What am I doing wrong with Paypal?

I tried to send $250 for a payment, I used my bank account to do it. I get a notice from paypal saying my bank has declined the transfer, then another saying I have an invalid account number, and it sent the payment off of the credit card? This is not true because I have received payments and sent them to account, no problem. Do I need to put the money in my paypal balance first before I transfer from a bank account?

Thanks

I often have real problems with Pay Pal, God knows why - I am totally clean from a financial point of view but I often end up having to fax them things to get it sorted which takes ten days a time, they apologise and swear it will never happen again - but it always does.

Not much comfort, sorry,.