It infuriates me because I purchase quite a few pricey items on eBay, so hoped to maximise the cashback on my purchases. I called today and receievd a patronising "have you even activated your card?" response. They later explained a few things. 1. The backup funding is for small amounts, it isnt to replace a bank card, so let's say you want to buy an item that cost £4.50 but only have £3.90 in your account, it will request the rest from the bank. They said it is to prevent "taking over" the use of your normal bank card. They also said it will almost always decline if you have nothing in your account because it works on having PayPal credit. So despite having that function on to "automatically withdraw money from you backup funding", it is to only be used in "emergency" situations. 2. The PayPal card is to be used where paypal isnt normally accepted. I.e.. small local shops, department store, for travelling and withdrawing cash abroad.. etc.. they said if a website already uses paypal, then it wouldnt work because PayPal is already a feature so you cannot use a paypal card when the option to use paypal is already there, hence losing the 0.5% cashback. 3. I was also told a few people have called in to complain about the card not working on eBay. I think it is to do with cashback, they probably want to prevent people getting extra cashback on eBay purchases, eBay is a massive platform, with items of varying prices, so a lot of money would be dished out to us consumers if we constantly used it on there. So yeah, I'm annoyed me to be honest, the deal was too good to be true. I'm worried to try it in store now, it'll be embarrassing if it declined! Oh and finally, I was told to try my card in an "ATM" and that it should definitely work after that, to which I replied.. "if it has been activated online and manually activated on via our telephone call..I doubt an ATM would make any difference to my eBay transaction" the whole idea of allowing it to be activated online is to prevent going to an ATM! OVERALL.. discussion was pointless.. card doesnt help me for my eBay purchases and whilst I have a business account, I routinely withdraw my funds to my main bank account, so unless I remember to keep it in paypal to use for purchases, it'll be a hassle to transfer funds back into my PayPal to justify a very small 0.5%. I may as well continue using my cashback sites! Sorry this just irritates me that they havent provided a proper excuse for this and you're right in your earlier message, it is sheer avoidance!
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