Paypal secure credit card generator?

[randomlinh]

So, has anyone used this thing? I made a poor judgment call and thought it functioned similar to citi's virtual cards or discover's. I made a purchase using it from a vendor. They turned out to be sketchy and wasn't responding to my attempts at contact. So I closed the paypal secure card. Keep in mind at this point, the default pay method is my normal paypal credit card. it was also selected as my default funding source for the generated secure card. There was a little money left in my paypal balance as well.

Well, turns out the vendor is sketchy, and also slow as balls. They eventually get my item shipped out to me after two weeks. Given I cancelled the card, I went to double check to see if they attempted to charged because it doesn't exist anymore. I was going to contact them to let them know.

Boom, the vendor managed to pull all the money from my paypal account, and the remainder from my bank account.... wtf... my funding sources have been my paypal cc. Hell, more importantly I closed the damn secure card I used... WTF.

Now, paypal bashing aside, have I misunderstood what the purpose of those secure single use cards are suppose to be?!? Has anyone else used them?

 

[kranky]

I'm not surprised that cancelling the securecard number didn't stop the vendor from charging you.

That being said, I can't see how the vendor could have touched your paypal account and/or bank account. As far as I can tell, you should have a charge on your paypal credit card which you could then dispute.

BUT - you better read the terms and conditions of the securecard and the paypal credit card. For all I know, it might very well say that if the credit card fails, they can help themselves to your regular paypal account plus your bank account. That would not surprise me in the least.

 

[SillyOReilly]

Paypal is a scam, has always been a scam, and always will be a scam.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: SillyOReilly
Paypal is a scam, has always been a scam, and always will be a scam.

You certainly are silly.

 

[daveshel]

Originally posted by: SillyOReilly
Paypal is a scam, has always been a scam, and always will be a scam.

The only safe paypal account is a closed paypal account.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: kranky
I'm not surprised that cancelling the securecard number didn't stop the vendor from charging you.

That being said, I can't see how the vendor could have touched your paypal account and/or bank account. As far as I can tell, you should have a charge on your paypal credit card which you could then dispute.

BUT - you better read the terms and conditions of the securecard and the paypal credit card. For all I know, it might very well say that if the credit card fails, they can help themselves to your regular paypal account plus your bank account. That would not surprise me in the least.

I think it's a loophole in how usually your bank account is your fall back payment. I have a dummy account set up so if stuff like this on a larger scale happens, the bank can easily say "no paypal, you can't take money that doesn't exist" rather than "oh shit, my bank account is empty." I'll take the overdraft bite any day over that.

But I signed up for the paypal credit card because you can use that as your default as well. And yes, paypal is the devil, I know. But the draw of easy cashflow won itself over for me since I'm impatient. Unfortunately, ebay is still sometimes the easiest place to offload stuff, and I think saying "use google checkout" is against the TOS.. I'll have to look more into it.