!@(*#& I was one of those tricked by this scheme which is 5,000% obviously deceptive. There is ZERO chance that Paypal folks were unaware that people would accidentally use the credit product.
I wrote them a complaint and changed the default but never heard back. FUCK YOU Paypal, you MUGGED me and stole money from me.
I am CERTAIN they end up getting more than $25m out of this scheme. This settlement just means they have to share the profit with the UK Gov.
We need a class action suit in the U.S. demanding they return the late fees they criminally charged people like me.
While I don't share your level of rage, I've used "Paypal Credit" and BillMeLater (before it became Paypal Credit) accidentally several times.
For a long time I refused to add a bank account to my PayPal account simply so my credit card would be my default payment option. Then BillMeLater had an attractive promotion, so I used it 1x and paid off my balance before it accrued any interest.
Since then, BillMeLater and now PayPal Credit are my default payment options. There's no way to change this, and it's a very consumer-unfriendly practice.
I'm glad they're getting fined, and I sincerely hope this results in their allowing user-defined default payment settings.
The fact that "Paypal Credit" is my default payment choice bothers me to no end. If you explicitly select anything else, it demands you log in even after logging in on most sites.
I never thought I'd be on the receiving end of the Paypal horror-stick, as I am a consumer and not a merchant, but wow.
Actually not the UK govt. The fine was levied by the CFPB:
"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector."
When I signed up they gave me an option for it to not become the default, but then gave me at least one other page trying to trick me into setting it as the default.
To be clear: it is stupidly obvious that when nobody has even heard of a thing called "Paypal Credit" and you see "pay with Paypal Credit" it sounds exactly like "pay with Paypal Balance" if you already have a balance.
Why the hell would anyone ever use credit when they have funds in their Paypal balance‽ Because they were tricked into it and then assume that they are done… until they get the late fee.
I wrote them a complaint and changed the default but never heard back. FUCK YOU Paypal, you MUGGED me and stole money from me.
I am CERTAIN they end up getting more than $25m out of this scheme. This settlement just means they have to share the profit with the UK Gov.
We need a class action suit in the U.S. demanding they return the late fees they criminally charged people like me.