Beware Paypal virtual mastercard!

[TinkerPixxie]

Hi all

Not happy here
My sales on Ebay have been going fairly well so I opted to get the virtual mastercard from paypal to have access to that money easily {or so I thought} The deal is if you request and are eligable you can get issued a virtual mastercard, in that you get a mastercard number and expiration date, it is linked to your paypal account. On the idea of a debit card.. it deducts the funds you have in that account as you use it. turns out however that they do not give you a card "security indentification number" {the three digits on the back of your real credit/debits cards} The only way to use this thing is if the website your ordering from does not ask for that number. Of course I did not know this and went to make a purchase from walmart, the money is immediatly put on hold but the transaction can not go through without that number! The website cant go any further and will not issue you a transaction number so you can not trace the attempted purchase, your funds are on hold, paypal waits 10 days to see if the merchant processes the amount so your money is on hold for 10 days, and of course you arent getting any merchandise. I called Walmart and this kid kept insisting they dont take paypal, didnt want to hear that it wasnt exactly paypal it was just a mastercard linked to my account with paypal. Long story long... the kid gripped and moaned, told me the finance department would have to look into it and that if the payment cant process in three days Walmart automaticaly stops the hold.{I dont buy it} The only other option is for the merchant {walmart in this case} to send a fax to paypal stating they have no intentions of processing this payment. I couldnt even get them to listen long enough to understand this situation, never mind convince them to send a fax anyplace.

The only decent thing resulting from this is that paypal has contacted mastercard and asked them to issue me a physical card so that I may make purchases in the future using the security indentification number.
I dont know how new this virtual mastercard is ... but i can only assume many people are going to come across this situation and have problems. I cant think of ONE website ive made a purchase at that didnt require that number off the back of the card.

Sorry this was long, just wanted you all to be aware of potential problems.
Tink

 

[WDWorld2003]

I don't know how Paypal's card works but we use a virtual Mastercard for all of our online purchases. When you generate your number there is a 3 digit number you need to use along with the account number if the site requires it - I think it's QVC or something like that. I usually write down all of the numbers on the screen before I exit out in case I transpose a number or the site doesn't accept it. Could you cancel your original purchase and reorder?

I like Paypal for payments but when something goes wrong they seem to drop the ball alot. Good luck - hope it's resolved soon!

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

I have the PayPal debit card with Mastercard logo. I haven't used it at Walmart since the whole fiasco with Walmart and Mastercard, but I use it routinely as a credit card to pay for pastage when shipping items I sold on ebay. I don't keep funds in my PayPal account after shipping, so I don't often have the opportunity to use it for online shopping and have not encountered any problems using the debit card.

 

[Grog]

This is good to know. I usually have all Paypal payments sent straight to my bank account, but had been thinking about the virtual Mastercard. Glad I held off on it.

 

[LisaNJ25]

The same thing just happened to me but not as extreme. I have the Paypal debit mastercard. Its free and you get 1.5% back on your purchases. Money is taken right out of your paypal account and it does have the 3 digit number on the card.

I misplaced the card and yesterday I wanted to place an order at things rememberd. So I went through with the Virtual mastercard where they give you a one time use MC number. I realized it right at check out that it did not have the 3 digit CVV number so I made one up and tried to process the order. It was rejected because it didnt match. I checke my paypal account and they put a hold for $1.00.

After that I looked around online to try to find out if I coudl get a CVV number and nope, paypal does not issue them with the virtual credit cards.

They really should but a warning on their site about that.

 

[TinkerPixxie]

Im sure once I have the actual card in my hand it will be fine. But with no Indentification numbers on it its basicaly useless. As for the question about cancelling the purchase, there isnt a purchase to cancel... i couldnt get as far as the confirmation number and they dont intend on sending me anything until they get paid..its all just a mess. I dont like having my money held up for 10 days. Now i know better.

Tink