International Phone Number

TanguyP
Contributor
Contributor

I live in the UK, but I am French and have a French phone number. When I add my phone number to Paypal without a country code, it is registered as a British number, and I do not receive the codes they send me. However, when I type my number with +33 or 0033, PayPal tells me the number is invalid. How can I register my number as a French number?

Login to Me Too
13 REPLIES 13

kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@TanguyP

 

Paypal is country specific so if you move country you have to open another paypal account in that country and add an address / phone number / and bank accounts from within that country.



Advice is voluntary.
Kudos / Solution appreciated.
Login to Me Too

harrieteeee
New Community Member

So when you travel, you cannot use Paypal? That is totally crazy. To have to create many accounts. Nobody  uses their home country's SIM cards abroad, because it is very expensive. When I was in Morocco and wanted to log to Paypal, they did not let me. And they wanted to send me a code to my home country's phone number...

 

 

Login to Me Too

Futal
Contributor
Contributor

That's insane, especially in the EU. I have been working and living in the UK but residing in France and at the same time self-employed in Finland. That means having 3 different Paypal accounts with 3 different phone numbers and 3 different e-mail addresses! Do you ask Americans to get a new Paypal account every time they go to another State?

Login to Me Too

kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@Futal

 

Well I don't ask anything as I have absolutely NOTHING to do with Paypal.

I am just an Ebay seller that helps on here as this is a user to user community forum.

 

But no Paypal does not ask them to set up another account if they go to another state as that would be in the same country.

EU is full of different countries.

Each country allows Paypal to work in different ways dependent on the government / banks of that country and that is why it is 'country specific' as Paypal is not a bank.


Advice is voluntary.
Kudos / Solution appreciated.
Login to Me Too

Futal
Contributor
Contributor

@kernowlass, it is not directed at you but at Paypal.

 

The fact that there are different countries with different laws in the EU does not explain Paypal requirement to have a phone number in the same EU country than the postal address. There are also different laws in the different USA states. It seems that Paypal can even use a US phone number with a Canadian address as both have the same +1 "country" code.  Actually EU banks do not require to have a phone number in the same country where your postal address is. For example my bank has my Finnish address but my French phone number. 

 

So this is purely a technical limitation arbitrarily set by Paypal.

Login to Me Too

Halldor
New Community Member

This random restriction renders this service unsuable to me and makes my registration a non-starter. As pointed out by the last comment this is completely random and not required by banks in the EU or even EEU. For example my UK bank has my Icelandic phone number. This is a strange, random way for Paypal to trip up their customers (or in my case potential customers).

 

 

Login to Me Too

ramsta
New Community Member

This is terrible.

I don't understand why PayPal assumes that when someone moves from their home country they're going to close their bank accounts. I lived in Canada where my home is but now working abroad. I canceled my cellphone in Canada but obviously still retain my bank accounts in Canada. So now I can no longer use my Canadian PayPal account! Obsolete service.

Login to Me Too

Mindpilot
Member
Member

Yeah, but this has nothing to do with banks or any government. It is just my phone number. And if it is about security, that is complete nonsense since the more accounts I have the more exposure I have.

 

Login to Me Too

kristofgiber
New Community Member

I have a business account with PayPal, my company is registered in Hungary and moved to France for a few years for a project. Now PayPal does not allow me to have a phone number abroad, I have a local French number now, I should certainly not be forced to keep my expensive mobile plan in Hungary just for PayPal. And no law has ever forced people to freeze their company activities just because they are traveling or living abroad.

 

And to get the 'create a new account per country' notion out of the way: When you create a business account on PayPal, it wants your company's legal address (where it is registered) and you cannot choose a phone number from another country to it. Once I put the Hungarian address there, it will not accept a French number any more. Therefore, For business payments, I cannot just create a 'fake' French PayPal account in each country.

 

All I want is to log in to my company's business account to verify my Hungarian company's received business payments and to withdraw money to my assigned Hungarian company bank account. All these operations are restricted to Hungary and are legal. Why would I have to fly back to Hungary just to log in to my business account or withdraw money from it to my already accepted bank account?

 

This is obviously a mistake by PayPal software architectures.

 

My only solution currently is that luckily on my mobile I am still signed in and there I have touch ID set so at least I have access to it on my mobile. For those entrepreneurs who had not signed in on mobile beforehand though, this will interfere with conducting their business.

Login to Me Too

Haven't Found your Answer?

It happens. Hit the "Login to Ask the community" button to create a question for the PayPal community.