How to change "we'll use your balance first" for payments

[karenevanspics]

I do not want PayPal using my balance first. I have automatic payment accounts set up to charge my credit card, but I see that even though it says in the specific account that payments will come from my credit card, underneath where it says that, it says "we'll use your balance first." It says that on all my automatic accounts even though I have credit card payment selected. How do I stop PayPal from using my balance first? I want all charges to be paid only by credit card, not my PayPal balance. Any ideas? Thanks!

[PayPal_Bindu]

Hello everyone,

Welcome to our community and thank you for your posts!

When you make a payment, you will be able to select your preferred funding source at the time of check out. If you have a preferred funding source, any funds in your PayPal balance will not be used first. 

For payments such as automatic payments, 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. You can see more information about automatic payments here.

I hope this helps!

Bindu

[JivanP]

Hi, @PayPal_Bindu,

Thanks for the clarification. This agrees with what I have observed. However, the question still remains: Why is it the case that PayPal balance is always used first for recurring payments? I never want my PayPal balance to be used for this purpose, and in the past it was completely possible to set a different payment method as the default. Given that we have the option to not use the PayPal balance for one-time payments, what is the reason for not having this option for recurring payments also?

I would also like to mention that the screenshots I attached in my previous comment appear to have been blocked/removed for some reason.

[pyrorazer]

"When you make a payment, you will be able to select your preferred funding source at the time of check out. If you have a preferred funding source, any funds in your PayPal balance will not be used first. "

Today I made an offer on an eBay item which I had made an offer on yesterday also. Yesterday when I made the first offer I chose a Mastercard. Today when I made the second counteroffer, it didn't ask to select a funding source, so logically it would then use the Mastercard I chose first for that item's offer. Or maybe it would make sense (not much sense though) if when it didn't ask a funding source that it then defaulted to my default PayPal online shopping payment method.

But no, it instead used my balance first, just as you said it would not do, PayPal_Bindu. Then since balance was insufficient, it then used one of the bank accounts I have linked, instead of either credit card: the card I chose for that item's first offer or the card that is my PayPay account's default online payment method.

All in all, this didn't make any sense to me when it used my balance and then a bank account.

[Temp20230605]

@PayPal_Bindu
As @JivanP  said, there's no reason why it should NOT be an option to NOT use the balance first. What is the point of that? I have some payments in my automatic payments that I was able to de-select "use balance first" on, but other ones where I DO NOT have that option.
It just says, "If you have a balance, we'll use it first. If there's a problem with the payment method you choose, we’ll use one of your other banks or cards on file to make the payment. See About Payment Methods."

Why on earth? I had automatic charges that needed to go to a BUSINESS ACCOUNT CARD that took from my PayPal balance, which had been sent as a gift from a family member.
Is there any way to get those charges refunded to my balance and have them recharged to the right card, or am I just out of luck like the others in this thread???

[EvBond]

I have this exact same issue - PayPal is CONSTANTLY defaulting to my Balance first despite my turning it off and specifying my Business Account as the preferred and ONLY funding source. Then I log in a few days later and the PP Balance is back as my funding source.

So for 2 years now PP have been taking money from my Balance and NOT my bank - which means they do not get reflected as a business expense in my QuickBooks reports which messes up my Net Profit and I pay more Corp Tax! I now have to manually go through months worth of downloaded PP reports and manually hand those expenses to my Accountant - it is beyond frustrating when I am so busy! I am chatting to PP and they say the same old rubbish that I just turn it off manually - but I do and it defaults back to PP Balance - sometimes it's not even there as an option and sometimes with Envato marketplace for example, there is an error! Like this screenshot - so I am very VERY annoyed at PP as there is clearly soe algorithm that overrides what you set by default! They really need to have an option to turn off PP Balances across the whole account for people who need the expense to register on their bank cards. I get royalties for illustrations from Stock libraries which go into my PP Balance and so it never runs dry - now I need to monitor it every day and withdraw from it to stop it from taking expenses!

[PayPal_Meghan]

Hello @EvBond, 

Welcome back to the PayPal Community Forum! 

I'm sorry to hear that your settings keep reverting and adding your balance back as your preferred payment method for automatic payments. I understand you've updated it quite a few times, and I apologize for the frustration this has caused. When you speak with Customer Support next, I recommend requesting that they file a ticket to the technical support teams to have it investigated if they have not already. 

I hope it is fixed for you soon! 

- Meghan

[Temp20230611]

There appears to be 2 possible ways to update this so it does not use the balance first.

1st is to go into payments section, then auto payments, Click on the service provide and change the payment method.  you may get a toggle at the top that says use balance first.  Turn this off.

The second method is to go to the provider and update the payment method there.  Click change payment method.  select paypal, sign in and turn the toggle off for use balance first.

[JivanP]

Wow, freaking finally! That toggle switch has not been there for years, they must have added (re-added?) it recently! I have just disabled "Use balance first" for all of my existing payments, except for eBay, which doesn't have this option. Cheers!

[etshop]

I've been experiencing the same issue and found the following. Haven't tried the solution just yet but am going to.

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/switch-paypal-payment-method-for-automatic-payments-and-subscriptio...