Internet Marketing Overload

I have used PayPal for quite a number of years now and had no problems at all. I have updated credit cards on their system in the past and things always went well, but that was before i had any recurring payments to make for monthly services where i pay via PayPal through credit card. Over the last few months, i have set up a number of recurring payments to several services that i use in my business, email aces, hits connect, affiliate funnel etc.

Like myself, you probably think, that’s straight forward enough and so it should be. Well it is, until you change your credit card to a different or new one and you have recurring payments that are paid. Once you enter your new credit card details, all seems to go fine. That is until you check your account. When you do so, you will see that any recurring payments that you make have now been canceled.

Alarm bells ring and if you are a little like myself, you panic and think what the hell is happening here.

My first reaction was to search on PayPal for a solution, looking at the FAQ, i could not find anything explaining this situation. Alright, lets try the Contact Us button and put a ticket in. No luck here either, i thought this would have a support ticket area. All i found was more confusion and must admit that i was panicking even more.

Next step, check my email box to see if any automatic explanation has been sent. Oh good! some emails from PayPal. All i found was several emails stating that this or that recurring payment had been canceled and a couple that told me that i had changed my credit card data and added a new one. Seeing that these emails had the line, “Do not reply to this email”. I then decided to contact PayPal via phone.

I rang the number on the PayPal website and got the usual auto answering message that you get now days, asking you to press this and that number to get to the service that you require. After making a few mistakes pressing the wrong service digit or two, i got through to an area where i was entertained by some music (entertained is probably not quite correct). After what seemed like a long time, maybe several minutes, i was greeted by a very pleasant and polite gentleman.

I was asked for some of the data for my account to prove that i was the person the account belonged to. After explaining my situation, i was told that the cancellation of recurring payments made through PayPal was a normal procedure when changing credit card data. I expressed my concern to this person in regard to losing my accounts with the services that were now canceled and was told not to worry and that when payments were next due to be paid, i just needed to sign up again with each service.

Because the person i spoke to on the phone could not guarantee that my services would not be interrupted by this cancellation, i then decided to email and fill in support tickets with the sites of these canceled services. The next day, i received an email from one of the services that i use. The reply informed me that i will indeed have to re sign back up when the next payment is due and that nothing will be deleted in regard of my account. I will also have to use the same link that i used originally, if there was a discount from using that link.

Obviously, i will not know the true outcome until it is time for the next payments to be paid and can only hope that it all goes according to plan. I must say that until that time comes during this month of November for the payment to be paid, i will still remain worried that something will go amiss, like losing the lists and referrals etc that i have built up in these services.

One piece of advice that i will pass on to you that are reading this, is that if you can avoid paying recurring payments with PayPal that are going to come from your credit cards. Then do so and instead, if the service that you are going to use requires a recurring payment, then use an alternative method of paying. I for one will now use a direct payment from my credit card to the services that i use, if the service allows me to…

They say that you learn by your own mistakes and that is certainly true in my own case, over the last month or so…

Hopefully this information will save you or someone else some problems that could be so easily avoided with the right information being available on payment processors like PayPal…

I feel that i must add, that the representative of PayPal that i spoke to on the phone tried his best to help in this situation and considering that this was at the weekend and after six in the evening, it was a welcome change to be able to speak with a real person instead of just a machine answering service…

Author

Vince Andrews