can, how do I do that?

[Hopkinsjesse]

Payments

[chzuck]

Exactly where is that located.  I could not seem to find it.  If this is something you do each time you pay, I know how to do that.  But when I don't think about it PayPal automatically thinks I want to use my balance.  Can I set a default to make it use my credit card each time?

[PayPal_Bindu]

Hello @chzuck and @Hopkinsjesse,

Welcome to our community help forum and thanks for posting!

I understand your concern about not able to use PayPal balance as payment method for a purchase. When you make a payment, you will be able to select a bank account, credit card or debit card as an online preferred funding source. If you have a preferred funding source, any funds in your PayPal balance will not be used first. You can review our article for updating your card as a preferred payment method here. 

For payments such as automatic payment, such as a subscription or recurring type payments, we try to use your PayPal balance first. If you don't have enough money in your PayPal balance, we use your backup payment method. Information about automatic payments can be found here. 

I hope this information helps!

Bindu

[chzuck]

I know I have a credit card selected as preferred payment, but apparently it took the balance first.  My fault for not looking carefully, but there should be a way to set my credit card as default only and that you would need to make a choice to use the balance.  Don't worry, I will not let a balance in PayPal again!

[chzuck]

There should be a way to protect cash from auto payments.  It was nice to have a little cash in the account to use it for what I decided to use it for, not for automatic payment.  Inconvenient, but from now on I will make sure there is no cash in the account.

[wowens]

I see how to turn it off but it is of no use after the fact they took my balance.  There should be a way to turn it off for all purchases and not have to remember to login to PayPal once you have authorized an automatic recurring payment and navigate to wallet, merchant and edit to toggle off PayPal balance first.

[chzuck]

So agree, way too easy to take your balance.  Almost anything else you need to double verify before it happens.  I try not to have a balance.

[JR55]

With all due respect, @PayPal_Bindu , this is a new problem.  I have always been able to keep PP balance as the default but was able to choose a credit card instead, and the entire purchase was charged to the credit card. This is no longer the case.  After selecting specific credit cards for different types of purchases (one card for pet food vs business card for business purchase), I noticed my PayPal balance was either used instead, OR used FIRST and the rest of the purchase amount charged to the selected credit cards. When I make a business purchase I want the entire thing covered by my business card. 

I added my credit cards to PP for purchasing convenience (and promotional rewards.) I've use PP for nearly 20 years and never had this problem. But now if I cannot pay the way I want, I will remove the cards and use them for purchases directly.

If there is a way to avoid this unpleasantness that makes accounting difficult, please tell us.

[PayPal_Bindu]

Hello @JR55 

Thank you for writing in the PayPal Community and welcome!

Apologies for the inconvenience you've experienced. It sounds like you're referring to automatic payments, where PayPal uses the balance first unless you have toggled off  the "Use balance first” option when setting up a preferred payment method for automatic payment. You can manage the payment methods of your automatic payments in the settings page of your PayPal account. Here's the article with more information about managing automatic payments in your PayPal account : What is an automatic payment and how do I update or cancel one?
 

Hope this information helps you,

Bindu