I finally got this done!
It took 3 hours across 3 different chats, because the lower-level agents largely (1) didn't understand that a Cash (or Cash Plus) "balance" account was different than the core Personal PayPal account, and/or (2) thought any reference to a "Cash Account" could only mean a "Cash Card".
My initial request to the third agent was as follows: "I would like to close the Cash Plus features of my account, retaining just a basic personal PayPal account." If I were to do this again, knowing what I know now, I might say:
- "I would like to downgrade my account by closing the Cash Plus features on it, retaining just a basic Personal PayPal account"
I then referenced both of these web sites with the third rep:
- https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/cashagreement-full#closing-account
- "You can close your Cash Account without closing your personal PayPal account"
- https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/what-can-i-do-with-my-personal-paypal-account-paypal-cas...
- "U.S. personal account holders who want to keep money in PayPal or use other features that rely on a balance need to have a balance account linked to their personal account. PayPal offers two types of balance accounts: PayPal Cash and PayPal Cash Plus. Customers who don’t have a balance account can still use their personal PayPal account to: Send money to someone or spend online using linked banks and cards; Receive money and transfer it to a linked debit card or bank; Split a bill or send money cross-border using linked banks and cards; Sign up for and use PayPal Credit Set up a Money Pool. To use balance features, consumers with a personal PayPal account need to set up a balance account, which will have the same login and password as their personal PayPal account."
I then said the following:
"As described on that page, I would like to: (a) Close my "balance" account (Cash Plus Account) and features, and (b) Keep (do NOT close) my "U.S. Personal Account" on PayPal so I can continue to send and receive money"
He seemed to understand from the beginning after reading those quotes and pages and then consulted with with "experts". A half-hour later, he didn't think he could find an option to "downgrade" the account, and thought the only way to do it was to close the PayPal account and reopen it without verification.
I asked that, if I wrote to the legal department mailing address in the Terms, could they maybe do it? He then said that he was going to hand me over to the "CIP Team" and apologized for the jargon there. CIP means a "Customer Identification Program" required of financial institutions by the PATRIOT Act and Bank Secrecy Act for compliance purposes so that they can "know their customers".
24 hours later, a different agent got back to me in that chat window and knew exactly what to do and asked me exactly the right questions. She asked me to confirm I wanted the change. I confirmed. 20 minutes later I got a phone call from a "PayPal Supervisor" at an Omaha phone number who took care of it for me.
He told me he was not on the CIP team and that he was a "Supervisor for Paypal.com" and that there is an option in the system to "Downgrade" the account, and that it asks what kind of downgrade, and that the option is to remove the Cash Plus feature. (He wouldn't tell me the name of the system or internal process and was relatively un-empathetic to the hours I'd spent on this.)
He asked me some verification questions and took care of it immediately. After it was done, I refreshed my account page, and the $0.00 balance box disappeared entirely.
I asked him if there were some special language someone could use with the front-level customer service agents so they would understand and take care of it, or to escalate it to the right person, and he was wholly unable to help with this.
My recommendation for a chat support request:
- State the modified version of the "Initial request" above
- Send the two links above
- Copy-and-paste the language I quoted above from those two links. Include quotation marks and state it's from those pages.
- Copy and paste the (a) and (b) language in the request from above
- Explain that this should be called a "Downgrade" in the system, and that the option under Downgrade is to remove the Cash Plus feature (or option?)
- If they can't figure it out, ask to be transferred to a Supervisor (not to just have them ask their Supervisor)
- As a last option with that rep, if they won't actually transfer you to a Supervisor, ask to be transferred to the CIP team (even though they don't appear to be the actual team involved, this process seems to escalate to someone who understands)
Finally, if none of this works, end the chat and try another agent, lol.
