PayPal wants me to “add a bank account”, another funding source. Credit card isn't working. Why?
I'm guessing that you've reached the value limit of a payment that can be made without linking your account to a bank account. While you want privacy, PayPal wants to not be a money launderer. You may need to seek an alternative way to pay for this if you're trying to be private about it. Visit paypalblows.org to find out more reasons. PayPal wants your bank account info on file before they allow you to take payment. So setup a bank account strictly for this service, and if they give you trouble or suspend your account, simply never use them again and tell others of your experience.  I think the only reason why PayPal wants a bank account is so they can dip into it and take chargeback money. Have you checked to make sure that your card isn't at the limit, or at risk of expiring soon?  Maybe PayPal has a policy to reject credit cards with expiry dates that fall within their buyer/seller protection periods? But to answer your question, no, I've never had this happen to me before. I would guess that this is due to the card issuer, not Paypal. Credit card transactions are tagged with a code describing the type of purchase, and some issuers disallow certain types (such as gambling). It's possible the recipient of the payment is not setup to receive funds form PayPal from a credit card, too. I'm pretty sure it's merchant-dependent.  If a credit card transaction doesn't go through, PayPal will automatically charge your bank account.  Some merchants may want that extra insurance. I've used PayPal for my business for a long time. Sometimes PayPal doesn't trust credit cards. Debit or direct bank transfer are reliable. There is also a charge for using a credit card but I don't think that is the reason. You may be trying to purchase a high value item. That would be a possible reason why PayPal allowed you to use credit cards in the past, but will not allow you to do so now, for these particular transactions. It's always a good idea to check your credit history on a regular basis - try checking your credit score from one of the independent providers recently (like Equifax) ?  Maybe that will offer a clue what PayPal is doing.
I would not be concerned about the impact to your credit rating.  You already have an excellent credit score, and the temporary change to your utilization will have minimal impact to your score. If you really need to make this $2500 purchase and you have the money in the bank to pay for it, I would not recommend borrowing this money.  Only put it on the credit card if you plan on paying it off in full without paying interest. Let me ask you this: Why do you want to keep this $2500 in the bank?  It certainly isn't earning you anything significant.  My guess is that you'd like to keep it there for an emergency.  Well, is this $2500 purchase an emergency?  If it is necessary, then spend the money.  If not, then save up the money until you have enough to make the purchase.  It doesn't make sense to keep money for an emergency in the bank, but then when one comes up, to leave the money in the bank and pay interest on your emergency purchase. If you make this emergency purchase and another emergency comes up, you can always (if necessary) borrow the money at that time.  It doesn't make sense to borrow money before you need it. That having been said, I would encourage you to build up your emergency fund so that you have enough money in there to handle things like this without completely depleting your savings account.  3 to 6 months of expenses is the general recommendation for your emergency fund.  Then if something unplanned comes up, you'll have the money in the bank without having to borrow and pay interest. "It is called ""Credit card installments"" or ""Equal pay installments"", and I am not aware of them being widely used in the USA. While in other countries they are supported by banks directly (right?), in US you may find this option only in some big stores like home improvement stores, car dealerships, cell phone operators (so that you can buy a new phone) etc. Some stores allow 0% financing for, say, 12 months which is not exactly the same as installments but close, if you have discipline to pay $250 each month and not wait for 12 months to end. Splitting the big payment in parts means that the seller gets money in parts as well, and it adds risks of customer default, introduces debt collection possibility etc. That's why it's usually up to the merchants to support it - bank does not care in this case, from the bank point of view the store just charges the same card another $250 every month. In other countries banks support this option directly, I think, taking over or dividing the risk with the merchants. This has not happened in US. There is a company SplitIt which automates installments if stores want to support it but again, it means stores need to agree to it. Here is a simple article describing how credit cards work: https://www.usbank.com/credit-cards/how-credit-cards-work.html In general, if you move to US, you are unlikely to be able to get a regular credit card because you will not have any ""credit history"" which is a system designed to track each customer ability to get & pay off debt. The easiest way to build the history - request ""secured credit card"", which means you have to give the bank money up front and then they will give you a credit card with a credit limit equal to that amount. It's like a ""practice credit card"". You use it for 6-12 months and the bank will report your usage to credit bureaus, establishing your ""credit score"". After that you should be able to get your money back and convert your secured card into a regular credit card. Credit history can be also built by paying rent and utilities but that requires companies who collect money to report the payments to credit bureaus and very few do that. As anything else in US, there are some businesses which help to solve this problem for extra money." You could buy a money order with your cash, then mail the money order to Deutsche Bank Germany for deposit into your account. You could also buy a prepaid debit card (like a Visa/AMEX giftcard) with your cash. Then, open a new Paypal account and add this prepaid card. Finally, send money to yourself using the prepaid card as the funding source. You could use a money transfer service, like Western Union, to transfer the cash to a friend/family in Germany. Then ask them to deposit it for you at Deutsche Bank Germany. "There's no difference between ""individual"" and ""business"" in this context. What is a personal transaction that involves credit card? You have a garage sale? Its business. You sell something on craigslist - business. Want to let people pay for your daughter's girlscout cookies - business. There's no difference between using Paypal (which has its own credit card reader, by the way) and Square in this context. No-one will ask for any business licenses or anything, just your tax id (be it SSN or EIN). Its exactly the same as selling on eBay and accepting credit cards through your Paypal account, conceptually (charge-back rules are different, because Square is a proper merchant account, but that's it)." If you are regularly taking payments of $10,000 I'm very surprised you aren't already set up to accept credit card payments. If you are going to be doing this much in the future it would be a good thing to investigate. Some other options might be: "PayPal has a very generous buyer protection program.  That means that the buyer can dispute receiving the goods and get their money back fairly easily (compared to credit cards).  For this reason Craigslist and other sites recommend not accepting PayPal  payments.  I know that many transactions go through them flawlessly.  But unless I really trust someone, PayPal would not be an option for me unless it was the money transfer (different rules; not as easy to get the money back).  However this may be breaking PayPal Terms of Service so I would read them carefully before I went this route.   There have been reports of PayPal putting extended holds on funds and effectively seizing the money by refusing to release the funds.  I have never had this happen (though I did have a sale on eBay reversed though the item was never returned) but there are many reports of it on the Internet. As far as the BoA option I would contact them and see what they recommend. I would find out what their policies are on reversing the transfers and on providing your account number.  They may have a special deposit-only account number you could provide the buyers.  But I would want to learn as much about the system as I could before I started using it.   The Internet has turned the old adage of ""buyer beware"" into ""seller beware"".  There are many schemes that con artists have come up with to defraud unsuspecting sellers.  I received several offers from people wanting to pay me with a cashiers check for a few items I recently sold on Craigslist.  It is scary how prevalent these fraudsters have become." very simple.  RBI has stopped connecting Indian Bank's to Paypal, for deposit or withdrawal. You need to use a third party website (Online wallet etc) to send whatever money you have in the Paypal account.  Connect your Bank account with the third party website, and withdraw the money When I put it on the credit card, I haven't paid for the product or service yet.  If there is a dispute, then I have the upper hand because the cash is still in my pocket.