Unable to link BillMeLater account with Paypal due to having Paypal Smart connect.

[Streetmagus]

I received an email from BillMeLater stating I could link my BillMeLater account to my Paypal account, it provides me a link to do so, and when I login to my paypal account following that link, I receive this message:

"Looks like your account is already linked to a PayPal Credit account. To link your Bill Me Later® account, please create a new PayPal account."

It sounds like I am unable to link my BillMeLater account to my Paypal account because my Paypal account is already linked to a Paypal Credit account (in this case, Paypal Smart connect). 

So, are we only allowed to have 1 type of Credit account linked to Paypal? I am unable to use BillMeLater as an option through Paypal when I'm paying with Paypal. I get either Paypal Smart Connect, Bank Transfer, or Credit Card. 

Does anyone know anything about this issue? Is it meant to be this way? Right now I am only limited to the merchants listed on BillMeLater's website, if I choose Paypal as payment method via eBay, I don't have the BillMeLater option.

[alfa1]

I also saw the bill me later offer many times when I pay for my purchases , one day I decide to do it clicking on the button and got redirected to sign up for Bill me Later after signing up I was told Congratulations you have been approved ---Great so I went back to my purchasing process thinking gee that's pretty cool of PayPal to offer me that. Then Low n behold as I was in the process of paying for the dam thing----- another offer jumps out at me for PayPal Mastered-----now I am thinking it is a part of --Bill me Later--- very confusing to say the least. As it is I missed out on buying something at $35 off because I wasn't allowed to use the coupon again--only option Pay full price,I went to pay with-- Bill me Later--the option disappeared I was then told the --PayPal Master  card-- would be mailed to me. Since then I am barred from using--Bill me Later--in the process of getting it to work I received a message that I would have to close my PayPal Act. And generate a new one cause the --PayPal account-- I now have is Linked to a credit card. I was trying to get my account to link with the-- Bill me Later Account--that I thought PayPal gave to me---------When I saw your Blogg. Seems like dissentions within the ranks. Maybe they should fix a few things.

[Cottage5038]

Administrator, You are wrong! I closed my Smart Connect credit account on PayPal so I could link Bill Me Later and it still won't let me add Bill Me Later!  I was told to close out my account and start a new one.  I see one member couldn't start a new one either.  PayPal need a new CEO that is also the CEO of Bill Me Later.   Stop telling people wrong information because it is not truthful like the rest of the corporate world.

[Cottage5038]

You are incorrect Administrator Frank.  I closed out my Smart Connect months ago and tried and tried and tried time and again to link and was not able to.  Pay Pal does not want you to add Bill Me Later even though they are owned by the same Company.  Why don't you tell the truth to people!!!!!!!!!!

[nitrorc]

WOW.  I just experienced the same thing almost, but here is my problem.  I open a billmelater account under my secondary email address.  When I did it ask me to create a paypal account (which I already had with my primary account).  Once created everything was cool, I used billmelater to purchase something for 100 bucks, just to see how this all works.  When I found out it was easy to use I was going to purchase something for my motorcycle which was close to 1,000.00 bucks.  So I had the seller invoice me to my new and improve paypal account.  When I went to pay, paypal complained because I did not have a Credit Card on file.  I tried to add but noticed when the account was created from Ebay check and billmelater approval my name and address was not populated into the new paypal account.  With that said you can't modify your paypal account without faxing ID to cust support.  When I did I got this!

Dear user,

We are unable to update your name on your Paypal account. Please close
the current account and create a new account with a full details
required such as name, address, date of birth, SSN.

Please call PayPal Customer Service at Login, Click "Contact Us", Click "Call Us" stating the reason
for this request (marriage, divorce, etc). Also, indicate how your name
should appear on your PayPal account.

Sincerely,
Mohd Syakif Mirza
PayPal Compliance Department
PayPal, an eBay Company

© 2011 PayPal Inc. All rights reserved. PayPal is located at 2211 N.
First St., San Jose, CA 95131.

So like a dumb A$$, I closed the new account then opened a new one.  But here is the catch once you close the account billmelater is attached to. You can no longer attach to another paypal account.  This is what billmelater rep said and to top it off I was on the phone bouncing around between paypal and billmelater, like they were two different companies.  Man the parent company really needs to take hold of it's e-realties.  I like how the gal from billmelater tells me "There's really nothing else you can do, once the billmelater account is unlinked from paypal you can no longer use paypal with billmelater. Live with it!"  I was laughing deep inside, since I work for a utility company. Imagine if I were to tell someone on the other end of the phone line LIVE WITH IT, they would quickly lawyer up.  So now I am stuck with a billmelater account which I'll never use because I use paypal all the time.  I can't imagine why your DataBase admin can't just clear the flags (ex update * from account_table where paypal_account="no longer exists" set flag to "clear";).  I guess your DB's are not sync'd up.  I can tell you this much working for the number one wedding website (clicks well over 1 million a day) for several years, you all are going to loose business and when that happens you loose your jobs!  I really hope you all get your act together because it **bleep** to have no job right now!  If you all need help with designing getting things snyc'd up and a better workflow ping me, I can do side jobs remotely. 

[nitrorc]

While posting this message I get this.  WHAT A JOKE!

We have received your inquiry regarding your Bill Me Later account. We appreciate this opportunity to serve you.

Your question referred to linking Bill Me Later and PayPal.

According to our records it appears that you had contacted us via telephone prior to the date of this email response and your inquiry has been addressed.



Sincerely,

Megan S.
Bill Me Later Customer Care
www.billmelater.com

And the problem is still not fixed, I am unable to link billmelater to my new paypal account!

[nitrorc]

You not going to believe this, but I called paypal today and a gal by the name of Anges answered.  Told her my problem about unable to link my billmelater account to paypal.  Ten minutes later PROBLEM SOLVED hooray for Agens!  She rocks!  Apparently the people at billmelater who work on the weekends **bleep**!  They just want to get you off the phone quickly.  I knew the peeps at paypal knew what they were talking about, I been with them for over 10 years and always take care of me.  I guess you just have to keep calling back until you get someone who really knows the technology behind his entire service.  Again kudos goes out to Anges.

[BMG4ME]

"Progress" if you can call it that.  This time, when I tried to link them I got a letter sent to me from BML, shown below.

It does not make sense - I was not trying to make a $1 purchase, I was trying to link the accounts - apparently BML is unable to tell the difference between an authorization and a purchase - that's my guess.  It also says that they are "unable to verify some of the information you provided with your purchase request."  Assuming that they are confused and really mean "authorization" - it still doesn't help because it doesn't tell me what's wrong. 

Anyway, based on the previous reply, I did contact PayPal, spoke to a very helpful supervisor called Jonnah, who put me in touch with Keri at BML, who was also very helpful.  Guess why it's not working?  Because even though I can log in to BML, and when I do, the account looks active, the account was actually CLOSED!   In fact I may have actually been the one to close it, a long time ago.  It would be helpful BML if you disabled login, or at least told people it was closed when they logged in.

So now we may actually get a resolution to this.  Thanks nitrorc for spurring me to call PayPal.

This letter is in response to your recent request to open a Bill Me Later® account.Our records show that you requested a Bill Me Later account on 09/22/2011 in connection with a purchase of $1.00 at PayPal.

We regret that we are unable to approve you for the service at this time for the following reasons:

We are unable to verify some of the information you provided with your purchase request.

You do not need to respond to this letter. If, however, you have any questions about this service, please contact us at the above address.

Sincerely,

WebBank, Salt Lake City, Utah

[lvymustang]

Hey Frank,

   I've been using bill me later for years and now pay pal won't let me into it to pay for a purchase. I get NO answers from paypal or bill me later that will fix this problem. Is paypal trying to get rid of bill me later or what? This is highly irritating and is making me think about goin direct to the seller, but even they can't get the bill me later to work. What the **bleep** is goin on? Ebay want to loose a bunch of us over this crap or what?

[BMG4ME]

If you are not getting answers, check your spam folder.  I use a mail.com e-mail address and all of my denial notices from BML were stuck in Spam - which is usually a result of the the mail provider considering the SMTP server being used, to be unreliable and easy to use for sending Spam.  Makes you feel good about BML doesn't it?

Also although I thought all was OK with getting my account issue solved, because it had been closed, they told me they could not reopen it because of conflicting information, and asked me to send a fax of a utility bill.  This is rather odd considering PayPal has already requested that from me in the past (and I have sent it).  Usually banks can get this information when they need it.  Anyway I have sent the information they requested, and in the meantime I ordered the item I wanted on my credit card, so I no longer need BML (so why did I go to the bother of sending them the bill to prove my address?  because I don't want them to have incorrect information about me on file).

[JimVZ]

Here it is MONTHS later and the same problem exists. Just spent all weekend on the phone with PayPal, Bill Me Later, and Smart Connect, and was unable to find a single person who knew what the heck they were doing. I too had Smart Connect, and closed the account so I could link BML with my PayPal account. The flake at Smart Connect told me my account would be off the server in 48 hours, then I could link. 48 hours later, still can't link to BML even though it shows my Smart Connect account has been closed. BML tells me, that it takes several billing periods (months) before the servers show that Smart Connect has been closed. PayPal tells me everything is OK, all I have to do is make a purchase and I'll get the option to use BML. WRONG!!! None of these people know what they are talking about, and it appears that this has been a problem for a long. long time. Personally, I'm tired of all the incompetenance and am ready to cancel BML, and eBay as well. This is nonsense. These people garner huge salaries for what? being stupid??? They (none of them) have been any help to me. Since this is all the same company, they should be able to handle the problem with a phone call. A professional employee at a professiona organization should be able to unlink one and link another with one simple phone call. Guess that says it all about PayPal. Goes to show you that one hand has no idea what the other is doing. Typical I guess in this day and age of total incompetetance.