"Looking for Pay in 3? Unfortunately, Pay in 3 isn't available for this purchase" - Why???

[Fowler1966]

I have recently tried to make several payments to merchants using the Pay in 3 option. I have been able to use Pay in 3 with each of these merchants in the past. I am now getting this message:

"Looking for Pay in 3? Unfortunately, Pay in 3 isn't available for this purchase"

I have not missed any payments and have always fully paid off the previous Pay in 3 plans that I have been on.

For some reason, Paypal likes to keep secrets from its customers and is refusing to tell me why they have decided to impose these restrictions on my account. Does anyone know if Paypal have ever actually published the criteria that they use to assess people's eligibility for Pay in 3? There are no issues with my credit rating and it is genuinely a mystery to me why this has suddenly changed.

[JimmyMcGill]

Same with me, just went to use Pay in 3 in November and it lets me go through the checkout and at the last part asked me to be verified as my pay in 3 totals to £10,000!! Which it doesn’t, it wasn’t even £200 altogether! So I click to be verified and it’s says I am. Everytime says the amount per month I will pay (£10.33 in this example) and still says the same thing. I’ve sent screenshots to PayPal and then say “thank you” and tell me that PayPal pay in 3 is on an individual basis each time. I’ve never missed a payment, paid them all off now in case that was the issue and never missed a payment on my paypal credit either. Just bizzare. I do wonder if they are doing it to try and force people to use PayPal credit instead so they can get interest

[eejay1973]

I was able to use pay in 3 in December (2023), on trying today though I've been getting the merchant had asked for ... I can't finish the sentence as it disappears before I have finished reading. I have been pre-approved for pay in 3 and it's literally just disappeared. I've never missed a payment and have actually got a payment left of one order. Same as everyone else, I have a good credit score and even have PayPal credit, (again, I pay on time and have had PP credit for 12 months+ and was able to use pay in 3 2 months ago. It's really bizarre. I tried with boots and it wouldn't show on there either. They should tell customers what is going on though!!!

[JimmyMcGill]

Yeah it’s absolutely ridiculous. I have only one PayPal Credit 0% interest payment to settle by April and then I’m going to avoid using PayPal for anything. Which is a shame because up until they did this I loved using PayPal for anything. The pay in 3 option being removed without warning and without any information as to why it has makes no sense at all