Oh Come on Ebay, DO SOMETHING ALREADY! Plus Vital Paypal Info

[nesta]

All you need is a credit card to open a personal account. You won't be able to accept credit card transfers with a personal account. To my knowledge, the only time you need to give your bank account # is if you want to have a certified account or if you want to link the 2 so that you can move funds out of your paypal easily.

 

It can be done because I have done it in the past couple of weeks. Check out the paypal website.

 

Nesta

[fantastic_four]

Can the account you hook up to PayPal be a savings account? If so, banks don't do overdrafts on those, do they?

[nesta]

I think FF is onto something there but I think it was stated earlier in the thread that it has to be checking due to ACH blah blah blah.

 

I guess a no fee checking account soley for the purpose of paypal makes sense. It would reomve my fear. Can't beleive I didn't think of it until I saw FF's post.

 

THanks!

Nesta

[BronzeBruce13]

Can the account you hook up to PayPal be a savings account? If so, banks don't do overdrafts on those, do they?

 

Good point.. a Premiere acct. has to be a checking acct... now we know why.

a Personal acct. can be a savings (or just a CC as Nesta discovered)... now we know why.

 

[BronzeBruce13]

...'house, just got back from the bank (Commerce Bank in NJ) and learned more.

 

As I understood my bank representative... some banks offer "Overdraft Protection" on checking accounts (which means they will honor checks for more than what your account can cover)... to a point, and that can be a judgment call or a defined policy.

 

Others, like my bank, do not offer "Overdraft Protection" officially, but have a different service which basically is an "Advance Loan Agreement" to automatically borrow from them if your account is overdrawn. Luckily, my bank offers this alternative even though I never signed up for it and won't allow for my checking account to go negative by much. It used to be the one thing I didn't like about my bank simply because when my wife had lost track of the available balance and bounced a check or two, we were charged the overdraft fee (well, they tried to as explained above) when we had other accounts with the same bank that could have covered the overdrawn amount. Now, it turns out that this is a good thing... with Paypal as a consideration. My bank will call when an significant overdraft situation develops and will ask its customers to put more funds in the bank to cover the request (and sometimes avoid their fees too). Even though they don't officially offer overdraft protection, they'll still cover the smaller problems for good customers even if you never sign up for the Advance Loan Agreement, but they will issue you the $32 fee. You can accept the fee or have it waived with a little effort as described earlier. If its a larger (unspecified) amount... they call as explained.

 

Anyway, everyone needs to know exactly what their banks policy is in this regard. Since my bank does not offer "Overdraft Protection", I don't know exactly what the ramifications/options are if Paypal grabs the funds. You may, or may not have reverse options with this service. I'm also not sure if this is a service one can decline on all, or some of their accounts?

 

As to a "ACH Debit" Automatic Clearing House Debit... banks may have varying policies. My bank ONLY allows for a negative (-$100 ACH request) on a Checking Account before it is automatically denied. Anything above is always denied. I have a $100 min. balance on my Checking Account, so my immediate liability to a Paypal attempt at using a ACH Debit is only $200 since I immediately funnel money out of my "Paypal Linked" Account and to a "Non-Paypal Linked" Account in the same bank. I can easily/instantly do the transfers online.

 

HOWEVER... an ACH Debit can be REVERSED against Paypal with little effort (at least with my bank)... although it would probably lead to the demise of your PP account . If I tell my bank it was an unauthorized debit, they will reverse it for me. It does not matter if I agreed to the Paypal user agreement or not, and surprisingly, I don't have to prove my case by demonstrating proof of delivery/signature confirmation, etc. My bank will simply accept my word they say, and take the money back from Paypal. My bank claims to have control of that situation, not Paypal... so recovery/reversal is 100%.

 

What's interesting is that Paypal can initiate a ACH Debit against a Savings Account as well, BUT Savings Accounts are not permitted to go into negative balances so they can only go after existing balance. If nothing's there... S.O.L. PP . I was told that an ACH against a Savings Acct. is more difficult. Either way, its REVERSIBLE with the Savings account too.. so no worries I'm told if you know the deal and all your options.

 

I think everyone that has Paypal and uses it frequently (especially with decent size transactions)... should investigate these concerns with their banks immediately and clarify the details. If the bank in question is not willing to protect you, see what other banks will do... or open accounts with my bank... Commerce, (if there is no downside to opening an account out of state).

 

It seems like my original Paypal Strategies (keeping the funds away) will keep your "real time/actual" cash flow protected. If your bank is like mine and offers the same services, you will also be protected from electronic attempts to take your money too. They might get it short term, but you can slap their hand and yank it back!

 

It may be that there are similar options available from the banks that offer "Overdraft Protection". Someone with that type of bank needs to investigate that for us.

 

Print this out for referece and go to your bank... Don't delay

 

 

[JLA_ALL_THE_WAY]

Bruce & LH,

 

Thank You both for the informative, uh...info! Going to my bank first thing Monday morn.

 

Your inciteful (and darn if it isn't comprehensive) knowledge re the Paypal roadblock was worth having you guys hi-jack my thread.

 

I have up-dated the subject title accordingly.

 

Rick