Is Your PayPal Linked to Your Bank Account?

[01toubib]

Never attach your paypal to your bank account. I've had horror stories with it. Paypal is allowed access to your bank account WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION. Very few institutions have that power (mainly just the government) and it's no acceptable imo for a website that is not even a real bank to have that kind of power. I had like $5 on paypal, some reason paypal thought I had owed them $60. They proceeded to emptying my paypal account and then went into my bank account to pull the rest of the money. I had little money in that account so it overdrafted my account costing me $100 total. I called and it took 2 months of frustration to get the $60 refunded but I still had to pay the overdraft fee even though it was not my fault.

Had I tied just a credit card with my account, it would have been solved in 5 minutes. I would have just called my credit card company, said it was a fraudulent charge (which it was).

Since then, I've strongly advised people to terminate their account if it's tied to a bank, and start a new one with no bank information what so ever. Transfer any left over funds from the old account into the new account.

[Mephikun]

Never attach your paypal to your bank account. I've had horror stories with it. Paypal is allowed access to your bank account WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION. Very few institutions have that power (mainly just the government) and it's no acceptable imo for a website that is not even a real bank to have that kind of power. I had like $5 on paypal, some reason paypal thought I had owed them $60. They proceeded to emptying my paypal account and then went into my bank account to pull the rest of the money. I had little money in that account so it overdrafted my account costing me $100 total. I called and it took 2 months of frustration to get the $60 refunded but I still had to pay the overdraft fee even though it was not my fault.

Had I tied just a credit card with my account, it would have been solved in 5 minutes. I would have just called my credit card company, said it was a fraudulent charge (which it was).

Since then, I've strongly advised people to terminate their account if it's tied to a bank, and start a new one with no bank information what so ever. Transfer any left over funds from the old account into the new account.

That's all fine and dandy, but what about the people who are required to have it linked for whatever reason and have been doing so for years?

This is the 3rd year my PayPal account has been linked, and I needed to link it to have a verified account. I used to buy, sell, and trade phones, tablets, laptops, etc. You were required to have it verified or else the seller/trader would be advised not to ship.

And in my situation now, I need it more than before. My channel's ad revenue is added to my bank account, and if I use PayPal in any other way than directly drawing from the account I get a fee from the bank. So I just use the funds that way, and haven't had a problem.

That's just my I'm-still-extremely-tired-at-noon opinion.

[marurun]

My recommendation would be to not link PayPal to your primary bank account, but rather keep a separate account, perhaps a free savings account, handy for this. PayPal does indeed reserve the right to access your bank account in ways very few other institutions do and that can lead to issues, especially if you ever deal in bigger-ticket items.

Unless PayPal is part of how you make a living, I suggest you find another workaround. I think prepaid credit cards are the bomb for this.

[Jagosaurus]

Nope - I opted for the Paypal creditcard. It may not have the best reward structure, but every month or so I get a free $50 for buying games on Gog/Steam/Ebay/Here.

I looked into the credit card but they charge you $60 a year.

The debit card looks like it might work well. I could transfer my PayPal balance to the card, then spend that money in brick & mortar stores that accept MasterCard.
https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/debit-card

This one is free & appears you don't need a bank acct linked. Only issue is if I have $20 in paypal balance & want a $22 item off amazon. Split transactions don't typically work online but in stores I could pay that $2 variance in cash.

[Zing]

I've always had Paypal linked to my bank account. They do not take funds from your bank account without your permission. I've had some extreme situations where Paypal certainly would have attempted to take funds if they were inclined to do so, and they have never touched my bank account. I've done chargebacks for thousands of dollars with no repercussions. I've been at negative balance for months and still no bank account access. I've even lost a dispute with zero balance and still no clawback from bank account.

Here is the official comment:
https://www.paypal.com/helpcenter/main. ... isSrch=Yes

Wow what a ridiculous URL.

[Gunstar Green]

I never had any problems with Paypal being linked to my bank account. I did have a problem with Paypal being linked to eBay when some Russian hackers got into my eBay account and bought $500 worth of postage labels.


In the end, Paypal reversed the charges within a few days and all was well. Hopefully eBay and Pitney Bowes solved their security problems.

They wouldn't have been able to do it at all if I hadn't had my eBay linked to my Paypal account and I don't any longer.

[01toubib]

I've always had Paypal linked to my bank account. They do not take funds from your bank account without your permission.

Yes they do, just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean they don't do it. If you read the terms and conditions that you have to accept, if you tie your bank account they can.

From the terms and conditions:
"10.2 Reimbursement for Your Liability. In the event that you are liable for any amounts owed to PayPal, PayPal may immediately remove such amounts from your Balance. If you do not have a Balance that is sufficient to cover your liability, your remaining Balance (if any) will be removed, your Account will have negative Balance up to the amount of your liability, and you will be required to immediately add funds to your Balance to eliminate the negative Balance. If you do not do so, PayPal may engage in collection efforts to recover such amounts from you."

Collection efforts in this term is Bank Levy if you have your account tied with them. Trust me, it's happened to many people including me. Most of the time it's hacking, or really ugly buyer/seller disputes that cause it to happen.

[prfsnl_gmr]

You can have more than one bank account. If you link your PayPal account to a bank account that does not carry much of a balance, you will reap all the benefits of having linked accounts while minimizing your concerns regarding PayPal's ability to withdraw your funds.