£1 payments

[teresapolo]

I have also two £1 payments from eBay mysteriously on my bank statement - do mot know what for ?? 

[tressygirl]

Have you by chance paid any purchases on eBay with PayPal?

Others have been reporting a £1 ' fee' added to some PP payments , but no one as yet, has returned to explain PayPal's reason for this.

If this is the case for you,  perhaps contact PP Customer Services ,have them explain if this is some form of verification of accounts, is the charge to be refunded.

Please do come back and tell us if you receive any explanatory answer,  thank you.

If not a PP issue contact eBay Customer Services they'll need to explain their charges.

If you need to, this is the easiest and quickest way to contact eBay Customer Services, for a Call Back option.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid

Lines open 8 a.m. - 10 p.m. on weekdays

9 a.m. - 6 p.m. on weekends.

Automated agents will be available on chat outside of the above hours.

I recommend contacting CS first thing in the morning as there's more chance of Dublin answering.

@teresapolo 

[thesmokingrunner]

These reports are increasing and are, as a PayPal user myself, beginning to concern me a little.

I do like to keep up with changes to user agreements but I am not aware of PayPal introducing a £1-per-transaction charge recently (or ever, come to that). I have to say if they did I would stop using it.

I'll look into it further later today and will post an update if/when I find the answer. Meantime there is another thread on the subject - https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Payments/Why-have-my-purchases-suddenly-started-to-attract-a-1-paypa... - and Post #7 may provide an answer.

[tressygirl]

The link is worth a read for anyone being charged this £1 fee  @thesmokingrunner  , it may well explain the charges,  but if you can get through to PP,  or someone  else can actually confirm this,  that would be great,  to have a definitive answer for many,  who are coming here asking about these odd charges appearing.

[thesmokingrunner]

@tressygirl 

Available information suggests that the £1 'fee' is actually a temporary pre-authorization hold made by a credit card when the card is first used, or the card-holder has recently changed their address or other details on their account, in order to verify the card's validity. It is not, as such, charged by eBay or PayPal and is refunded once the actual payment for the goods is processed.

@teresapolo  Could you perhaps confirm that this charge appeared when you used a credit card for the first time or changed the car's account details? You say the charge appeared on your bank statement (rather than a credit card statement) which seems odd - are you sure?

[catherineewebster3a2012]

I have also noticed this in an order today and yesterday; the one from yesterday subsequently disappeared from my credit card account  but both the one from today and the actual order payment are still showing as pending on the credit card account. (The £1 doesn't show at all on my PP account). I am hoping it's just a verification charge which will disappear or be refunded, but I have not been made aware that this would even happen. It's not because I have used a new credit card - I have been using this one for years.

[helen279]

Sorry, it was my credit card statement. No changes to my account, no new card.

[helen279]

Yes, it's showing as a pending payment on my credit card. Maybe it will disappear. I've been using the same credit card for years. Will now check my PayPal account.

[4_bathrooms]

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@thesmokingrunner wrote:

@tressygirl 

Available information suggests that the £1 'fee' is actually a temporary pre-authorization hold made by a credit card when the card is first used, or the card-holder has recently changed their address or other details on their account, in order to verify the card's validity. It is not, as such, charged by eBay or PayPal and is refunded once the actual payment for the goods is processed.

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It seems PayPal make a "small charge" whenever a credit or debit card is edited or added to the account; this is just to obtain a "pre-authorisation" hold to confirm the card can be used for online payments - the sum is never actually collected. In PayPal UK's guidance it is stated that £1.00 will be debited from a card that is being "confirmed" and the sum(s) will be refunded once the (last) 4 digit PayPal reference number is confirmed.

My guess is it is one of these confirmation methods that is being used by PayPal.

[walpurgiswitch]

I've just queried this with my bank and they confirm it is a pre-authorisation check on the card, and no debit will be made other than for the actual purchase. They have had many queries, eBay has started this over past few months, does it only with Paypal and for no other discernible reason. Eg, I have had paypal and ebay accounts for decades plus made a number of purchases since I moved house 6 months ago on the same card so why do it now and waste my time checking it out? Once I made it past the chatbot to a person on eBay they would neither confirm nor deny it, or give me a reason. Just another eBay quirk I guess

[4_bathrooms]

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@walpurgiswitch wrote:

eBay has started this over past few months, does it only with Paypal and for no other discernible reason. 

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Nobody can initiate a pre-authorisation hold without having your card details. When you pay with PayPal eBay (or whoever you are paying) only sees PayPal as the payment method; the only party who ever has access to your card details is PayPal. As eBay were never given your card details they couldn't possibly have initiated a pre-authorisation hold on any funds.

[walpurgiswitch]

Well, I can only pass on how it was explained to me by my bank. I'll just have to keep checking my card statements, and as long as those one pounds aren't actually debited then I'll just have to put up with it, life's too short to take on the eBay behemoth about it. I've already stopped selling on the platform due to changes over the past year, but I'd like to buy every now and again

[daylers]

The £1 fee is to check authorisation check on your card like at garages when you get fuel and pay by card it doesn’t usually come out of your account mine never has, hope this is helpful.

[mus-755617]

Those £1 charges are usually temporary authorisation checks.

eBay sometimes places small amounts on your card to verify it, especially during payment or account checks.

They aren’t actual charges and should be refunded automatically within a few days.