The Obscure Limits of Paypal Digital Gifts

We often blog about purchasing gift cards on eBay, usually due to deals that come up offering various gift cards at a discount. Many of these deals are for physical gift cards sold by Giftcardmall, SVM, or Cardency. Others are for electronic gift cards sold by Paypal Digital Gifts (PPDG).

The most common problem we’ll hear in the comments of such posts is that Paypal is not allowing the payment to go through.

bad day double ppdg       on a bad day you’ll see one of these

good day double ppdg

on a good day you’ll see one of these

For long, I assumed that Paypal has a complicated algorithm which decides whether or not to allow any given purchase. A few weeks ago, Chasingthepoints laid out a groundbreaking idea that there’s actually a hard $1,000 limit on the amount of e-gift cards that PPDG will sell you. He left it up in the air as to when that limit resets.

Since that time, I’ve spent many hours poring over my own PPDG limits and the limits of others in my quest of finding a method to the madness.

The conclusion? It’s not simple. 

Here are the basics

  • The $1,000 limit is real.
  • The reset is based on a rolling 30-days.
  • Aside from the $1000 ‘hard’ limit, there appears to be a ‘soft’ limit of $250 in a single checkout which Paypal sometimes imposes. It’s important to note that this does not limit you in volume at all; it just requires you to make multiple purchases of $250 or less in separate transactions. (This is terrible when you have a one-time coupon to use.) What’s extremely odd is that this ‘soft’ limit can vary literally within minutes; you’ll see the system willing to allow you to do $500 worth of gift cards and then you’ll try again a few minutes later and the system will show the $250 limit. [Note: Most people seem to have a $250 soft limit, but I did once come across a slightly lower soft limit.]
  • Only after you verify your bank account will Paypal allow you to make PPDG purchases. Paypal has various levels of verification they ask you to do. The most basic is just adding a credit card; at that point you still won’t be able to make PPDG purchases. You need to add a bank account and verify it before they’ll allow PPDG purchases. There are other verifications which will allow you to purchase from PPDG as well, such as giving in your SSN (e.g. to apply for a Paypal debit/credit card).

Other things to keep in mind

  • The above-mentioned limits are all per Paypal account. It won’t help you to use two separate eBay accounts. Conversely, if you use two separate Paypal accounts with the one eBay account, you’ll double your limit.
  • When purchasing discounted gift cards, the important number is the paid amount, not the face value; if you buy a $100 gift card for $90, count $90 toward the $1,000 limit. (This is also true with regards to the ‘buy-two-get-$15-off’ deals. The important number is the amount actually paid.)
  • Paying with eBay gift cards doesn’t help. Although you apply the eBay gift card in the eBay checkout screen before you get to Paypal, that still counts toward the limit. The same should be true with regards to promo codes and coupons which register in the eBay checkout in the same manner as gift cards.
  • There’s no difference which denomination cards you purchase; if your allowed amount is currently $300, it won’t matter whether you purchase three $100 cards or twelve $25 cards.
  • eBay e-gift cards have the same limits as all other e-gift cards; if you purchased yesterday $800 in Gap cards, for example, you won’t be able to purchase $300 eBay cards today.
  • Sometimes the system will error out on you after you hit the ‘confirm and pay’ button. That issue is entirely separate and is unrelated to these limits. That issue could stem, for example, from the fact that you’re using your Paypal account from an IP address different than you normally use.
  • Direct purchases on Paypal Digital Gifts, not purchased through eBay, do not count as part of the $1000 limit.

PPDG – Advanced Edition

But…it’s far from simple. There were a number of cases where I saw people who were able to go over the $1000 limit. Slightly.

Here are some possible explanations.

  • There appears to be a certain amount of leeway for smaller purchases, in amounts under $150. For now, I’m going to guess that the way it works is that if you haven’t made any PPDG purchases over a given amount of time (perhaps 7-days) then the system will allow you to do ~$125 in purchases, despite the fact that this will put you over $1000.  (Note: These purchases will still count against your limit for the future.)
  • I have found one person who apparently does not have this $1,000 limit at all. All others I’ve reviewed do seem to have the $1000 limit.
  • I had conflicting experiences as to exactly what time the reset happens. In one instance, it appeared to reset at the beginning of the day. In another instance, it appeared to need a full 24-hour 30-day time period to lapse before resetting.
  • It’s possible that the system will allow you to go over in small amounts, under $25. For example, if you have $85 left to your limit, the system may allow you make a $95 e-gift card purchase. (Note: In my own account, I see the $1000 limit to be exact, but in other accounts I saw some small, unexplained leeway which is why I suggest this idea.)
  • It’s possible that eBay gift cards do not count toward your future limit. To be very clear: eBay gift cards are restricted if you went over your limit, but they may not count toward your future limit. To illustrate: if you purchased $1,000 in Gap gift cards, you won’t be able to purchase eBay gift cards for another 30-days. But if purchase $1,000 in eBay gift cards it’s possible that these don’t count against your limit for future purchases.

Notes about Testing

  • If you want to test your own PPDG limits, you don’t need to actually purchase the gift cards. Just go through the checkout until you get to the ‘confirm and pay’ button and you’ll see what your limits are. If the system is not allowing you to get to the ‘confirm and pay’ button then you’re past your limits – either the hard limit or the soft limit. If the system does allow you to see that button then you know you’re within your limits.
  • PPDG sells a $5 eBay e-gift card which is useful for testing exact amounts.

Final Thoughts

No doubt this is all confusing and it’s also likely that some of this info isn’t accurate. Still, the basic $1,000 per 30-day reset seems to be the general rule-of-thumb, with all its imperfections.

The stated limit really changes the strategy for purchasing from PPDG. Until now, we just purchased whenever they allowed us to do so; now, we need to purchase strategically so as to keep room for a future purchase. It may be worth holding off on e-gift card purchases which don’t have a higher margin, such as when there is a bonus Bucks deal going on.

(Big thanks to Orensmoneysaver, Esther, Chasingthepoints, and Mileswhip for allowing me to drive them crazy over the past few weeks!)

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Me
Me (@guest_280567)
August 2, 2016 15:48

I hit a totally different limit while trying to buy giftcards from PayPpal digital gifts:

“The seller only allows buyers to purchase 5 items every 10 days.”

me
me (@guest_280602)
August 2, 2016 17:19

Yes, no clue if this is a new limit or not. Never ordered before GC from them. Account created a few months ago. Others reported today no issues.

lovenola
lovenola (@guest_240607)
April 1, 2016 15:00

I bought two AA e-gift cards last week from PPDG, that had codes that were used months before they sold them to me. It’s amazing that not only will they sell scammed gcs, but they have ignored all of my attempts to contact them through ebay to make it right. Unfortunately I can’t do a chargeback, since I used an ebay gc to buy them.

Jon
Jon (@guest_233102)
March 14, 2016 11:22

Honestly, after hours and hours of aggravation, I have found that it is not worth anyone’s time to try to deal with these *ssholes. You will be told something different every time you call, and their “solutions” will rarely work. I have never seen a company more opaque (or clueless) about their own policies.

There are better places to get gift cards. Your best bet is to simply try to purchase the cards from PPDG without expecting your order to go through (sometimes you will be surprised), and when it doesn’t, give up immediately and don’t waste a second more of your time on them.

You are working the worst job in the world with a potential payout of pennies per hour if you try to communicate with them in any way.

Skyriver
Skyriver (@guest_232956)
March 13, 2016 20:42

I wanted to add a (maybe relevant) data point. I couldn’t check out through Paypal with PPDG ebay e-gift card (and forever stamps) the other day with the CMADNESS10 code. The checkout page showed the same error message like the one in this post. However for the past 30 days I’ve only purchased $500 worth of physical gift cards (with giftcardmall and svm). No history with PPDG at all. My Paypal account is verified in every aspect (including last 4 digits of SSN). After several lengthy calls with Paypal, and even involving their supervisor, I was told it’s because my account was opened in 2009 but it’s only become more active recently… don’t know if that’s true, but so far no luck checking out anything from PPDG

George Smiley
George Smiley (@guest_226619)
February 18, 2016 00:04

I have problems with PPDG that are not entirely explained by the $1000 limit. I have not had a PPDG purchase for months, and I could only get 2x$100 transactions through. And it kept making me log in to paypal, at which point it would demand I verify with a text message and number, return me to the ebay screen and it would do it all over again in an endless loop.

This happens in all browsers and after I cleared cookies. Luckily I don’t rely on PPDG much, but it’s a nice double dip with Ink on a Bucks day.

Simon
Simon (@guest_201815)
November 24, 2015 23:48

I just used 11 Ebay gift cards (9 $50 and 2 $100) to purchase the Target gift cards. I am not sure if the 8 gift cards rule is enforced.

But when I tried to make another order of the Target gift cards, the 2 $25 Ebay gift cards (never used before) are not processed correctly. I have to buy them using the credit card. I thought it might because that I am against the 8 gift cards rule at the previous one. I see these two codes in my Paypal as active status. I will just take a break since I already have them in safe place.

Snickers805
Snickers805 (@guest_196839)
November 14, 2015 13:08

Jessica,

I’m having the same problem and get the same error message. Are you trying to buy the gift card with your Paypal checking account, credit card, or ebay gift card?

Jessica
Jessica (@guest_195770)
November 10, 2015 20:16

I haven’t hit the $1,000 rolling 30 day limit and I’m currently trying to buy ONE $100 gift card for $95. If I hit “buy it now” or add it to my cart and “proceed to checkout” I get a “something went wrong. Please try to check out again. Error code 70245”.

I don’t have a bank linked, but I spent $340 yesterday on PPDG with the same ebay/paypal accounts. Any ideas?

Jon
Jon (@guest_186054)
October 15, 2015 16:02

Thanks for doing this! When I get a second I will go through and look at my transactions, but for now, count me as another person who:

a) has been allowed to purchase more than $250 worth in a single transaction (multiple times)

b) got past the limits (ONCE) by calling. Not worth the hours I’ve spent on the phone with them. I’ve been told all sorts of nonsense, including: “my IP address is not secure”, “log out, and DO NOT log back in for at least an hour, and then try again”, and more. The one time they did let another purchase go through though, I’m pretty sure, is when I answered their security questions (e.g. “on which street did you share an address with ______?”)

c) is so fed up with them, it makes me angry just thinking about it

What’s the rationale behind the limits? Presumably they want to sell gift cards, ebay wants to sell gift cards, and the companies that the gifts cards are for want to sell gift cards. I’m sure it’s some thinly-veiled “anti-fraud” attempt, but once we’ve established that I’m not buying gift cards fraudulently, what’s the problem?

Eric
Eric (@guest_176536)
September 23, 2015 18:30

I experienced this message today for the first time. If the purchase had been allowed I would have gone over $1K in the past 30 days. This included Ebay eGC I bought from them when they had the $5 off sale almost a month ago. There’s a separate Security Check screen I got but that was when I would still be within the $1K limit (I removed $100 of gc to go below it).