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I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

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Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#91

Post by mrkris »

dangrossman wrote: post #44
stch2 wrote: post #29

Sorry, they stole your money. This is a big advantage of theirs, they aren't regulated like a bank so they have no trouble taking money from marginalized people.

Why does someone always write this? PayPal is regulated to exactly the same degree a merchant account from a bank is. Their contracts are essentially identical, mirroring PayPal's own agreements with the banks that underwrite their accounts (Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase). Banks suspend merchant accounts and freeze their money for the same reasons and for the same periods of time, and no regulation stops them from…

I don't recall banks freezing your assets for 6+ months to make sure your business is legit.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#92

Post by nonamegiven »

revelation wrote: post #67
nlh wrote: post #23

Sorry to hear about the troubles :( If this wasn't the umpteenth time I've heard this story, I wouldn't say this so pesteringly: To everyone: Stop stop stop stop stop using PayPal. This happens over and over again. For once, thankfully, there are viable alternatives out there -- Stripe & WePay to name two (both of which I've had excellent experiences with). Not saying they're panaceas or that there won't be security/…

If you have to use PayPal: regularly transfer any money to an actual bank with actual responsibilities, not some fake holding bank registered in Ireland or whatever PayPal is using today to evade tax and consumer laws. You are not getting interest by letting that money sit with PayPal.

You're also not getting principal by letting that money sit with PayPal.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#93

Post by dangrossman »

mrkris wrote: post #91
dangrossman wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does someone always write this? PayPal is regulated to exactly the same degree a merchant account from a bank is. Their contracts are essentially identical, mirroring PayPal's own agreements with the banks that underwrite their accounts (Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase). Banks suspend merchant accounts and freeze their money for the same reasons and for the same periods of time, and no regulation stops them from…

I don't recall banks freezing your assets for 6+ months to make sure your business is legit.

I do, since it happened to me 9 years ago when I was as naive about the industry as you. First National Bank of Omaha, the largest privately held bank with $17bn in assets, if you're curious. The several thousand dollars of customer payments they had not yet disbursed was held for exactly 180 days before they released it to me.

Do you not recall because you haven't read your own agreement, or because you haven't actually opened a merchant account with a bank before? You don't have to take my word. Type ["merchant account agreement" 180] into Google to see some 40,000 examples of bank contracts with that same hold period written into them.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#94

Post by breck »

nlh wrote: post #23

Sorry to hear about the troubles :( If this wasn't the umpteenth time I've heard this story, I wouldn't say this so pesteringly: To everyone: Stop stop stop stop stop using PayPal. This happens over and over again. For once, thankfully, there are viable alternatives out there -- Stripe & WePay to name two (both of which I've had excellent experiences with). Not saying they're panaceas or that there won't be security/…

PayPal also has over 100,000,000 users. Even if PayPal worked 99.999% of the time, you're talking thousands of problem cases.

Turn.js is awesome, I've been a fan of it for a while, and I hope and expect PayPal to resolve this.

But generalizing advice off this one data point is wrong. For the vast majority of people, PayPal is hands down the best choice.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#96

Post by sswaner »

bravura wrote: post #88
gojomo wrote: post #46

Concur with javajosh's recommendation to find a California/USA-based lawyer for help. Advice from semi-anonymous strangers in internet forums is worth what you pay for it. Generally, in the search for a lawyer, you get to talk to many (without charge) for 15-45 minutes each. You may be surprised how widely their estimations of the issues vary -- the law is the law, right? -- but you'll learn something from each conve…

legal confidentiality means... IANAL, but I don't believe you have attorney-client privilege until you formally hire the lawyer. So if you are calling ten lawyers and getting advice, there is no guarantee of privilege.

According to the lawyer across the table, privilege starts with the first conversation.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#97

Post by irlib »

punkbit wrote: post #21

Why do people keep using Paypal ? Paypal is always taking money from people. Always! It's interesting what's going to happen here. If he can't get his money, is Paypal going to have it ? Why is there the assumption this guy is in the US ? Even if this guy was not legally in the US, this is still his money. If you are young and don't have a national insurance number yet, ask them to change your account holder to one o…

there is no Stripe for aliens yet unfortunately but there is PayPal

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#98

Post by [deleted] »

hippich wrote: post #60
eli wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An International Student is unlikely to have a visa that allows them to start a company in the US.

You do not have to have a visa to start a company in US. Actually, you can start one without even being in US. Opening bank account for such company - is what tricky without being physically in US.

[deleted]

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#100

Post by alpeb »

mamcx wrote: post #83
sisk wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may be a non-starter for this gentleman. Both Stripe and WePay have SSN requirement of sorts: https://stripe.com/us/help/faq#do-i-need-an-SSN https://support.wepay.com/entries/313535-why-are-you-asking-...

I actually looking for a way to solve this future problem (located in Colombia). I wish I could use stripe or baintree. Opening a account in USA from my local bank requiere US 30.000 in the first deposit (!) and creating a US company ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5148581 ) I worry for the legal/financial repercussions of that. The local payment processors suck worse than paypal. I use fastspring, they support…

As for opening an account, you could take a trip to Miami and open it by yourself. No need to be a resident. Then make withdrawals in Colombia from an ATM (up to 780k COP at once) at a not too bad exchange rate.
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