paypal credit card charges duplicated

Northbynortheast

On QM2020 I have Paypal set up as an online account. Pulls all data from Paypal just fine.
I have Paypal set up to charge my MasterCard for online payments. This is convenient on sites where I don't want to create an account. On eBay I accept Paypal, and this activity is mostly what I want to track in Quicken.
Here's the problem. These charges come through once on my MasterCard (via Paypal) and a second time on Paypal.
I can manually delete Paypal charges that are handed off to MasterCard, but this is laborious.
Any suggestions? I can't find anything useful at Paypal.

Frankx

Hi @ Northbynortheast,

Yes, this is a common issue that users have but it really isn't a Quicken problem. 

Most would view the ebay purchase then payment via the ultimate credit card charge as a single transaction, however they are actually two different transactions for the same amount.  There is the transaction when you use Paypal to pay the eBay seller and then another transaction when you make the payment to Paypal from your ultimate credit card.

Theoretically you could just decide not to record or track the Paypal (middleman) part, since that should always washout, but this could present a problem because the timing may be a little off.  Most folks just go with having a Quicken account for Paypal and download or post entries there to fully track the transactions.

Frankx

Frankx

Hi @ Northbynortheast,

Yes, this is a common issue that users have but it really isn't a Quicken problem. 

Most would view the ebay purchase then payment via the ultimate credit card charge as a single transaction, however they are actually two different transactions for the same amount.  There is the transaction when you use Paypal to pay the eBay seller and then another transaction when you make the payment to Paypal from your ultimate credit card.

Theoretically you could just decide not to record or track the Paypal (middleman) part, since that should always washout, but this could present a problem because the timing may be a little off.  Most folks just go with having a Quicken account for Paypal and download or post entries there to fully track the transactions.

Frankx

Northbynortheast

Thanks for your thoughts. Either solution will work. The challenge is doing it automatically. With one entry in MasterCard, you have to manually find and delete all the credit card payments in PayPal. With two, you have to manually enter the credit from MasterCard to PayPal (since PayPal doesn't include these in its statements or online updates) and change the MasterCard entry from a charge to a transfer. Whew! PayPal does not make it easy!!

torylynn

This duplication scenario has always been a drawback for me. Sometimes I accept payment via PayPal and then spend right from the PayPal balance. So, I do want to connect and track my PayPal account.

It makes more sense to track the credit card related spending within the connected credit card account.

Knowing that a lot of people are dissatisfied with the duplication scenario that has been going for years, why not code in an option to ignore any transactions except for those with "PayPal Balance" in PayPal's "Paid With" column.

I believe the PayPal API actually even offers a GUID for transaction type. It's such a minor change request to satisfy an exception that annoys a lot of clients.

"Forget YNAB.. I can track EVERYTHING in Quicken! Even PayPal.. but ARGH I have to deal with this duplication scenario they could fix with a couple lines of code..." ;)
i