Many years ago I received a call from PayPal. The rep said I had exceeded some purchase threshold and needed to add a bank account for verification. I asked the rep how much I'd purchased. He said $160K cumulative. At the time, I was buying large lots on eBay for resale. The rep would not relent. I didn't want to use my real BoA account, so I created another no-fee online account which has never contained more than $10. This month PayPal attempted to withdraw from this empty bank account instead of my preferred credit card. When I review the PayPal transaction history, this only happens when it's an eBay auction which required payment details in advance and was paid automatically. I've never seen this with preauthorized best offers, but maybe it's a recent change? All my PayPal settings are correct. I've read many related forum posts. I think most cases were user error in not properly configuring automatic payments. In all other cases, PayPal's usual response is that AI can arbitrarily choose a different payment method and there's no way to know why. The unfortunate conclusion is that you need to be able to cover any PayPal purchase with any payment method. I don't want to play that game. I use my credit card for rewards and I don't want to deal with surprise bank overdrafts. I could give eBay my credit card directly, but I'm not sure that's the lesser of two evils. 🙄 What happens if I delete my linked bank account from PayPal? My current purchase volume is probably less than $2K per year, but I can't erase the cumulative history.
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