"You can't use paypal anymore" After account limit due to first time eBay selling.

hiddeninput
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

 

This has been quite a long journey and extremely tedious.. Trying to resolve it and figuring out what's going on.

 

It started off when i sold my first USED item on eBay, which was a graphics card i took out of my computer. Note that i had ZERO problems before using paypal with a prepaid credit card, it just came out of nowhere.. Few days later after i sold the graphics card, my account was hit with a limit; They told me to provide numerous things,two of which i couldn't provide- "Businessa information" and "Available inventory", because i'm not in any kind of business!

 

So i messaged paypal about it, took two days with two seperate messages til i got an answer. Finally..

I was requested to write a "Document" explaining my situation and send it to them, odd but okay. I did that, and sent it. the representative thanked me and told me it would be escalated to the right department. All good. not really..

 

Two weeks later, i started being worried as my account was limited and i couldn't do anything with my account during that time. So i messaged them kindly, asking if everything went fine. I got a response 24hrs later, that the document was indeed escalated to the right deperatment but they cannot give me an estimate time when will something happen, but that's fine. If it was being worked on that what matters, just was hoping they didn't ditch the document or forgot about it..

 

Now one day later, i was hit with a surprise. I was checking on if something has happened by clicking on a notifcation that would say "There is a problem with your account..." in red, instead of redirecting me to a page like before i got a "You can't use PayPal anymore" message with an explanation of what's going to happen next.

 

In short:

"Any bank account or card linked to your PayPal account cannot be removed or used to create a new account. You can still log in and see your account information but you can’t send or receive payments. Any funds in your balance will be held for 180 days, at which point we’ll email you instructions about withdrawing your funds."

 

..Why? I am completely clueless at this point, and i'm not even sure what can i do anymore. Will messaging them even work?.. it hasn't done anything so far.. i'm extremely frustrated and now this.. As if i hadn't enough problems already.

 

What would i need to do in this situation? any advice? i'm just stumped.

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6 REPLIES 6

DPCreations
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

You can't change the permanent account closure.

You could analyze what happened.

Did you have a checking account linked?

Did you have a credit card linked?

Is the phone registered to your name and your name only?

What have you ever purchased with PayPal?

Did you have tracking to show delivery for the graphics card?

Is the buyer happy with the graphics card?

Did you already withdraw the money received for the graphics card?

 

Specifically, what documents did you submit to PayPal for review AND investigation?

Why did you think you did not need to provide inventory details?

 

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hiddeninput
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you for the reply!

 

- No i didn't have a checking account linked.

- It wasn't a credit card, it was a special prepaid card from visa.

- Yes, all information is real and mine. Phone, name and address.

- I bought many things off of amazon, eBay and other online sites and had no trouble doing.

- Yes i provided tracking.

- The buyer seemed happy, no complaints, and was satsified when i notified him that i updated him with a tracking number.

- No, the money is in the paypal balance, and was just approved a few days ago. It was held before for 21 days if i recall correctly due to eBay security reasons i guess.

 

- I wrote in that document that i am not a business seller and do not plan on doing so, just planning on selling privately owned used things. And explaining that i was asked to write this doucment. Also i was asked to provide my signature on that document and i did.

 

- I was first confused when i encountered those requests, so i googled for a solution. And answers suggested that i speak with paypal which seemed it would have went fine when i talked about it with a represetetive and that document. I can't just forge in some fake information if i don't have any to provide so i was worried.

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DPCreations
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

PayPal will look at changes in your activities.  You bought a lot of stuff--high or low price?  Now you suddenly change the pattern with a high priced and high risk graphics card and it triggers an alert.

What countries have been involved in your purchases and selling activities.

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hiddeninput
Contributor
Contributor

The range of things i buy are usually $20 ~ $350 at most, from amazon i'm guessing the sellers are usually US based and sometimes from china. other websites are germany, UK and other european countries. The buyer for my graphics card was from russia and bought it for $230 total - $11 paypal fee.

 

EDIT: i messaged paypal, but i have very little hope they can help me out if this "limit" is now permanent.

 

EDIT2: i checked my gmail that is linked to my paypal, apparently that account was terminated because i was under 18 when the account was registered, just years later they realize and take action??! sigh... I guess it's my mistake for using this account when i found out i was already registerd a long time ago, this is just stupid..

 

Can i even use paypal anymore under the same name if i want to? or they just kicked me out of paypal completely? sad but honest mistake.

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DPCreations
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

Registering a user account while under 18 would no be classified as an honest mistake.  It ws a clear violation of PayPal policies.

You were supposed to manage your accounts and phone PayPal after you turned 18.

My guess is that your done.   But you could phone PayPal support and ask for help; you'll need to grovel a bit.

It's still not clear, however, as you fail to really explain the details.

Are you over 18 now?

Was your current limited acocunt a second account?

You also are only permitted one account unless the second one is a business account.  I'm guess now that your current account might have been OK if you had upgraded it to business and submitted the required documentation.

It seems you still have a lot to learn about PayPal and business.

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Wow, I wish I would have saw this before I started selling through PayPal! I have been selling for years on a parent's account and decided it was time to make my own. I'm under 18 but I did not see anything about age restrictions/limits when I first created my account. I'll admit I did not read the entire fine-print agreement. Unfortunately, I did not click on the User Agreement where paypal stated this under 18 policy (Which I KNOW that everyone reads through thoroughly). Still, I think PayPal should have made a more obvious statement about this. If this is common knowledge, how come no one told me anything about it? After three weeks, my new account is now suspended indefinitely and my pending payments of $100+ appear to be in the hands of "PayPal" for at least 180 days. I suppose it could have been worse. So much for my eBay account feedback though! After calling customer support, the only thing they seemed to care about was bashing me in on the issue. Go ahead, blame me for my lack of attention!

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