Closing Account with negative balance

tab101
Contributor
Contributor

Hi all,

 

I've been using this Paypal without problems for years, just for occasionally buying things only mostly. A few years ago I had bought a small amount of Bitcoin and held it for quite some time and decided to sell a portion of it recently when the price had reached historical heights. So I found a trader on a popular Bitcoin exchange, he transferred me the money to my Paypal ($1,800) and then I transferred him the Bitcoin. I transferred the money into a bank account because I have to reason to keep a balance so large in my Paypal account.

 

Some time later the other Paypal account lodged a dispute, it seems the person I sold to the Bitcoins too was a scammer had hacked the other Paypal account and then used it to pay for Bitcoins (equally it could be the same person - what is stopping someone from doing this transaction and then claiming they were scammed?). Paypal then deducted the full amount from my account, pending outcome of the resolution. I sent them proof of the Bitcoin transaction but from what I understand, I will probably lose the case (unless the credit card company accepts the chargeback) because that's how Paypal's case resolution works, especially with transactions for Bitcoin.

 

The good news is I haven't lost anything since I had no balance so now my account just sits $1,800 in the negative. The bad news is I am going to have to close my Paypal account, since clearly I am not going to transfer $1,800 of my money into that account to make it operable again, to pay for someone else's mistake in getting hacked (either the other Paypal customer or Paypal for not having sufficient security). And regardless of that point, I no longer wish to use Paypal knowing that their policy is that one act of theft justifies another, and can steal my money at any point just because someone that sent me money chooses to raise a dispute. My bank account would never dream of stealing $1,800 from me that I received from a legitimate transaction so I will be accepting bank transfers only now when I need to receive money from someone else.

 

Right now though, my account doesn't let me cancel it. It doesn't even let me remove my payment methods. Maybe I have to wait until the case is 100% resolved, but I am never going to transfer the $1,800 that has already been deducted from the balance into my Paypal account and I am never going to use my Paypal again in any case so I wish to have the payment methods removed right now and the account canceled.

 

So, anyone know how I can cancel my account? Is it possible right now or will I just need to wait longer or will they always refuse to close it with a negative balance?

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