** Excessive PayPal security driving me nuts . . . Anyone for afternoon tea, then?**

[Zaffy21]

Though I've been with PayPal for many a long year, I'm really being driven nuts by it l today, as follows:

(1) My wife and I have recently moved our bank account to a different financial institution, so I needed to update that information in my PayPal account;

(2) PayPal accepted the details on condition that I waited to receive a security code from PayPal on my registered mobile;

(3) The code duly arrived, I keyed it in, the screen said that's it, confirmed, and that I was being "re-directed"

(4) The "re-direction" took me back to where I was before, with the screen saying I needed to wait for a text messaged security code from PayPal before being able to continue. So . . .

(5) Yet again, I await the texted code, it arrived, I keyed it in, the screen said yup, that's good, confirmed, you're now being re-directed . . .

(6) Back to where I started from, with the screen saying I needed to wait for a text messaged security code from PayPal before being able to continue. So . . .

I gave up. I cannot spend my time locked into a seemingly infinite PayPal security loop, going round and round and round and round, waiting for SMS messages, typing in codes, receiving confirmations / verifications that are actually meaningless. I'm a PayPal customer. Not a flippin' hamster having fun on a wheel . . .

I gave it a few minutes then logged back in.  Embarked on the "verify bank account" procedure, requiring me to now go online to my account and find a 4-digit security code from Paypal. I did so -- the process takes awhile, my bank (quite rightly) expecting me to use a card reader so as to acquire a one-time passcode. Anyway. There it was, the PayPal code, which I then pasted into the waiting Paypal screen: Result?  Account verified.

So now with that done, I would like to withdraw several £100s from my PayPal balance and place it in that bank account. And off we go again:

(1) First, I must wait to receive a text message from PayPal on my mobile phone with a security code. I wait. Nothing comes through. I ask Paypal to re-send. This time, success: the code arrives.  I enter it and  that's it, done and dusted. . . except: guess what? Nothing at all happens. No money transfer is initiated. So-oooo . . .

(2) TRY AGAIN. As I've by now grown considerably older and wearier from waiting for PayPal to place codes in my bank account or place codes on my mobile phone screen, this time, this time, I select the option to confirm all the numbers on one of the credit cards I have that are linked to my PayPal account. By now I'm really getting tired of the constant obstructions but, well, I guess it's for the best of reasons, and so, and so . . . I provide the credit card number. Wait for the screen to change -- which it does, assuring me that all is confirmed / verified / hunky-dory (I've lost track of the varying PayPal on-screen messages today)  -- and that't it! SUCCESS!! PayPal says ALL OK / confirmed / verified, whatever. And immediately, takes me back to . . .

(3) THE EXACT SAME SCREEN I WAS AT BEFORE, asking me to "check out the benefits" of keeping my PayPal balance (thanks for the invite, but no thanks) and, and. . . 

(4) Verification is wanted AGAIN.  The Great Hamster Wheel Of PayPal Security Wants Me To Spin Around AGAIN.

I'm sorry, but this isn't security,  but dysfunctionality well-nigh bordering on paranoia. To recap:  I have provided PayPal with the following verifiable / verified identity information this morning:

(i) My bank account details together with the PayPal code relating to the 0.01p subsequently received from PayPal in that account;

(ii) Security codes repeatedly received from PayPal on the mobile phone registered to my PayPal account;

(iii) Security code information received from PayPal in regard to the registration of my new mobile phone (this now to be my primary mobile, though the older, earlier phone remains attached to the PayPal accounty);

(4) The full number of my Mastercard card (the second such card attached to my PayPal account.)

What next do I need to do to prove who I am: invite PayPal Security round here for afternoon tea? 

[kernowlass]

@Zaffy21

If it wasn't so annoying it would be funny.

All i can suggest is that you give customer services a call and ask what the heck is happening but do you know what? I expect the 'agent' you talk to will be clueless as well. 

[Zaffy21]

Hi kernolass: You're right. Paypal's antics today do indeed verge on the funny, in much the same way as they put me on the verge of a nervous breakdown. 

I do very much agree with security precautions, and am happy to see that Paypal takes this seriously. But -- and it's a BIG "but" -- there's very clearly something wrong with Paypal IT, such that a user is time after time taken back to the same screen in a so-called "redirection" which isn't any kind of re-direction at all. That needs sorting. And quick.

Meantime: I've now had the opportunity to check my inbox and discovered an email from Paypal to the effect that the funds transfer is underway and will take up to 72 hours or so -- maybe less, maybe more -- to complete. That's fine with me. Paypal can take as long as is necessary for it to feel confident that the only laundering to take place in my family is that which Mrs Zaffy shoves in the washer.

What's ironic about all this is that, if the timings are correct, at the very moment it looked like I was yet again going to have to embark on yet another verification in regard to the funds withdrawal, that Paypal email had already been sent.

Ah well. Looks like Mrs Z and I won't be having anyone round from Paypal for afternoon tea after all -- just as well, because strawberries aren't in season and I can only eat lo-fat cream anyway on account of the risk of severely heightened blood pressure caused by, er, Paypal itself. . .

PS: how many roads must a man walk down / how many cars must a man identify / how many statues must a man inspect before he can post on this thread? Thank you, Captcha. Not.