Unable to add German bank account - "This account needs a little help to link it"

[nmiha]

Hello, I've been trying to add my Sparkasse bank account to my PayPal account over the last week to no avail. I simply didn't receive the 4-digit confirmation code for multiple days despite it usually taking only a couple from what I've read. In a desperate attempt I removed my bank account from my PayPal setting and tried to add it again, but now I get the following error:

"This account needs a little help to link it. Contact us and we can help with that, or you can link a different account."

How can I resolve this particular issue? Much thanks in advance!

[PayPal_Ayesha]

Hello @nmiha,

Welcome to the community forum and thanks for posting!

I am sorry to know that you're facing issues while linking your bank account. Our security system is made with complex algorithms which are aimed at protecting the account. It would have recognized an abnormality in the trend of your account or would have got triggered due to various other factors. The best thing to do in this case would be to wait for some time and try again later. In the meantime, please try to limit the changes/activity on your account as this will allow our system some time to analyze everything. If the issue persists, you'll have to reach out to our customer support team through the contact options available on our website.

Regards,
Ayesha

[nmiha]

Thank you for the response. I've contacted support multiple times and it's always come down to "try again in a couple of days", yet I'm always given this same exact error. I'm so frustrated at this point, I've waited exactly as I was told to and followed the exact steps that I was given, haven't touched the account at all in order not to trip up this security system, yet seemingly nobody in Support is able to actually do something about it other than say "too bad man, but can't do anything". I'm sorry, but this is just inexcusable and renders contacting Support into an utterly meaningless time waster that does not help at all and hasn't been able to help for a long while already. I will contact them once more and if it turns out the same way as before, then so be it.

[nmiha · Accepted solution]

I have managed to resolve my issue, leaving this reply in case anyone else happens to search for a possible solution online and comes across the forums just like I did.

I contacted support for the third time via the PayPal Assistant chat and was asked to give my full name for verification purposes, then followed by a photo of my ID and a screenshot of my bank statement in order to verify the account I'm attempting to link is mine. At the end, I was asked to look for an SMS code on my phone for confirmation (note that the SMS message does not include the "Don't share this code with anyone" line which is reserved for 2FA logins, therefore it is safe to give out to the support agent, just saying this because at first I was pretty concerned). I refreshed the Money page and my account finally appeared, awaiting the confirmation that will be delivered via the one cent transaction to the bank account, i.e. the standard procedure.

Keep trying to contact support! You may go through a couple of times where an agent will tell you that it is not possible to get past the security system and actually take action, but based on my experience about 30 minutes ago it is completely possible provided you end up at the right agent!