Also this is a great example of having rules that are bullshit enough that you can basically do anything to anyone and technically be perfectly justified according to some agreement, but also enforcing them arbitrarily enough that anyone who complains about the terms of the agreement will be brushed off as paranoid.
If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it
31–40 of 396 posts
Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it
#32The day Bitcoin will replace Paypal for online transactions can not come fast enough.
As much as I dislike PayPal, I would never want to trade it for Bitcoin. All it takes is one zero-day exploit for all of my funds to disappear at once without a trace. Any purchase I would make has zero protection and zero recourse for recovering funds if I'm ripped off. No, thanks. I just want something like PayPal, but that is run by people who have empathy and care about providing a good experience.
It's not as easy as you think to just have bitcoins stolen from you, especially if you know what you're doing. You're more likely to just forget your password or something.
And as for zero purchase protection, you can use escrow services for significant purchases.
Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it
#33The bright side is now that its on HN, you have a high chance the issue will be resolved for you.
I've managed to recoup most of the money (minus fees, after 30 minutes of digging and switching to the classic UI), I'm not interested in using PayPal anymore. The good thing about it being on HN/Medium and getting some views is hopefully I'll save a few people the same hassle.
Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it
#34If you are in Australia and PayPal every pull anything remotely similar, contact the financial ombudsman. They are extremely good at putting Paypal back in line.
In some cases they fine financial institutions who don't resolve quickly enough.
Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it
#35They had Paypal Student before, where your account would be linked to your parent's account. But they shut that down recently, with no way to reactivate or unlink the account, and you're unable to reuse your email when making another account.
I had a Student account, and when I turned 18 they seemed surprised that I would want to disconnect it from my parents' account and turn it into a regular PayPal account. (I had some back-and-forth with their support, who eventually explained that my parents had to cancel my account so I could sign up for a regular account with the same email address.) This seems like the sort of thing you'd at least have a KB article about, if not an automated process, given that every single user of the service is going to want to do this eventually.
Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it
#36I'm 30s and living in SEA, opening PayPal with CitiBank card and provided proofs (scan of ID and bank statements) then they immediately closed my account. They just stated that my info wasn't met their standards. So fine, I don't use PayPal otherwise.
Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it
#37Just close your account if you have a PayPal account at all. They limit and freeze funds at random and good luck resolving it. OP, You can refund the funds to the sender less Paypal's 30¢ cut, I believe. That might be the best way to get the money back to your friend, and then they can re-send it to you with something sane like Google Wallet.
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Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it
#38I registered when I was 15. I guess I should make sure to use paypal as little as possible from now on.
Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it
#39What an epic failure on PayPal's part. Is there some banking law that I'm unaware of that would cause them to take such drastic actions? It sounds like the OP is definitely above the age of 18 now too, so why would PayPal suddenly decide to yank the rug out from under him? It'll be interesting to see if there's a follow up.
I'm 26 now, almost 27. I think it was the "We'll contact you within 180 days" thing that pissed me off the most, because it's just such a crap, random number that I likely agreed to in their ToS. As a partial update, after spending 30 minutes clicking every page of the dashboard, it was obvious that money was stuck, and my friend couldn't dispute it as it was sent as a gift, as it wasn't payment for work. Luckily, if…
It's not random. It's the standard period for holding funds of a terminated merchant account with virtually any bank or credit card processor in the world. That's because it's the maximum chargeback period for most credit cards. If they release funds before that date, someone who paid you in the past could reverse that payment, and PayPal would have no funds of yours to cover it, leaving them on the hook for your loss.
Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it
#40Had the same issue last month after reciving a $3000 bug bounty. PP limited my account I uploaded a copy of my id, bing -> banned.
However: After calling them, they told me to create a new account and verify it with the CC and bankaccount (that were in old acc). And as soon everything was verified they trasfered the money to the new account.
So apparently it seems not to be that difficult to get your money.