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If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

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Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#41

Post by iDemonix »

ben0x539 wrote: post #31

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.

Yeah, in my initial outburst of rage to my other half about the situation I just described it as it's like a company turning around and sacking you because you took home an expensive stapler several years ago, it's just a random get out of free card they have stored thanks to their ToS.

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#42

Post by jcwayne »

jrnichols wrote: post #4

What 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.

Not sure about UK laws, but my (limited) understanding of US law is that a minor lacks the legal capacity to sign a contract (i.e. agree to TOS). I suspect that's the legal reasoning that's caused PayPal to adopt this policy.

PayPal could and should find a better way to handle transitioning people who, out of necessity, lied about their age when they first signed up. Was signing up under false pretenses a form of fraud? Probably, but it's a form of fraud that's essentially benign and is so pervasive, online and off, that it's just stupid to treat it as such.

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#43

Post by iDemonix »

jaimex2 wrote: post #34

If 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.

I'm in the UK but my friend Mat is in Aus and does run in to problems with them now and then, I'll pass the information on.

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#44

Post by tyingq »

iDemonix wrote: post #24
loeg wrote: post #18

Just 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.

Thanks, I managed to do this an hour ago. It's actually hidden in the new UI, there was no button that would let me do it, I managed to go back to settings and re-enable the classic UI, then in the view transaction details page I found the missing refund button.

I would be tempted to have my friend now send some small amount and then take PayPal to whatever the UK equivalent of small claims court is. PayPal would then have to spend money and time to deal with you.

The beauty there is you don't have to win, to win. A £5 dispute costs them more than you, when you get to control the venue.

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#45

Post by iDemonix »

MaximHarper wrote: post #30

Same experience my end: https://twitter.com/MaximHarper/status/847071547772821505 PayPal is unfortunately still pretty central to eBay & I'm a payment geek so I've made a new account. Glad I didn't have any funds frozen though, that must suck.

eBay is the biggest heartache for me, I do a lot with older cars and motorcycles, so buying/selling parts is routine for me and will be a pain to sort out.

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#46

Post by iDemonix »

tangerine11 wrote: post #16

Thanks for the heads up! I normally only use PayPal for purchases, but I looked up my email logs and realized I did create it when I was 17. it was easy enough to close my account and open another.

I wish I'd known prior so I could have done the same, I've spent all day having to try and transfer accounts for hosting and so on. At least it'll help others avoid the same, takes away some of PayPal's 'get out of jail free' cards and maybe convinces a few people to stop funding them!

Re: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it

#47

Post by aselzer »

ben0x539 wrote: post #29

Is there a way to find the precise age of your paypal account retroactively? It says mine was created the year of my 18th birthday, and I'm sure I did it all above-board, but it'd be nice to have it confirmed. Update: It looks like you can get some day/month number if you check your account limits at https://www.paypal.com/de/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_lift-limits if you still have any, and combine them with the year it act…

Or search for the "Welcome to Paypal" email if you haven't deleted it. Turns out my account was created when I was 14.
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