Card expired, new card has same number, but Paypal won't accept it

[Destynova]

My Mastercard credit card recently expired, so I logged into Paypal today to update the card entry, since the replacement card from my bank has the same card number, only a different security number and (of course) expiry date.

I figured this would be as easy as "edit card"... "set expiry date"... "set CSV number"... "Save" - this was the case when I updated the same card on my Amazon account.

Instead, the card was simply gone from my Paypal account page, and when I tried to add the new card, it refused, stating: "This card has been disabled for entry into the PayPal system. Please add a different card".

This raises a few questions:

1. Why delete the old card information, rather than letting me update it with the new security code and expiry date?
2. Why prevent me from adding the new card?
3. Is it not normal and expected for cards to expire and be replaced by new cards with the same card number?

Please help me to resolve this problem - it makes very little sense and it's preventing me from completing an eBay purchase for an item I won yesterday.

[bellaaziz]

the same happened to me and when i contacted paypal costumer support , unfortunatly they didn't provide any support , i was just told to use another card .

I am shocked , I understand the procedures but also hoped that costumer
service would do what costumer services are supposed to do , help costumers
like me . how many credit card do you expect a homeschool stay home mummy
like me would have . I have a very hurt specialneed child and I use paypal
to purchase home education material for my kids , and now I am no longer
able to do that because paypal disabled my credit card .
if there was any misuse of paypal I would understand . all it is my credit
card reached the expiry date and my bank sent me a new one , during that
time my computer crashed and had to reformatted . I was offline . few weeks
only and when I could get online again and update my card new expiry date I
get that my credit card is rejected .
i hope somebody can help us resolve this problem .
regards
viviane

[Destynova]

Hi Viviane,

Try emailing cardproblems at paypal.com with a short description of the problem like you posted here, giving them the last 4 digits of your card and your phone number. Someone called me the next day and solved the problem in about 2 minutes over the phone. Good luck!

[bellaaziz]

you are so lucky . thank you for writing back . I did write to costumer support before coming here to the forum , i explained the situation and here's their reply :

I appreciate you contacting us with your concern. It shows here that the
credit card , expired on  has been permanently disabled for the use on
PayPal. In order to protect the user's financial information, PayPal
continuously check and verify every single transaction and all the
financial information in our system. If a credit card has been
previously accepted for the use on a PayPal account, it may be rejected
later on, as a consequence of further security measures.

This credit card can no longer be added to a PayPal account. We regret
the inconvenience and we invite you to try with another card.

We are committed to making your experience with PayPal pleasant and
rewarding. Thank you for choosing PayPal.

i find the last sentence very frustrating and untrue . he is telling me you can no  longer use paypal in nice polite way . they didn't ask for my tel number . i did give them last 4 digits of my credit card number . i did write back telling them how disapointed i am . i hope somebody will get back to me tomorrow .

thanks again

viv

[Destynova]

Hi viv,

Did you send an email specifically to the address I included in my last post? Those were the guys who called me back and fixed the problem. You should point out next time you speak to them that other people (e.g. myself) have gotten the exact same problem solved, so it _is_ possible and they need to bump you up to someone competent.

Yes it is frustrating to receive long-winded boilerplate messages which waste your time just to tell you basically "oh well, it's our fault but your problem, we're not going to do anything about it".

Stay tough and keep emailing them. I got a few useless emails similar to this and just kept calling/emailing until I found someone who could fix the problem which was caused by Paypal's overly-aggressive security measures.

I'm glad that they take security measures seriously, and accept that sometimes I might be temporarily inconvenienced by something that was supposed to protect me.

But when that occurs and I communicate with Paypal, they should resolve the problem immediately and not just ignore the issue. To say "your credit card was wrongly blocked, with good intentions... but we're not going to fix it, go get a new card number" is ludicrous and lazy. Especially when followed by hollow platitudes like "We are committed to making your experience with PayPal pleasant and rewarding" - that's just insulting when they've failed to help you for no reason with a problem that is their fault.

Best of luck!

[bellaaziz]

hi can you please send me the exact email address you used to solve this issue . so far i got three replies from them saying they cannot do anything . it is so frustrating .

thanks a lot

viv

[Destynova]

It's the one I mentioned in an earlier post near the top: cardproblems at paypal.com (the forum won't allow email addresses in messages, so replace "at" with @).

Make sure to give them your phone number too - they called me back within a day or so. Good luck!

[bellaaziz]

unfortunatly paypal people are completely ignoring my emails , i did write to the address you gave me and i didn't hear from them . i even wrote back begging them to look at this matter , and explaining how desperate i am , no reply . please anybody can tell me what else i can do .

thanks

viv

[Destynova]

Hi Viv, sorry to hear that. I'm not sure how helpful it is for you, but my next port of call if they hadn't fixed the problem for me was to get in touch with the financial regulator's office or consumer rights protection agency and ask them to intervene. You could possibly argue that you're being denied services for arbitrary and unfair reasons.

It's strange that nobody from eBay has apparently paid attention to this thread since they should be able to help you (after all, the whole problem could be solved simply by updating a single database field for your account).

[beanz]

Hi

I know this is a bit late, but I've got the same problem now! Credit card expired 2 days ago and Paypal won't accept my new card - same number, different expiry date and security number. It keeps telling me to add a new card.

However, on reading their updated Policy ( 20th September 2011), I noticed it says:

• Removal of Expired Credit Cards. PayPal views expired credit cards as an invalid funding source and reserves the right to remove expired credit cards from your account. PayPal will notify you via email that your credit card has been removed from your account because of an invalid expiration date. You may re-add the card once a valid expiration date is obtained.

Surely refusing to accept the updated card is a breach of their own policy.

I've emailed them at cardproblems quoting the above and threatening to take them to the FSA. It's now a matter of wait and see, although I'm not holding my breath!