I’m generally a big fan of PayPal, but I don’t like being lied to: PayPal advertises that you can pay with a credit card using PayPal. I swear you used to be able to do exactly that, but you can’t any more: you only get the option to pay with a credit card if your PayPal balance is zero dollars. If you get a PayPal invoice from someone for $100, and you have $20 in your PayPal account, you can’t use your credit card to pay the $100…you can only use it to pay $80, and the remaining $20 comes from your PayPal balance. This is doubly irritating when you try to not pay via your PayPal account, and instead just pay with your credit card – if you’re using a credit card that’s attached to your PayPal account, PayPal won’t let you use that card, it forces you to sign into your account and pay it that way. Frustrating!
Paypal has grown into a necessary evil. I make a point of not leaving a balance in the account for a lot of reasons, including the one you site above.