Paypal. Potential Problems Ahead ?

[roamer]

A lot of people on this forum will remember that before June l2004 useing Paypal from LOS was fraught with problems. After June when it was possible to operate a limited "non-withdrawing" account (unless you could withdraw to a US bank account) a lot of folk then felt a lot easier about useing their paypal accounts that were often backed by UK credit cards and bank accounts, without their accounts being blocked or otherwise limited.

A short time ago I became aware that some Ebay traders who were trading from Turkey ( which became a country with limited paypal accounts at the same time as Thailand) were having their paypal accounts stopped or limited on the grounds that were living in that country. They were not selling fakes or anything untoward, their offence was to be selling from Turkey. I emailed one of them and this was the reply I received.

Hi Alan.

Thanks for your email. Apparently if you live outside the UK and have a UK bank account registered with Paypal, even if the bank and CC details are correct for your new address once you reach the amount of £4.500 into your paypal account they will limit it.

Which basically means that although you can accept payments into the account you cannot take any form of payment out, either by bank transfer or email payment.

Your account is frozen and they hold any money for 180 days, after that it will be paid into the bank account that is set up with PP.

You are asked to register a different CC at the resolution Centre, but it is no good entering another UK card as the very same thing will happen when it reaches the magic sum of £4.500 aswell.Although I suppose that is ne way round it depending on how long it qould take to earn the £4.500........just keep registering a different CC for as long as they will let you do that.Unfortunatley I only have 1 CC as when I emigrated to Turkey I closed all my cards except the one for the Bank Account registered on Ebay..

I was told by a Paypal customer service lady that the only way I could resume using this paypal account was to set up a Turkish bank and CC details on the exsisting account. Or set up an American Bank Account!!!

The whole reason for this, they say is to stop money laundering......lol, for £4.500!

Hope some of this will help you sort out your future account....good luck with themove to Thailand.

Regards

Jennie.

Now it would be interesting to know of anyone in Los has experienced similar problems...or its a warning that they soon might if same rules are applied. So if theres anyone out there who has either been caught in this situation or appears to have been ignored by paypal it would be informative.

Of course no problems if you can withdraw to a US bank account it seems...but as I recall virtually impossible for a non US citizen to do that unless in the USA.

[roamer]

Keeping on the above theme I just dug this out of Paypal FAQs.....seems like it might be better to reach your culmulative receiving limit BEFORE a move to LOS ?

Non-US Accounts

Why do I have a cumulative Receiving Limit?

As PayPal grows internationally, we are required to comply with anti-money laundering and 'Know-Your-Customer' regulations specific to each country. This requires us to collect additional information about you and/or your business before you reach a lifetime total amount received of 5,000 GBP.

Please provide the requested information as soon as possible to prevent your account from being limited.

END

I'm guessing therefore that its the amount that triggers the alarms rather than your login ip address but that once those alarms are triggered then you are relegated to the status of a non-withdrawing account if you happen to live in a country which is only allowed limited paypal accounts. How does my reasoning sound ? Anyone else with experience of this ?

[mobile69]

Thanks for your email. Apparently if you live outside the UK and have a UK bank account registered with Paypal, even if the bank and CC details are correct for your new address once you reach the amount of £4.500 into your paypal account they will limit it.

Which basically means that although you can accept payments into the account you cannot take any form of payment out, either by bank transfer or email payment.

Your account is frozen and they hold any money for 180 days, after that it will be paid into the bank account that is set up with PP.

You are asked to register a different CC at the resolution Centre, but it is no good entering another UK card as the very same thing will happen when it reaches the magic sum of £4.500 aswell.Although I suppose that is ne way round it depending on how long it qould take to earn the £4.500........just keep registering a different CC for as long as they will let you do that.Unfortunatley I only have 1 CC as when I emigrated to Turkey I closed all my cards except the one for the Bank Account registered on Ebay..

I was told by a Paypal customer service lady that the only way I could resume using this paypal account was to set up a Turkish bank and CC details on the exsisting account. Or set up an American Bank Account!!!

The whole reason for this, they say is to stop money laundering......lol, for £4.500!

Hope some of this will help you sort out your future account....good luck with themove to Thailand.

Regards

Jennie.

Now it would be interesting to know of anyone in Los has experienced similar problems...or its a warning that they soon might if same rules are applied. So if theres anyone out there who has either been caught in this situation or appears to have been ignored by p$ypal it would be informative.

Of course no problems if you can withdraw to a US bank account it seems...but as I recall virtually impossible for a non US citizen to do that unless in the USA.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I use p$ypal with a uk bank & home address, altho' I'm living here in LOS. The p$ypal account was limited due to the 4,500GBP threshold being exceeded. To unlimit the account I had to activate an automated p$ypal phonecall to my registered "home" telephone in UK, while logged onto p$ypal. The phone rings in UK, and automated message asks yo to key in a PIN on website into the phone handset. Result - p$ypal account unlimited. I did this on a trip home to UK, but if you have trusted family member / friend in UK, they could log on to your p$ypal account & do this - you'd have to change your registered home number to their's first.

[Pattayatony]

This was my case>> Paypal account with bank account in the USA, I was trading for a few months when PP frooze my funds and account $3,500. I got my money after 18 months but I had to join a class action law suite to get it. Their reason they told me was although I had a US bank I was loging in from Thailand. This all happened before Thailand became an accepted country. My advice to anyone would be to take a look at www.paypalsucks.com and stay clear of paypal. There are other payment options out there so Paypal is no longer a "have to". I hope this helps.Cheers

[Nickerelastic]

Be aware there is a very sophistcated "Paypal" phishing scheme flooding folks email in boxes.

The email looks on first glance authentic.

[roamer]

Thanks for the info guys, just what I was looking for. On the phone number bit...you could maybe even use a SkypeIn number from Skype. Anyway thats not insurmountable especially if you arrange things in advance.

I agree Paypal has its problems and it does have a rather cavelier attitude to its customers but its still handy to be able to use it. Rumours abound of a Google payment system in the works, could be interesting.