I don’t know if this is something stupid that paypal does or if it’s something stupid done by an online store I shopped at recently. I just know that it was something stupid.
Picture this:
You’re browsing an online store and find four things you want to buy, so you put them in your electronic shopping cart and click the “check out” link. Let’s assume that your items are priced as follows (I’m making up numbers for simplicity’s sake):
- $20.00
- $15.00
- $25.00
- $40.00
Let’s also assume that you don’t have to pay sales tax or shipping (again, for simplicity). You check out with paypal and, since your paypal balance is zero, the money is going to come out of your checking account. Paypal hands you a total of $100, so you subtract $100 from your checkbook balance and all is right with the world.
That is, at least, until you get your bank statement a month later and there is no $100 transaction listed but there are four transactions you don’t have written down for $20, $15, $25, and $40. The confusion starts because you don’t remember the individual prices you paid for those items and you’re expecting a $100 transaction that isn’t there.
For some reason, at some stores, paypal hands you one total and then makes several small withdrawals to pay for each item individually. That’s what I ran into this morning. It took me almost an hour to figure out why my bank statement was so screwed up.
