Dealing with the death of an account holder

jireland
New Community Member

I have been tasked by a wills and probate lawyer to find out what happens to a Paypal account after somebody dies.

 

Many clients are elderly people who live on their own.  When they have passed on, they will not necessarily have left any details on 'online' accounts that are held.  I have seen from the Q&A how to close a deceased users account, but my question is - How can you find out if somebody actually had an account without knowing their login details?  Is there a way of searching by name and location or can this be done through the deceased bank account (tracing any money transfers to/from paypal?

 

Any advice would be gratefully received.

 

Thanks

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4 REPLIES 4

PayPal_lucy
Moderator
Moderator

Hey there,

 

We would normally look to search the account by using the email address but yes, we can search under the bank account or card details if this is the only way to find the account.

 

Once the account is found the closure process can then being.

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auld_reekie
New Community Member

I've been trying to find out information and close an account which we believed the deceaed had with PayPal on behalf of a widow.  We first notified PayPal of the death in November 2014 and Iwere asked to fax the deceased's email addresses to  0870 730 3194.  Despite chasing PayPal customer support since then we have still not heard conclusively (either way).  All not aided that when we have heard anything we get a different agent to deal with each time.

 

Please advise how the widow can get closure on this.  It has now been over a year since we were first in touch.

 

Thanks.

 

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PayPal_Sophie
Moderator
Moderator

Hi auld_reekie,

 

Thanks for posting on the Community Forum, and so sorry to hear about this.

 

I can understand how frustrating this situation must be. We're unable to access account details here, but we would recommend contacting Customer Support again so we can assist. If you have been unable to resolve this issue by phone, you may want to consider contacting through either Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PayPalUK, or through Twitter at @AskPayPal.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you

Sophie

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rg1505
Contributor
Contributor

Sophie,

That is completely unhelpful: I do not use Twitter or Facebook !

Why do you not clearly and explicitly tell us all exactly how an Executor should obtain any outstanding balance on the death of a PayPal user and then how to close the account?

I have seen messages about FAXING requests to PayPal. FAXING ? Do you know anyone who has a FAX machine these days? I certainly do not !

Bob

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