Impossible to delete my unused PayPal account without providing my address or Credit Card

MikeS1978
Contributor
Contributor

Many years ago, I must have purchased something online and paying by PayPal was the only viable option. So an account was automatically created for me. (yay! - not!)

 

Occasionally I get emails from PayPal, like needing to provide my Australian Tax Residency Details by July 3rd, 2023.

 

I have not used PayPal since, I am not a merchant, yet I have this annoying account. Can I close my account, which has zero activity, no amount owing and no transactions on it for many years? No, I can't. Apparently I need to provide proof of my address and confirm a card - to un-limit my account, which will then let me close it.

 

If PayPal think I am going to provide them with this information, they are sorely mistaken. This is a completely flawed process. My personal information is not theirs to harvest. I should be able to close an account that is never used, has no amount owing and without this information.

 

PayPal sucks - really, really bad.

Login to Me Too
9 REPLIES 9

kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@MikeS1978 

 

Your personal information is certainly not theirs, however your paypal account is theirs as its on their site and has to comply with their rules.

 


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

MikeS1978
Contributor
Contributor

@kernowlass

 

If PayPal has any of my personal information (which they do) - it is in their possession, which means that the personal information they have on me is theirs - as it is stored in their systems. You can't be naïve enough to claim otherwise...

 

When you provide personal information to ANY company, it is stored in a database (which may or may not be susceptible now or in the future to access by hackers who have found a vulnerability), or even worse - sold to 3rd parties who not only use that information but sell it to fourth parties for more money. So PayPal has some of my personal information, which they will do with as they please - legally "justified" by their massive terms and conditions agreement which requires a lawyer to understand and hours to read comprehensively. Do you see ANY problems with the above?

 

The thing is - I don't want a PayPal account and I never wanted one. I will not give them any more information. I should be able to have my account permanently deleted WITHOUT providing any more personal information. I owe PayPal absolutely nothing. PayPal has the moral and ethical obligation of protecting my rights (to personal information security) as a human being.

 

@kernowlass - your reply to this comment was completely worthless and unhelpful. You are clearly a PayPal shill and have no knowledge of technology, infosec or human rights.

Login to Me Too

kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@MikeS1978 

 

So you don't like the advice and become insulting, typical troll behaviour !!

Either provide the info or not, personally I couldn't care less one way or another whether you can close your account or not, bothers me not one jot.

I was just telling you that if you don't then as its their site and their rules you won't get the account closed.

 


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

MikeS1978
Contributor
Contributor

@kernowlass

 

You have literally given me NO useful advice. You have not even attempted to address ANY of the concerns I raised in my original post or reply.

 

Your advice was for me to hand over my address and credit card information to close my account. That is just really terrible advice. The fact that you can't see ANY issue with the account cancellation process, and have made so many posts to become an "Esteemed Advisor" made me realise that your opinion isn't worth the time to read it.

 

If you don't like me calling out bad/evil business practices - I don't care.

 

If you think I'm trolling, then you're the definition of immature. I have stated my point extremely eloquently and you have been NO help whatsoever. No reasonable argument can be made for why I must provide this personal information to close my account.

Login to Me Too

kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@MikeS1978 

 

😀  👋


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

PayPal_JonK
Moderator
Moderator

Hello @MikeS1978

 

Thank you for visiting the PayPal Community Forum. I'm sorry to hear your account is limited and you wish to close it. Unfortunately, it is correct that you would not be able to close a PayPal account while a limitation is placed on it. Limitations are normally placed when there's information we need to verify about our customer or their activity or even to comply with local regulatory requirements. If the information requested is not provided, the limitation would normally not be able to be removed. 

 

I understand you wish to close your account and remove your data from PayPal without removing the limitation. The retention time for customer and transaction data at PayPal is 10 years. The data retention period starts from the date when the business relationship comes to an end. 

 

Since it sounds like you're still able to resolve that limitation, it would not be considered a permanent limitation, and therefore would normally mean PayPal's business relationship would not be over just yet. You can find out more about our data processing activities on our PayPal Privacy Statement page.

 

You're also welcome to reach out to our Customer Support teams for more information on data retention or the limitation on your account.

 

Best wishes, 

 

 - Jon K


If you find this or any other post was helpful, make our community better by giving kudos or accepting it as a solution.
Login to Me Too

MikeS1978
Contributor
Contributor

Hi @PayPal_JonK 

 

Thank you for the reply. Regarding "there's information we need to verify about our customer or their activity or even to comply with local regulatory requirements" - there isn't actually any information needed to close my account, nor any information to comply with local regulatory requirements.

 

This is a blanket policy which has not been thought through to cover different circumstances (such as one where the account balance has always been $0.00 and PayPal had only ever been used for processing credit card payments for online purchases). If I have only ever used PayPal as a payment processor (to pay for things via my VISA card) - and my PayPal account balance has always been $0.00 - no more information is required to close my account. This would be as ridiculous as the payment processor Stripe randomly sending me an email saying that they need my address and updated credit card details.

 

So since I will not ever be providing PayPal with my address or credit card, and will not be providing my Australian Tax Residency Details - I will create an email filter that simply deletes all emails where the sender's domain contains 'paypal' - and obviously I will never pay for anything by selecting the PayPal payment method ever again. Problem solved.

Login to Me Too

kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@MikeS1978 

 

You don't need to worry about 'not choosing paypal to pay for anything ever again' as your account is limited you would not be able to do so anyway.

 


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

Buukh
New Community Member
What can I do to an account that kee showing PayPal is looking out for you during login process
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.