PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts • Hacker News Board

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#31

Post by colejohnson66 » Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 2:47 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #18

ThisIsMeEEE wrote: post #15

Seems more like they're trying to get abandoned accounts down to $0 in their wallets so they can cancel all the abandoned accounts wasting space on their server than actually trying to charge people a fee for something.

This isn't about "wasting space on their server", it's about confiscating money left in those accounts. It's illegal for them to just take it, because it's not theirs.

Is it illegal? I’m 100% certain their TOS say they can change them at any time for any reason.

Not to mention that almost every bank has fees too. Overdraft fees are charging you because you didn’t have money!

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#32

Post by genidoi » Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 2:48 PM UTC

xoa wrote: post #20

justinclift wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar here. I've been using PayPal to receive our Patreon balance each month and pay various project (sqlitebrowser.org) related experiences. Just over a week ago, when I tried logging in to PayPal (2FA is not enabled) a new screen appeared saying they'd sent an SMS with code to my phone number, and I need to type it in. Problem being, the phone number they displayed is not mine. I've never given them my mobile num…

> PayPal is the main reason I'm not positive on Elon Musk's history... they've been "known bad" for many years, including when he was there. He started his fortune from building a company that knowingly scams people. :( There's plenty of possible things to criticize him for, but this seems like a weird one. PayPal was started by Confinity. He founded X.com in 99ish and they merged like a year after, but then he got t…

It’s even more bizarre because things like Patreon and SMS text authentication weren’t around in 2002 and hardly even in 2012.

Might as well criticise Tim Bernes-Lee for not developing the HTTPS spec in the 80s

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#33

Post by sneak » Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

colejohnson66 wrote: post #31

sneak wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't about "wasting space on their server", it's about confiscating money left in those accounts. It's illegal for them to just take it, because it's not theirs.

Is it illegal? I’m 100% certain their TOS say they can change them at any time for any reason. Not to mention that almost every bank has fees too. Overdraft fees are charging you because you didn’t have money!

It's illegal for them to take it arbitrarily as abandoned; they can institute a new fee system to take it when they could otherwise not.

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#34

Post by bserge » Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

cute_boi wrote: post #6

katsura wrote: post #3

Well, I'm glad I don't have money left there, because I had two factor authentication turned on, and for some unforseen circumstances, I lost my phone number. PayPal customer service is actually quite hard to contact, because every possibility they give you requires you to log in. I found an email address somewhere, but when I wrote them telling them about my situation, I got an email that if I log in I can check the…

same here. Lost 2fa due to water damage on phone. and all the data was irrecoverable. Now even if i give every data their customer service don't care. From that day i haven't used any 2fa and just use password manager with additional backup.

Make sure you test the recovery system. I forgot how Paypal's works, but Google's for example, will simply bypass your 12288-bit strong password and give your account to anyone. Lost a Google account that way. 2FA would've saved it (in theory).

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#35

Post by RinTohsaka » Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

jghn wrote: post #27

lumberjack wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same exact problem! I wanted to delete my account, just in case, but I cannot login. I haven't used Paypal in over 10 years. Their "service" is really not needed anymore.

A lot of e-commerce sites will take PayPal these days. I like to use that vs giving my credit card information. Granted, I prefer to use things like Apple Pay but there are circumstances where PayPal is the only indirect payment form I have in common with a site

you might be interested in privacy.com as an alternative!

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#36

Post by jasonjayr » Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

numpad0 wrote: post #26

cute_boi wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

same here. Lost 2fa due to water damage on phone. and all the data was irrecoverable. Now even if i give every data their customer service don't care. From that day i haven't used any 2fa and just use password manager with additional backup.

I keep a separate phone next to home PC and enroll that for 2FA as well. That’s as secure as a sticky note on monitor, that is to say it’s airgapped.

Screenshot the QRCode, print it out, and keep it in a safe.

I have an encrypted backup of all my TOTP QRCodes and this has been tremendously useful.

I loathe sites that only do SMS 2FA, and I assume by default they just want my cell # for marketing or other privacy invasive purposes. Too many sites using SMS 2FA have poisoned the well.

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#37

Post by bserge » Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 2:57 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #18

ThisIsMeEEE wrote: post #15

Seems more like they're trying to get abandoned accounts down to $0 in their wallets so they can cancel all the abandoned accounts wasting space on their server than actually trying to charge people a fee for something.

This isn't about "wasting space on their server", it's about confiscating money left in those accounts. It's illegal for them to just take it, because it's not theirs.

Kind of a moot point when they can simply suspend your account for months for undisclosed reasons.

People literally just give up on their PP accounts, because it's not worth your sanity (dealing with Paypal's "customer service") for something like $100 left in the account.

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#38

Post by itsoktocry » Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 2:57 PM UTC

xoa wrote: post #20

justinclift wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar here. I've been using PayPal to receive our Patreon balance each month and pay various project (sqlitebrowser.org) related experiences. Just over a week ago, when I tried logging in to PayPal (2FA is not enabled) a new screen appeared saying they'd sent an SMS with code to my phone number, and I need to type it in. Problem being, the phone number they displayed is not mine. I've never given them my mobile num…

> PayPal is the main reason I'm not positive on Elon Musk's history... they've been "known bad" for many years, including when he was there. He started his fortune from building a company that knowingly scams people. :( There's plenty of possible things to criticize him for, but this seems like a weird one. PayPal was started by Confinity. He founded X.com in 99ish and they merged like a year after, but then he got t…

>20 years after his departure, itself before he had any real chance to make a mark, and 18 years after being bought

You seem to imply PayPal being scummy is a new development. Always has been.

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#39

Post by dingaling » Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC

Tsiklon wrote: post #24

katsura wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they have the that though? When I turned the 2FA on it was only SMS option, so if your phone number is lost you are out of luck.

PayPal 2FA via OTP has apparently been available for at least 6 months

It had, but when they forced me through the 2FA enrolment flow recently the only option was SMS.

To use OTP I had to break out of that flow and start from a different part of the site.

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#40

Post by qz2 » Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 3:03 PM UTC

They’ve basically found a way to steal what’s left in the account. That’s all this is. There’s probably tens of thousands of accounts that people got locked out of or abandoned with money in and this lets them steal it.