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PSA: Aliexpress charging $10 cash advance fee on Paypal payments

67 67 November 19, 2025 at 09:38 PM in Tech & Electronics
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Aliexpress/Paypal Credit Card Processing Problem:
There appears to be some technical glitch happening to US Customers from Aliexpress or Alipay where the credit card transaction was miscoded via Paypal.

Credit card companies receiving the charge from Paypal are adding cash advance fees in the $10 range per transaction (Up to 5% if it's over $200 transaction). Fees probably vary by credit card.

Interest charges may also be accruing on the cash advance.

Who is Affected:
Recent credit card transactions via Paypal for US customers in November 2025. Earlier orders from October may be safe. Check your credit card statements immediately. Wait a few days after the credit card transaction clears to doublecheck.

If you have a balance on Paypal or used a debit card, then this wouldn't apply since they take money from your account balance directly.

Apparently there was a wave of similar incidents in 2020.
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Joined Dec 2006
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dealhelmet
11-21-2025 at 03:43 PM.
11-21-2025 at 03:43 PM.
Quote from MrDoc :
I also got hit on my Costco Citicard with a $10 fee. Is this stated somewhere official that there was a technical glitch?
Someone had posted a chat conversation with Aliexpress where the CSR acknowledged the issue. But I haven't seen an official response from the company.
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Joined Dec 2006
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dealhelmet
11-21-2025 at 03:44 PM.
11-21-2025 at 03:44 PM.
Quote from MrDoc :
I also got hit on my Costco Citicard with a $10 fee. Is this stated somewhere official that there was a technical glitch?
Quote from thund3rcat :
Been using apple pay, no issues.
Yeah,it was only with Paypal payments. I haven't seen any recent data so it may be fixed now. But everyone's trying to figure out how to get the $10's waived.
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Joined Dec 2006
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dealhelmet
11-21-2025 at 03:45 PM.
11-21-2025 at 03:45 PM.
Quote from pumm3l :
reached out to both paypal and fidelity, paypal said they would get in touch but I called Fidelity and they pushed back like it was supposed to be there until I showed them previous transactions which didn't include cash advance fee. Rep at fidelity said they would credit me back and note my account for potential interest charges. Paypal finally reached out to me and offered $10 credit. I'll check my statement when it closes for interest charges.

FYI I made an order on 11/11
Thanks for adding this data point, very helpful. Yours is the first I've seen where Paypal offered to give the credit.
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Joined Jul 2010
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MrDoc
11-21-2025 at 03:51 PM.
11-21-2025 at 03:51 PM.
Quote from dealhelmet :
Someone had posted a chat conversation with Aliexpress where the CSR acknowledged the issue. But I haven't seen an official response from the company.
Do you know where was this posted? It might give us enough to get the credit card companies to credit us the fee, and in the end not paying it to AliExpress and company.

And yes, I used PayPal with my Citibank Costco card and have the $10 charge making the ok deal, not ok anymore.
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Joined Dec 2008
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the.barbrR
11-21-2025 at 04:35 PM.
11-21-2025 at 04:35 PM.
Quote from MrDoc :
Do you know where was this posted? It might give us enough to get the credit card companies to credit us the fee, and in the end not paying it to AliExpress and company.And yes, I used PayPal with my Citibank Costco card and have the $10 charge making the ok deal, not ok anymore.
I tried getting Citi to remove the fee on my Costco Citi Card and the rep was completely clueless. She kept saying that some charge as cash when you pay with venmo etc. Made zero sense since I didnt but she just kept repeating that line.
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Joined Oct 2006
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pumm3l
11-21-2025 at 05:31 PM.
11-21-2025 at 05:31 PM.
Quote from the.barbrR :
I tried getting Citi to remove the fee on my Costco Citi Card and the rep was completely clueless. She kept saying that some charge as cash when you pay with venmo etc. Made zero sense since I didnt but she just kept repeating that line.
that's what fidelity was saying because the description is "ali pay" which makes it seem like some kind of cash withdraw charge, the only reason the rep decided to credit me was because I showed him previous orders with the same description and mentioned that I think it was a gltich. Try reaching out to paypal as well, I went through the paypal assistant, this is what I put in there once it finally said it was going to put through a live agent:

"I made a purchase on aliexpress using paypal and my credit card. This transaction charged me $10 cash advance fee. This appears to be a wide spread issue and I was informed to check your internal notes to confirm this issue. Please advise on how this can be fixed."

I did also attach a screenshot of the $10 fee
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delti90
11-22-2025 at 11:05 AM.
11-22-2025 at 11:05 AM.
So to be clear using an existing paypal balance, debit card, or bank as the funding source wouldn't be impacted by this, right?
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Joined Dec 2006
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dealhelmet
11-22-2025 at 12:01 PM.
11-22-2025 at 12:01 PM.
Quote from MrDoc :
Do you know where was this posted? It might give us enough to get the credit card companies to credit us the fee, and in the end not paying it to AliExpress and company.

And yes, I used PayPal with my Citibank Costco card and have the $10 charge making the ok deal, not ok anymore.
I saw on it somewhere on Reddit, I think. There are several posts on there about this fiasco.

However, the latest update seems to be that you can go to Paypal to get it refunded now. I'd give that a shot.

Yeah, I bought a few flashlights at $12 that are no longer a deal at $22.
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Joined Dec 2006
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dealhelmet
11-22-2025 at 12:02 PM.
11-22-2025 at 12:02 PM.
Quote from the.barbrR :
I tried getting Citi to remove the fee on my Costco Citi Card and the rep was completely clueless. She kept saying that some charge as cash when you pay with venmo etc. Made zero sense since I didnt but she just kept repeating that line.
I'd try going to Paypal now. The latest update is that they're aware of Ali's mistake but we sort of have to pester Paypal for the refund.
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Joined Dec 2006
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dealhelmet
11-22-2025 at 12:03 PM.
11-22-2025 at 12:03 PM.
Quote from delti90 :
So to be clear using an existing paypal balance, debit card, or bank as the funding source wouldn't be impacted by this, right?
Correct, it seems to be 100% Paypal with credit card link.
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the.barbrR
11-23-2025 at 12:04 PM.
11-23-2025 at 12:04 PM.
Quote from dealhelmet :
I'd try going to Paypal now. The latest update is that they're aware of Ali's mistake but we sort of have to pester Paypal for the refund.
I received a $10 credit from PayPal today. I sent a chat through PayPal AI Assistant, messaged the entire issue in full, kept getting autoresponses and responded "chat with agent" about 4 times until it finally said it would email an agent my message and would get back to me within a couple hours. Two hours later I got an email from PayPal about a $10 credit.
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Joined Dec 2008
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the.barbrR
11-23-2025 at 12:05 PM.
11-23-2025 at 12:05 PM.
Quote from delti90 :
So to be clear using an existing paypal balance, debit card, or bank as the funding source wouldn't be impacted by this, right?
It shouldn't be since those are considered cash.
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Joined Dec 2006
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dealhelmet
11-23-2025 at 04:57 PM.
11-23-2025 at 04:57 PM.
Quote from the.barbrR :
I received a $10 credit from PayPal today. I sent a chat through PayPal AI Assistant, messaged the entire issue in full, kept getting autoresponses and responded "chat with agent" about 4 times until it finally said it would email an agent my message and would get back to me within a couple hours. Two hours later I got an email from PayPal about a $10 credit.
That's good news and glad you were persistent. Thanks for sharing the info.
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meade
11-24-2025 at 11:04 AM.
11-24-2025 at 11:04 AM.
I had three transactions on aliexpress using PayPal, I was charged $10 for each under the "cash advance". I called PayPal today and was able to speak to a representative and was told this is a known issue between PayPal and AliExpress. They said I would get a refund on my $30 fee, it should show up within 5 days. I asked if it was safe to still use PayPal with AliExpress, the woman told me they are still trying to resolve the issue, she couldn't promise me I wouldn't get hit with that fee again. Hopefully the refund does come through, but I'm going to hold off making purchases from them for a while.
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Joined Dec 2006
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dealhelmet
11-24-2025 at 03:15 PM.
11-24-2025 at 03:15 PM.
Quote from meade :
I had three transactions on aliexpress using PayPal, I was charged $10 for each under the "cash advance". I called PayPal today and was able to speak to a representative and was told this is a known issue between PayPal and AliExpress. They said I would get a refund on my $30 fee, it should show up within 5 days. I asked if it was safe to still use PayPal with AliExpress, the woman told me they are still trying to resolve the issue, she couldn't promise me I wouldn't get hit with that fee again. Hopefully the refund does come through, but I'm going to hold off making purchases from them for a while.
Thanks for adding your information. It would be nice if Paypal would just automatically give the credits but at least they are no longer sending you to Aliexpress to contest the charges.
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