Bulletproof Method to protect your paypal money
The recently introduced paypal plugin provides a bullet proof method to protect YOUR money. It actually allows you to make a quick "loan" from paypal and paypal actually encourages it in writing on their website.
You must have a verified account to use the PP plugin. Once you have the plugin installed you can start using it to create VCC numbers. This morning I had 23.12 in my paypal account. I created a VCC using the plugin and went to Simon and purchased a 490.00 gift card which will be mailed to me. How did I do this, with a little tip from the PP plugin Q & A.
Q - Can I use Secure Cards if I don't keep any money in my PayPal account?
A - Yes. Secure Cards will use your secondary payment source – usually your bank account. Think of it as no-cost overdraft protection.
PayPal approved the VCC charge, took the balance of my PP account (23.12) and initiated a transfer from my bank account for the balance of approx 475.00. We know that it takes 2-4 days to complete an ACH transfer. In the interim, my PP account is "overdrawn" by approx 475.00.
When the PP transfer hits my bank account, it will bounce, there is not enough money in that account. When the bounced transfer hits my PP account, the transfer will be reversed. In the interim, money has been coming into my PP account, probably enough to cover the 475.00 bounced transfer. You can use this scheme whenever incoming PP payments bring your account balance to zero when taking into consideration the bounced transfer. At any time PP decides to limit my account freezing my money, I will actually be in debt to PP because of the bounced transfer. If your account gets limited and you are overdrawn, how you handle the overdraft is up to you. You can pay it with another transfer or just ignore it. The important thing is that PP will never be able to freeze YOUR funds.
An important note
The bank account you enter is verified only to the extent of PP being able to make a deposit INTO your account. Some bank accounts (such as ING) allow you to make ACH transfers INTO the account, but do not allow you to do an ACH transfer FROM the account. When you attempt to overdraw your PP account using the VCC, PP will attempt a pre-authorization, much like happens with a credit card purchase. The pre-authorization for these type of accounts will fail and the VCC charge will be denied. The pre-authorization does not check your balance, only whether the ACH transfer is allowed. I would assume that the routing number is not on the banking system list which allows transfers in both directions. | 
