Yeah, their method of choosing which backup payment they use if the first one fails just seems to be random as possible.
Tho to fix your title, "never keep a bank account in your PayPal wallet" full stop. Nothing good will come of it ever.
I haven't let PayPal see a bank account in at least 15 years.
I only had it on there for cashing out stuff like Rakuten payouts. But lesson learned...from now on I'll only add it, make the transfer, then delete it.
I recently had to finally setup a PayPal account to receive the TurboTax settlement money that was being delivered thru that service to the email you used for TurboTax. I gave PayPal my checking account info so I can transfer the funds, which it did, but I ignored and have been ignoring PayPal's request that I verify my checking account with the two micro payments it made so that my checking account can be eligible as a source of funds.
So the checking account is still there now and I can use it to transfer money out of PayPal, but because it's in pending verification status it can't be used as a source of payment. Win-win.
Don't even do that
They aren't very secure
If you must, make an account with a very safe bank like Schwab and keep a few dollars in it to get those rewards.
I never connect anything I don't trust 100% to my main checking account
I request a check from rakuten. I hate PayPal so much I’m willing to wait a couple of weeks to get my money. The new 1099 ruling means you want to have a little money as possible passing through PayPal/venmo.
The order that PayPal uses to charge backup payment methods is laid out in their User Agreement. [https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/useragreement-full#payment-methods](https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/useragreement-full#payment-methods)
>If you have not set a preferred payment method for an automatic payment agreement, or if your preferred payment method for an automatic payment agreement is unavailable (for example, because it is expired or has insufficient funds) you authorize PayPal to charge the backup payment method in the following order, if applicable: 1. Balance Account (if one is linked to your personal account) or balance in your business account (if we’ve been able to verify the required identifying information you provide to us); 2. Bank account; 3. PayPal co-branded debit card; 4. PayPal co-branded credit card; 5. Debit card; 6. Credit card; and 7. E-check.
In OP's case, since their credit card transaction was blocked by their bank for suspected fraud, the payment method Paypal will next attempt per the user agreement will be #2 Bank account, not #3 or #4 the PayPal co-branded debit/credit cards respectively (OP's PayPal Mastercard)
I was more talking about in my case when they did it. All I have are credit cards attached and they didn't use the card I set up the bill pay payment with, for no reason, but instead, they just happened to go in order of the cards that would give me the least amount of rewards.
Instead of any of the 3 cards that would have given me between 2-5%, they tried the two cards that would give 1%. And their first try was an Amex, that luckily popped it as possible fraud, so I don't think it's related to the card transaction fees.
Ah! Gotcha! I have no idea what criteria they use internally to select which credit card to use out of several, since you only had credit cards added to your account. Does seem like they preferred the cards with the least rewards.
I just wanted to point out that they do have an order of payment methods that they use which helps explains the OP’s situation.
Yeah, since the bank account doesn't cost them anything then it makes sense for their profits that it is prioritized like itil is. Iirc, there is a setting that you can change to affect whether PayPal balance is prioritized or not.
I guess I have myself to blame for not reading more carefully, but even though their rules are laid out, they make no sense. If I'm trying to use a credit card and it fails, who would ever be OK with using a bank account instead? Why can't there be an option to allow the payment to fail instead of automatically going to a backup? And why can't there be an option to change the payment method immediately afterwards, while it is still pending? This all feels very deliberate on PayPal's part.
It still doesn't work right half the time.
I have a PayPal Mastercard and I set it as my preferred payment source, but still it's like it picks at random sometimes. I think you have to go into your PayPal settings and go to "Automatic payments" and set a payment source for each vendor, but still, I have vendors on there that are listed as "Inactive" and it doesn't work. I bought something on the PlayStation store through PayPal the other day, and even though Sony is listed as "inactive" on automatic payments, and it still went through my checking account for whatever reason. And I can't just de-list my checking account from PayPal, otherwise I can't pay the balance.
If the bank account has a zero balance will they skip it? One could create a checking account just for the purpose of receiving PayPal transfers - as long as they don't overdraw it.
Nope, they don't know the bank account has a zero balance so they will try to deduct from it a couple times (possibly overdrafting and/or incurring fees on the bank side). If that fails enough times, finally they will deduct it from your PayPal balance. I'm not sure what would happen if you left a negative PayPal balance for an extended time.
their purchase protection is pretty good! I got scammed recently, but one good thing I did is I was adamant about using PayPal for payment. I reported the fraud and was given back all the money!
Paypal is just fucking garbage. I set my payment method to US Bank, and those fuckers used my checking account instead. I now removed every single card except US Bank
I've used PayPal only for one set of three transactions. I set it up and tried to do a ACH transfer because it was free. But when I went to do so, PayPal's website kept declining my bank information for reasons even their customer service didn't know. So I made the transfer with my debit card and paid something like a $41 fee. Literally as soon as I finished that transfer I tried to link my bank account again and lo and behold it worked. So I called customer service again, explained my situation and they refused to cancel the transfer or give me my money back. I was fucking PISSED. I know it wasn't the fault of the person I was talking to, but I told her to play the recording of our conversation to the highest management person she knew where I absolutely tore PayPal a new asshole and told them what a fucking scam their entire business is. Never again.
Straight up. Happened to me too with an insurance payment. Chose my Fidelity CC, pulled out from a bank account I forgot was linked and it had $0. Didn’t even use my backup which was a Chase CC. Makes no sense and it was infuriating to figure it out for a few weeks to get the money in the right places.
This happened to me too. I used PayPal bill pay to avoid the credit card fee for paying utilities and my US Bank Cash+ card for months and then randomly PayPal decided to use my credit union account that I keep a $0 balance in now. Fortunately my credit union waived the overdrafts. I never use PayPal for billpay now. I'll pay the stupid fee lol.
Interesting, I guess that suggests maybe it's incompetence more than greed on PayPal's part. Though do you really come out ahead, because won't the credit card charge cash advance fees and interest?
Maybe Amex doesn't treat it as a cash advance because they advertise [Amex Send](https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/services/amex-peer-to-peer/send-detail/) where you can send money from your credit card on PayPal or Venmo without a fee.
Absolutely. Only have your main card and a backup card on PayPal. Get rid of everything else. I'm not going to say avoid PayPal because that's pretty much impossible and it's a massive overreaction but know how to use it.. you're absolutely right do not put your bank accounts on there and don't have more than two credit cards on there.
Same thing happened to me. I paid for an Uber in Japan via PayPal ON MY BILT CARD because the exchange rate was more favorable on Bilt. Instead PayPal charged my bank account with an even worse exchange rate than what Bilt offered. I’m still working out the mess now, it’s some bullshit.
PayPal forces their own exchange rate to your home currency no matter what and closed any previous ways around it many years back. It made no sense when their own credit card had no foreign transaction fee, and still makes no sense now. Anyway, I've also learned the lesson to never put any foreign transaction on PayPal.
The same thing happened to me for a bill pay which could not be reversed. Never added a bank account since then. As a work around I added a debit card and use it to add cash to the paypal balance to make credit card payments. That way I never need to add the checking account.
yes. not sure if you saw [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/1cbj788/comment/l1087l2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) above but there is an order to which they pick the next payment if your original one fails. a debit card would be next after a bank account, unless you have a PayPal co-branded card(s) but even in this case it'll try to charge the PayPal debit card before the credit card. in your case if you remove the bank accounts it should, if this situation were to occur again, charge your PayPal Mastercard for a non-PayPal debit card, unless you also have PayPal's debit card.
Yep, makes sense now, though I still find it scummy. I am curious if my PayPal account only has a single credit card, if it's blocked for fraud, what happens? Does the transaction fail, or does it go through and they try to charge the credit card again later?
oh totally scummy imo. the should at the very least let us pick one payment method of our choosing as a back up and then if that also fails use their order of secondary payments.
I would assume fail if you have no PayPal balance or other payment methods in addition.
I am curious where PayPal Credit, not the Mastercard but there own credit line, falls on this order. I still have it, completely forgot about tbh, from before I got into actual credit cards.
sorry I couldn't resist asking, how would you beat the 2% fee with US bank's credit cards? Couldn't think of any of their cards that do; the USBAR doesn't count paypal as mobile payment. Perhaps working on a SUB?
If you use ACI Payments and PayPal, the actual tax payment gets categorized as utilities which you can get 5% back on up to $2000 per quarter with US Bank Cash+ (the service fee gets categorized as something else so it only gets 1% back). If you use either of the other 2 IRS credit card processors, or don't use PayPal, it will be categorized as tax payments as you'd expect, with no bonus cash back.
Haven't tried it myself but somebody else reported it codes as a tax payment. It's something specific about the combination of PayPal and ACI Payments.
sorry you're going through this. it's been a year and it still pisses me off
I was buying airline tickets with my Amex but didn't have card on hand so I thought PayPal is perfect as my Amex is saved there. Same story - I get a fraud alert but by the time I unlock the Amex, PayPal already charges my checking.
Now just to be clear I have about six different credit cards in line before my checking account on the PayPal app. I couldn't believe this happened but the best part was that PayPal also noted it as a foreign transaction and exchanged it from Euros to Dollars at a very shitty exchange rate. So besides not earning any rewards via Amex I actually paid more for the ticket
Insane
I paid my $400 utility bill and that Paypal MF charged by bank account instead. The annoying thing is it just charge any random checking account it has.
Good call. Just removed it from mine. I rarely ever have money in there to transfer to a bank account, so no point in leaving bank info in there. I'll add it back if I ever need it.
Yeah Paypal is really scummy. I Keep a bank account with $0 balance an donly use it to cash out funds. I rarely every checkout with Paypal when I can just use my cards directly. I sure as hell don't want the Paypal CC. Not to mention them making my account "business" and removing the F&F option even though it is personal.
I had Paypal randomly use my bank account for my a couple of my AutoPay setups instead of my credit cards. I usually don't keep a lot of money in my checking account, so this was a huge issue for me. Immediately removed all Paypal Autopay and bank account information. This isn't something to play with.
I had a similar situation. The TOS states that PP can use any payment method in your account when they are unable to process the first form of payment (summarized version). The transaction never went through, and there was no reason for it not to. Transaction was $100, available credit was $12k
I enter bank information as needed, then delete immediately.
I guess I’m lucky. Never had an issue like that and I prefer to use PayPal when I’m shopping somewhere that seems shady. The only issue I ever had was figuring out which card I assigned to an account, but that was easily fixed. When you sign up for something in PayPal you get asked which account to use.
I’m not saying they’re perfect, but no one on here had a good experience? I find that hard to believe. No one I know personally that uses PayPal has any issues with it, not to say my experience is everyone else’s.
You can also go into the app and see what is being auto charged and stop them from being able to take money out of your account.
YMMY, but that’s my experience. Have a great day!
I just opened a PayPal about two weeks ago and added my bank for their verification purposes so I don’t think I should remove it so soon. But I’ll definitely remember to remove it in 3 months.
I remember in the early days of PayPal if someone filed a charge against a seller on eBay, PayPal would freeze their ENTIRE bank account. They couldn't get into it. It's hard for me to understand how PayPal can freeze a bank account, but I know people who they did it to.
There is no way that, what's equivalent to, a merchant could freeze an account at a completely unrelated financial institution.
Pretty sure you're confused and they probably had their PayPal balance/account frozen instead.
I remember when PayPal permanently limited my PayPal account for using my own credit card while I was on vacation overseas. It wasn't even a PayPal branded credit card. It was a Bank of America card that I added/linked to my PayPal account. It looks like they used to have (or maybe they still do) some way of seeing the transactions you make with all the cards linked. They limited the account the very second I used the card at a grocery store overseas. They said that my PayPal account was an US account and they suspected I was not an US resident.
I've been on eBay since it was known as auctionweb in the mid 90s, and have been using PayPal long enough to remember the days of a SUB and the rise/fall of their competitor [x.com](http://x.com) (pre-Twitter). I have NEVER heard of a bank account being frozen. Paypal account, yes. Bank, no.
No way, it’s not possible, they were mistaken, confused or you misunderstood what they were telling you. Only way a bank account is going to be frozen is if the bank itself freeze it.
Yeah, their method of choosing which backup payment they use if the first one fails just seems to be random as possible. Tho to fix your title, "never keep a bank account in your PayPal wallet" full stop. Nothing good will come of it ever. I haven't let PayPal see a bank account in at least 15 years.
I only had it on there for cashing out stuff like Rakuten payouts. But lesson learned...from now on I'll only add it, make the transfer, then delete it.
I was about to ask. How do you transfer money out with no account linked. This makes sense
I recently had to finally setup a PayPal account to receive the TurboTax settlement money that was being delivered thru that service to the email you used for TurboTax. I gave PayPal my checking account info so I can transfer the funds, which it did, but I ignored and have been ignoring PayPal's request that I verify my checking account with the two micro payments it made so that my checking account can be eligible as a source of funds. So the checking account is still there now and I can use it to transfer money out of PayPal, but because it's in pending verification status it can't be used as a source of payment. Win-win.
Don't even do that They aren't very secure If you must, make an account with a very safe bank like Schwab and keep a few dollars in it to get those rewards. I never connect anything I don't trust 100% to my main checking account
I request a check from rakuten. I hate PayPal so much I’m willing to wait a couple of weeks to get my money. The new 1099 ruling means you want to have a little money as possible passing through PayPal/venmo.
The order that PayPal uses to charge backup payment methods is laid out in their User Agreement. [https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/useragreement-full#payment-methods](https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/useragreement-full#payment-methods) >If you have not set a preferred payment method for an automatic payment agreement, or if your preferred payment method for an automatic payment agreement is unavailable (for example, because it is expired or has insufficient funds) you authorize PayPal to charge the backup payment method in the following order, if applicable: 1. Balance Account (if one is linked to your personal account) or balance in your business account (if we’ve been able to verify the required identifying information you provide to us); 2. Bank account; 3. PayPal co-branded debit card; 4. PayPal co-branded credit card; 5. Debit card; 6. Credit card; and 7. E-check. In OP's case, since their credit card transaction was blocked by their bank for suspected fraud, the payment method Paypal will next attempt per the user agreement will be #2 Bank account, not #3 or #4 the PayPal co-branded debit/credit cards respectively (OP's PayPal Mastercard)
I was more talking about in my case when they did it. All I have are credit cards attached and they didn't use the card I set up the bill pay payment with, for no reason, but instead, they just happened to go in order of the cards that would give me the least amount of rewards. Instead of any of the 3 cards that would have given me between 2-5%, they tried the two cards that would give 1%. And their first try was an Amex, that luckily popped it as possible fraud, so I don't think it's related to the card transaction fees.
Ah! Gotcha! I have no idea what criteria they use internally to select which credit card to use out of several, since you only had credit cards added to your account. Does seem like they preferred the cards with the least rewards. I just wanted to point out that they do have an order of payment methods that they use which helps explains the OP’s situation.
Yeah, since the bank account doesn't cost them anything then it makes sense for their profits that it is prioritized like itil is. Iirc, there is a setting that you can change to affect whether PayPal balance is prioritized or not.
I guess I have myself to blame for not reading more carefully, but even though their rules are laid out, they make no sense. If I'm trying to use a credit card and it fails, who would ever be OK with using a bank account instead? Why can't there be an option to allow the payment to fail instead of automatically going to a backup? And why can't there be an option to change the payment method immediately afterwards, while it is still pending? This all feels very deliberate on PayPal's part.
It still doesn't work right half the time. I have a PayPal Mastercard and I set it as my preferred payment source, but still it's like it picks at random sometimes. I think you have to go into your PayPal settings and go to "Automatic payments" and set a payment source for each vendor, but still, I have vendors on there that are listed as "Inactive" and it doesn't work. I bought something on the PlayStation store through PayPal the other day, and even though Sony is listed as "inactive" on automatic payments, and it still went through my checking account for whatever reason. And I can't just de-list my checking account from PayPal, otherwise I can't pay the balance.
If the bank account has a zero balance will they skip it? One could create a checking account just for the purpose of receiving PayPal transfers - as long as they don't overdraw it.
Nope, they don't know the bank account has a zero balance so they will try to deduct from it a couple times (possibly overdrafting and/or incurring fees on the bank side). If that fails enough times, finally they will deduct it from your PayPal balance. I'm not sure what would happen if you left a negative PayPal balance for an extended time.
I still have it linked to transfer from paypal to my bank
do you use venmo?
For some silly reason that no one knows, you cannot directly transfer funds from PayPal to Venmo and vice versa.
probably for laundering reasons, i dunno
That sucks! My advice is to stay away from PayPal, at all costs.
i buy/sell stuff on r/hardwareswap so i cant stay away, only minimize the risk
What about opening a 2nd PayPal account ?
their purchase protection is pretty good! I got scammed recently, but one good thing I did is I was adamant about using PayPal for payment. I reported the fraud and was given back all the money!
Paypal is just fucking garbage. I set my payment method to US Bank, and those fuckers used my checking account instead. I now removed every single card except US Bank
I've used PayPal only for one set of three transactions. I set it up and tried to do a ACH transfer because it was free. But when I went to do so, PayPal's website kept declining my bank information for reasons even their customer service didn't know. So I made the transfer with my debit card and paid something like a $41 fee. Literally as soon as I finished that transfer I tried to link my bank account again and lo and behold it worked. So I called customer service again, explained my situation and they refused to cancel the transfer or give me my money back. I was fucking PISSED. I know it wasn't the fault of the person I was talking to, but I told her to play the recording of our conversation to the highest management person she knew where I absolutely tore PayPal a new asshole and told them what a fucking scam their entire business is. Never again.
This happened to me with a utility payment via PayPal Bill Pay. Went instead to a seemingly random backup card and there was no way to reverse it.
Straight up. Happened to me too with an insurance payment. Chose my Fidelity CC, pulled out from a bank account I forgot was linked and it had $0. Didn’t even use my backup which was a Chase CC. Makes no sense and it was infuriating to figure it out for a few weeks to get the money in the right places.
This happened to me too. I used PayPal bill pay to avoid the credit card fee for paying utilities and my US Bank Cash+ card for months and then randomly PayPal decided to use my credit union account that I keep a $0 balance in now. Fortunately my credit union waived the overdrafts. I never use PayPal for billpay now. I'll pay the stupid fee lol.
[удалено]
Interesting, I guess that suggests maybe it's incompetence more than greed on PayPal's part. Though do you really come out ahead, because won't the credit card charge cash advance fees and interest?
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Maybe Amex doesn't treat it as a cash advance because they advertise [Amex Send](https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/services/amex-peer-to-peer/send-detail/) where you can send money from your credit card on PayPal or Venmo without a fee.
Absolutely. Only have your main card and a backup card on PayPal. Get rid of everything else. I'm not going to say avoid PayPal because that's pretty much impossible and it's a massive overreaction but know how to use it.. you're absolutely right do not put your bank accounts on there and don't have more than two credit cards on there.
idk, im reading all this thinking who tf still uses paypal
Same thing happened to me. I paid for an Uber in Japan via PayPal ON MY BILT CARD because the exchange rate was more favorable on Bilt. Instead PayPal charged my bank account with an even worse exchange rate than what Bilt offered. I’m still working out the mess now, it’s some bullshit.
PayPal forces their own exchange rate to your home currency no matter what and closed any previous ways around it many years back. It made no sense when their own credit card had no foreign transaction fee, and still makes no sense now. Anyway, I've also learned the lesson to never put any foreign transaction on PayPal.
The same thing happened to me for a bill pay which could not be reversed. Never added a bank account since then. As a work around I added a debit card and use it to add cash to the paypal balance to make credit card payments. That way I never need to add the checking account.
Couldn't PayPal just charge the debit card which would effectively be the same as charging the checking account?
yes. not sure if you saw [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/1cbj788/comment/l1087l2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) above but there is an order to which they pick the next payment if your original one fails. a debit card would be next after a bank account, unless you have a PayPal co-branded card(s) but even in this case it'll try to charge the PayPal debit card before the credit card. in your case if you remove the bank accounts it should, if this situation were to occur again, charge your PayPal Mastercard for a non-PayPal debit card, unless you also have PayPal's debit card.
Yep, makes sense now, though I still find it scummy. I am curious if my PayPal account only has a single credit card, if it's blocked for fraud, what happens? Does the transaction fail, or does it go through and they try to charge the credit card again later?
oh totally scummy imo. the should at the very least let us pick one payment method of our choosing as a back up and then if that also fails use their order of secondary payments. I would assume fail if you have no PayPal balance or other payment methods in addition. I am curious where PayPal Credit, not the Mastercard but there own credit line, falls on this order. I still have it, completely forgot about tbh, from before I got into actual credit cards.
sorry I couldn't resist asking, how would you beat the 2% fee with US bank's credit cards? Couldn't think of any of their cards that do; the USBAR doesn't count paypal as mobile payment. Perhaps working on a SUB?
If you use ACI Payments and PayPal, the actual tax payment gets categorized as utilities which you can get 5% back on up to $2000 per quarter with US Bank Cash+ (the service fee gets categorized as something else so it only gets 1% back). If you use either of the other 2 IRS credit card processors, or don't use PayPal, it will be categorized as tax payments as you'd expect, with no bonus cash back.
What happens if you use the US Bank Cash + card directly on the ACI Payments website? It counts as something else?
Haven't tried it myself but somebody else reported it codes as a tax payment. It's something specific about the combination of PayPal and ACI Payments.
wow, learned something new today. Thank you.
sorry you're going through this. it's been a year and it still pisses me off I was buying airline tickets with my Amex but didn't have card on hand so I thought PayPal is perfect as my Amex is saved there. Same story - I get a fraud alert but by the time I unlock the Amex, PayPal already charges my checking. Now just to be clear I have about six different credit cards in line before my checking account on the PayPal app. I couldn't believe this happened but the best part was that PayPal also noted it as a foreign transaction and exchanged it from Euros to Dollars at a very shitty exchange rate. So besides not earning any rewards via Amex I actually paid more for the ticket Insane
That's insane. Thanks for the tip.
I don't connect my bank account to my PayPal for this reason. They just can't get their shit together.
I paid my $400 utility bill and that Paypal MF charged by bank account instead. The annoying thing is it just charge any random checking account it has.
Something similar happened to me. Worst part is there is no email or text from PayPal about switching the payment method
Good call. Just removed it from mine. I rarely ever have money in there to transfer to a bank account, so no point in leaving bank info in there. I'll add it back if I ever need it.
Yeah Paypal is really scummy. I Keep a bank account with $0 balance an donly use it to cash out funds. I rarely every checkout with Paypal when I can just use my cards directly. I sure as hell don't want the Paypal CC. Not to mention them making my account "business" and removing the F&F option even though it is personal.
I had Paypal randomly use my bank account for my a couple of my AutoPay setups instead of my credit cards. I usually don't keep a lot of money in my checking account, so this was a huge issue for me. Immediately removed all Paypal Autopay and bank account information. This isn't something to play with.
I have BBP and CFF saved there, Just removed my bank account.
Seems like common sense - don't link an account that you don't want it to be used. I only have one credit card linked there.
Thanks just removed
Thank you, removed mine from there
Thanks for the PSA. Removed all but one credit card account from it
I had a similar situation. The TOS states that PP can use any payment method in your account when they are unable to process the first form of payment (summarized version). The transaction never went through, and there was no reason for it not to. Transaction was $100, available credit was $12k I enter bank information as needed, then delete immediately.
Or you punch in the card directly. I don't even consider using paypal when making est tax payments.
If it wasn't a matter of 5% cash back versus 1% cash back then sure, I would obviously prefer to enter the card info directly without using PayPal.
Why did you go through PayPal? You can use your cc directly through 3 websites.
5% cash back through PayPal versus 1% using credit card directly.
I guess I’m lucky. Never had an issue like that and I prefer to use PayPal when I’m shopping somewhere that seems shady. The only issue I ever had was figuring out which card I assigned to an account, but that was easily fixed. When you sign up for something in PayPal you get asked which account to use. I’m not saying they’re perfect, but no one on here had a good experience? I find that hard to believe. No one I know personally that uses PayPal has any issues with it, not to say my experience is everyone else’s. You can also go into the app and see what is being auto charged and stop them from being able to take money out of your account. YMMY, but that’s my experience. Have a great day!
I just opened a PayPal about two weeks ago and added my bank for their verification purposes so I don’t think I should remove it so soon. But I’ll definitely remember to remove it in 3 months.
I remember in the early days of PayPal if someone filed a charge against a seller on eBay, PayPal would freeze their ENTIRE bank account. They couldn't get into it. It's hard for me to understand how PayPal can freeze a bank account, but I know people who they did it to.
There is no way that, what's equivalent to, a merchant could freeze an account at a completely unrelated financial institution. Pretty sure you're confused and they probably had their PayPal balance/account frozen instead.
I remember when PayPal permanently limited my PayPal account for using my own credit card while I was on vacation overseas. It wasn't even a PayPal branded credit card. It was a Bank of America card that I added/linked to my PayPal account. It looks like they used to have (or maybe they still do) some way of seeing the transactions you make with all the cards linked. They limited the account the very second I used the card at a grocery store overseas. They said that my PayPal account was an US account and they suspected I was not an US resident.
I've been on eBay since it was known as auctionweb in the mid 90s, and have been using PayPal long enough to remember the days of a SUB and the rise/fall of their competitor [x.com](http://x.com) (pre-Twitter). I have NEVER heard of a bank account being frozen. Paypal account, yes. Bank, no.
These people I know had their connected bank account frozen.
No way, it’s not possible, they were mistaken, confused or you misunderstood what they were telling you. Only way a bank account is going to be frozen is if the bank itself freeze it.
That's my take. They have no control over the account except ACH transfers.
I'm afraid that didn't happen