PayPal: Is Linking One's Bank Account Safe?

I'm really interested in linking my bank account with PayPal in order to avoid using my credit cards online whenever possible. Thing is, giving another company access to my bank with their promise that they'll transfer money between myself and some store for free raises a skeptic flag in my head. My Googlin' has shown that most people seem to be fine with this whole process, though.

I remember some time ago somebody here having a terrible experience where PayPal ate all of his money and was terrible to deal with. I can't find the thread, though! Does anybody remember this story or have anything bad to say about this bank linking concept?

I haven't had any real trouble. Nothing scammy.

But paypal will almost always side with buyers, so if someone opens a claim against you, they'll pull the money straight out of your bank account even if your paypal balance is zero.

One positive is you can use it to pay for shit on websites when you don't want your debit or credit card number to sit on the other website's servers. You have to approve those purchases, so the third party can't charge you more later without your approval.

Ive had my account linked since the 90s.
Never had an issue.

I got hacked once. I somehow ended up with a $100/month PayPal subscription being piped to a person I'd never heard of. The only thing I had used it for was ebay. I quickly got the money back, though. Customer service was excellent.

Had mine hooked up like SSJN. No problems here. I had somebody say they never got what I sent them, and they did a charge back. The money was already in my bank and just put PayPal into the negative until PayPal decided to stop being an asshole, which was better than it taking it out of my account.

Would recommend.

Thanks, guys. Much appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Fe 26

But paypal will almost always side with buyers, so if someone opens a claim against you, they'll pull the money straight out of your bank account even if your paypal balance is zero.

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This probably will never be an issue. I'm trying to use this to replace charging a credit card for the occasional, small purchase given that so many sites (and PSN yaaaaayyyyy) take PayPal now. I only wish Amazon took PayPal so I could almost cut the credit cards entirely!

Why do you want to cut credit cards? Wouldn't it be safer to use make believe money than a direct portal to your checking account?

Yes. Everyone should use credit cards for absolutely everything. They greatly limit your exposure and give you free money in the form of points if you pay the full balance every month.

I've been using it since 'o6 and never had any problems.

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Originally Posted by A Robot Bit Me

Why do you want to cut credit cards? Wouldn't it be safer to use make believe money than a direct portal to your checking account?

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Make believe money is currently costing a ton of actual money due to payments I can only make via credit card and the bit of purchases I make online.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

Yes. Everyone should use credit cards for absolutely everything. They greatly limit your exposure and give you free money in the form of points if you pay the full balance every month.

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The credit cards I have are featureless and sucks, sadly. I'm not risking my credit score signing up for another at this point just to get playstation points or something. Also, it turns out using 30% of your credit line in any given period (I believe) is bad for your credit score even if you immediately pay it off. I'm just trying to find the safest way to eliminate that middle man in the safest way as often as possible.