Withdrawal security reviews - reporting paypal to FSA

[leekandpotato]

If you are experiencing security reviews on all of your withdrawals, delaying your transfer of funds by 24 hours then  I would like to suggest that you report this to the FSA.

The key issue to point out to the FSA is that Paypal appear to be using a loophole to avoid compliance with the European Commision's Payment Services Directive which, as of  1st  January 2012, obliges paypal to allow their customers to transfer funds using the faster payments system. Either paypal are using the loophole of a security review to delay payments because they don't want to make payments that fast or their system isn't up to the job. Either way it's not right that they are using this loophole to delay every withdrawal and it's very unlikely that they are actually carrying out any sort of enquiry on each of these withdrawal requests. This needs to be investigated by their regulator. At the very least they should be made to be honest to their customers about the delays.

i have reported them to the FSA but in order for them to launch a general inquiry into Paypal's compliance they would need to have complaints from a large number of customers. If they are logging alot of complaints about the same issue that would then spark a more general enquiry Into paypal's conduct.

The FSA consumer helpline number is 0845 6061234

As I said they won't be able to help with your individual case but will log your complaint and hopefully if enough people complain they will then launch an investigation.

i really wouldn't waste any more energy complaining to paypal, it's getting us nowhere.

[kernowlass]

Or just read this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19814433

The FSA does not regulate paypal. After much discussion i acutally emailed the FSA who confirmed this in an email and advised anyone to complain to paypal regulatory body in Luxemborg.

But it shouldn't matter now as it was a technical issue that is now solved.

[sammy509]

To be honest I have just done a withdrawal to my bank account and it took 30 minutes for the money to arrive.

[kernowlass]

Well if it meant we had to go through a few weeks of glitches for payments to go from 2-3 days to a few hours it may well have been worth it.

[leekandpotato]

That is true, paypal are regulated by luxembourg so if I had an individual case that needed mediation that is where you should turn. However the FSA regulate the  Payment Services Directive in the uk which is the law which Paypal appear to be trying to get around with their security reviews, which is why they told me that if enough people complained then that would probably spark an investigation. It may be that they would work with Luxembourg to carry out the investigation but a large number of complaints in the first instance to FSA would initiate a response. They logged my complaint. 

Judging by the continued reports on these boards, the issues are still not resolved. It cannot be right that every withdrawal you make is subject to security review. That is too much of a coincidence.

I applaud paypal for allowing their customers to communicate with each other using these forums though, otherwise we would have no idea of the scale of the problem. I would probably be feeling persecuted if I hadn't learned that others were experiencing the same issues.

[dourbint]

I'm glad some people seem to be getting speedier payment - I've just had the now usual 'under security review' message - 24 - 72 hrs delay etc etc. Long term paypal user - small amount of cash. Terrible service.

[pilgrim13]

This issue is not resolved.  I just made a request to withdraw just 60 pounds and it is beiing held for 'security review'. I tried cancelling and retrying ten tmes just to se if there would be adifference but got  the same result each time.

[kernowlass]

If you re-read the article it did not say no-one would get a security review

[PeterR]

I Googled Luxembourg Financial Regulator and clicked on the main result, then on the UK flag at the top, and then on Contact Us. 

http://www.cssf.lu/en/top/contact/

It seems some of the fields not marked with an asterisk are actually compulsory - I ended up filling in all the fields and my message wentt through then.

The message I sent was as follows:

"I understand that you are the body responsible for regulating PayPal in regard to the  European Commision's Payment Services Directive and the Faster Payments system.  PayPal are still holding large numbers of withdrawals for "security review" 24 hours or even 72 hours or more, even when the details are just the same as the customer has been using for years.  

The suspicion being widely raised in numerous threads on the PayPal customer discussion boards
https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Adding-and-withdrawing-money/bd-p/adding_money
is that PayPal are doing this in order to earn interest on money held.

They have claimed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19814433
that the widespread (as opposed to very selective) use of this practice was the result of a glitch in their systems which has been resolved, however many customers are still experiencing the reviews on withdrawals being initiated afteer the date of the BBC article."

[cfcs]

I have not only reported them to the Luxemburg version of the FSA but i have also dropped an email to MoneyBox on Radio 4. I have yet to receive a response (Email sent about a week ago) although I did hear Paul Lewis talking about withdrawing money form online services on TV or radio over the weekend so may listen on iPlayer to see if they mention Paypal.  This security review on every transaction (In my case whether I pay by paypal or withdraw - it's reviewed and for legal reasons they can tell me nothing) is costing me money on a massive scale - I am half hoping Moneybox do feature it - it usually gets something done. Failing that I may be really mean and set Watchdog on them (A BBC based consumer affairs program)

Dave