Several things could occur – what is the cause of the negative balance? A chargeback on a product you sold, a bank’s returned ACH, a discovering source, or something else?
I had a fraudulent transaction for $912 hit my PayPal debit card – the money were not there, and the transaction was completed using a draught from my linked bank account. I did a stop payment to return the transaction to PayPal when this happened (where I would receive provisional credit from the dispute process).
The transaction was reversed, resulting in a $912 negative balance on my PayPal account. It will not attempt to recoup funds from a bank account or locate a source of funds right away. My provisional credit took three days to post (returning me to $0), but everything worked out nicely. I had touch with PayPal throughout this transaction.
Another occasion, I sold an item and the buyer attempted to make a claim against it; as a result, my funds were instantly held for the amount of the transaction (approximately $40), but because I didn’t have $40 in my account, it deducted what funds were available and put me in the negative. Because the buyer didn’t have a legal claim, I left it alone once more. A short time later, the case was ended, the money were released, and life went back to normal.
PayPal will attempt to collect funds from linked accounts, but you will be offered the chance to correct the problem first.