This document explains when PayPal will refund your money if something goes wrong with a purchase — either if you never receive your item, or if it arrives significantly different from what was described. To get a refund, you must file a dispute within 180 days of payment and follow PayPal's step-by-step process. Many types of purchases are not covered, including friend-to-friend payments, gift cards, real estate, vehicles, and NFTs.
Technical Summary
PayPal's Purchase Protection Program document governs the terms and conditions under which buyers may be eligible for refunds when purchasing goods or services through PayPal. It establishes two primary claim types — 'Item Not Received' (INR) and 'Significantly Not as Described' (SNAD) — and sets forth detailed eligibility requirements, exclusions, and a mandatory multi-step online dispute resolution process. Notable provisions include PayPal's sole discretion authority over claim determinations, a 180-day filing deadline from the transaction date, mandatory return-shipping obligations at the buyer's expense for SNAD claims, and an extensive list of ineligible items and transaction types (including NFTs, real estate, vehicles, gift cards, and personal/friends-and-family payments). PayPal retains the right to issue and later claw back temporary refunds if disputes are not resolved in the buyer's favor, with at least 5 business days' notice before account debiting.
Institutional Analysis
This document engages primarily with consumer financial protection frameworks, including CFPB oversight of payment processors and FTC unfair/deceptive practices standards. The sole-discretion clause …
This document engages primarily with consumer financial protection frameworks, including CFPB oversight of payment processors and FTC unfair/deceptive practices standards. The sole-discretion clause on claim determinations, the clawback mechanism for provisional refunds, and the buyer-bears-return-…
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PayPal alone decides whether your claim qualifies for a refund, and its original decision is considered final unless you have new information or believe there was an error.
You must open a dispute within 180 days of the date of the payment to be eligible for Purchase Protection — after that window closes, you cannot file a claim.
PayPal may issue you a temporary refund while investigating your dispute, but if the dispute is not resolved in your favor, PayPal can take that money back from your account — with at least 5 business days' notice.
A broad list of transaction types are completely excluded from Purchase Protection, including real estate, vehicles, NFTs, gift cards, financial products, donations, gambling, friends-and-family payments, in-person collections, and items for resale.
Any payment sent using PayPal's friends and family (personal payments) option is completely excluded from Purchase Protection, even if you sent money to buy something.
If PayPal requires you to return a misrepresented or wrong item as part of resolving a Significantly Not as Described claim, you must pay for the return shipping yourself.
After opening a dispute, you must escalate it to a formal claim within 20 days or PayPal will automatically close the dispute and you will lose the ability to claim a refund.
Purchases paid for in person using PayPal World via QR code are completely excluded from Purchase Protection, and in-person collections are not eligible for Item Not Received claims.