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PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

theguardian.com

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Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#91

Post by justinclift »

gravitas wrote: post #55
chrisseaton wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But sure, most banks have fees like that A bank account with fees? I've never seen that. They make money by loaning out your money, so they don't need to charge a fee.

It used to be that all basic (low end) US checking accounts had fees and the concept of no-fees being the norm has happened during my adult lifetime. Low end accounts (no money in them, basic tier) may not cover the yearly expenses for the bank to keep up with the legal paperwork on that account, but a high end account ($$$) has always had no-fees because of exactly what you describe. (digital life has I'm sure reduc…

> yearly expenses for the bank to keep up with the legal paperwork on that account

Wouldn't the yearly expenses to keep up any individual account be such a small fraction of a single cent, that we might as well call it zero?

Account information is literally just a few strings of bytes, and transaction info is similar. Even with a lot of transactions it'd likely be less than (say) 10kB per year?

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#92

Post by katsura »

ValentineC wrote: post #85
justinclift wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, it's a UK account They did email me a few times saying they wanted my mobile number, but each time I went to the page it had the little text blurb about needing to accept marketing texts. Again, not going to happen. That being said, they shouldn't get to invent a phone number when one isn't provided. ;) --- On a related note -> I remember trying to change the address in my PayPal account a few times after they e…

> Anyway, PayPal didn't allow changing account country through the UI, and there didn't seem to any other way of doing it either. I believe the "proper" way is to close your old account, and reopen a new one from that country's site. Most people I know just have multiple accounts. I don't know if PayPal warns or shuts people down for doing so. It makes sense legally, since a user would have to agree to a different se…

Last time I checked their terms (it was a few years ago), you weren't allowed to have multiple accounts. As you said when one moves to another country, they just have to close the previous account, and create a new one in the new country.

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#93

Post by justinclift »

edwinyzh wrote: post #63

Do you have any reliable alternative to Paypal?

Depends on what you use PayPal for. If it's just transferring money between countries, then TransferWise seems like a good alternative:

https://transferwise.com/invite/u/justinc777 <-- apparently that's an "invite" link. Just use the bare domain name if you don't want to do the invite thing. :)

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#94

Post by colejohnson66 »

justinclift wrote: post #88
colejohnson66 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is exactly what they did. It’s right in the title actually: “PayPal introduces new fee ...”

Yes, that's what the parent poster was pointing out. ;)

I was pointing out that it’s not illegal because they’re allowed to do it. Then OP said (again) that it is illegal unless it’s a fee (not an all-at-once thing), which it is

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#95

Post by z3t4 »

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…

The cache-less society is no different, it's just the bandits that has changed. And it's for protecting the banks money, not your money. Paypal has always been on the consumer side though.

Not trying to make an excuse for all the horror stories, just some advice: Make sure you have backups/exports of the 2:nd factor keys so they can be imported when lost. For example print your password and store it on one location, for example in a safe, then print the 2nd factor key/export (QR code, or backup codes) and put it in another safe/location. Or make several copies and store on many safe locations. And don't forget to TEST YOUR BACKUPS on regular intervals to make sure they work when that day comes.

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#96

Post by nxtbl »

justinclift wrote: post #89
nxtbl wrote: post #67

There is a way to regain access to your Paypal account. I used this when I forgot to change the 2fa phone number before they started enforcing it, thus leaving me no way to log in. Use a browser / computer you haven't ever used for Paypal. Incognito/Private browsing mode will probably be sufficient. Go to the normal Paypal login. Try to reset your password via "forgot my password". Follow the instructions; security c…

> Follow the instructions; security code etc. Except, at least in my case, the security code gets sent to some phone number that's not mine. So, that's not going to help. ;)

It should work - I had an old, unusable number in file, too. If it doesn't, please try again and make sure they haven't "seen" your browser/device before. Temporarily even install a new browser if necessary.

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#98

Post by bdibs »

pansa2 wrote: post #2

> for anyone whose account has been dormant for at least a year, but still has some money left in it. Isn’t it considered a bad idea to ever keep a non-zero balance in a PayPal account? When money comes in, transfer it to a real bank account straightaway.

Absolutely, otherwise they can shut down your account with $15k in it and hold it for 6 months. Ask me how I know, haha.

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#99

Post by tauwauwau »

exabrial wrote: post #17

Fairly unethical, though their rationale is probably something like 'hey everyone else is doing it!' My state has a law where it account goes dormant for a long time, the balance is turned over to the state. The state sees this as revenue, but an individual can submit a claim online and recieve it for no fee, up to 10 years I think.

You are probably talking about Escheat system. Planet money had a nice episode about it, here's the link

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/799345159

Re: PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts

#100

Post by drusepth »

bserge wrote: post #37
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.

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.

The last 5 or 6 transactions I made on my old PayPal account each resulted in freezes of my account that required a ton of hoops to unfreeze (uploading pics of my passport, proving address with bills, etc). I eventually abandoned the account and just created another, which is what I use with no problems now, but have no idea what the balance in the old one might be since I ended things abruptly in unlock-my-account-please-for-the-love-of-god Support Hell.
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