PayPal: Claiming money back – this is how it works

With PayPal, you can claim your money back if you have complaints about a purchase or your PayPal account has been misused by third parties. We’ll show you how to do this in this guide.

How to claim your money back from PayPal

You can reclaim your money with PayPal within 180 days of payment thanks to Buyer Protection. However, before you get all or part of your money back, the case will be reviewed by the seller and, if necessary, by PayPal. You initiate the procedure with the following steps.

• Log in via PayPal’s website with your email address.

• Under the menu item “Activities” you will find all your previous purchases listed. Select the one whose payment you want to reclaim.

• Click the menu item “Report problem” in the details of the payment. On the following page, you can report the applicable problem.

• For problems with items, you can choose two options. You can choose between “I have not received a purchased item” or “The item received does not match the description”.
• For problems with items, you can choose from two options.
  • If the selected transaction was not authorised by you, you can use the “I want to report an unauthorised account access” option to communicate this issue to PayPal.
  • If the amount debited is incorrect, you can select the option “I have a problem with a statement”. Choose here between “Incorrect transaction amount” or “Subscriptions”.
  • With the option “Incorrect transaction amount” you indicate that an incorrect amount was deducted from your account. This means that you have paid too much or too little for the transaction. With the option “Subscriptions” you indicate that money continued to be deducted for a subscription that has already been cancelled.
  • On the following pages you must now enter more details about the reclaim and then confirm each time by clicking on “Continue”.
  •  The seller now has 20 days to respond. If you can’t find a solution with him, you can file a buyer protection claim within 20 days.

How to cancel a PayPal payment

If you have changed your mind about a purchase or payment for an item has not yet been made, you have the option to cancel a payment with PayPal.

• • If a sent payment is still shown as “open”, you can cancel it. To do this, go to the PayPal website, log in and click on Activities. Next to the item that has not yet been paid for, the option “Cancel” will appear. Click on it and confirm the cancellation.
• • If payment has already been made and you wish to cancel because you have changed your mind about the purchase, you must contact the seller.
• • You can find the seller’s contact details under “Activities”, “Transactions” and then “Transaction details”. Here you can find out the name, email address and telephone number of the seller and contact them about the cancellation.