No Mobile Phone

Choreo
New Community Member

I keep getting emails from PayPal asking me to add/verify my Mobile Phone Number (sending me a code). I do not own a Mobile Phone. I have had the same land-line phone number for over 45 years, but I guess they "assume" that everyone now has a digital ball & chain connected to them.

 

Do I really need to go out and buy a mobile phone and sign a service contract to have a PayPal account now???

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139 REPLIES 139

AlanM1
Contributor
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@kernowlass 

 

You don't think you need a phone yet you use the internet !!!!

Surely if a phone is not useful then the internet is not as well.

 

I appreciate your enthusiasm but don't really see the connection? If a phone is not useful then neither is the internet? Unfortunately I'm old enough to have seen the arrival of 'mobile' telephones.. they allowed people to have conversations without being tied to the home phone. And the internet had arrived as well, which led to internet banking among other things. And that's how they stayed for most of the 80's.. 90's.. 00's...where are we now.. 2020... haha.. yes, I forget - of course they're not telephones any more, they're personal computers that you can carry around AND use the internet on.

 

Happily I've maintained the distinction between the two mediums. I have a Spasmodic Dysphonia which puts me off trying to talk to people on telephones - I'm not after sympathy by the way, but when the person at the other end of a telephone struggles to understand you or keeps asking you to repeat yourself it does put you off using them. So Internet Banking.. great idea! Telephones.. boo! Can I use the internet.. yes! Do I have use for a phone? No! Does not having a phone mean I can't use the internet? No!

 

Anyway... I do agree that it is unusual for people NOT to have a mobile phone, honestly, but this two-factor authentication thing is going to affect a lot of people like me. As for additional security - I've found a website that publishes mobile phone numbers that you can use to receive SMS Online. It's quite interesting (or shocking?!) to see a running log of people receiving their authentication codes with "You are retrieving your password. 767649 is your verification code, DO NOT tell anyone or your account might be stolen."

 

But I guess it's an option!

 

 

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kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@AlanM1 

 

You do know that you can 'text' 'message' 'whatapp' and email on a phone? You don't have to speak on one.

And my point about the internet v phone was the fact you are so against them because you personally don't want to use one when the rest of us find them immensely useful just like you find the internet useful.

 

BUT you can't use the internet when you are stuck in a country road broken down without any phone can you.

 

And how old do you think i am? I am probably older that you  🤣


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NoMobile
Contributor
Contributor

WHY does the topic say the problem has been SOLVED

It most definitely and very clearly has NOT been SOLVED.

Please could someone with authority from PAYPAL provide a genuine SOLUTION.

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manofmull
Contributor
Contributor

I'm looking for an answer about not having a mobile phone.

I won't see 70 again, don't have a mobile and have no intention of getting one.

What does this mean? i.e. will my Paypal account be closed?

Anyone have an answer?

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orgasmictomato
Contributor
Contributor

YES, I agree totally, my Paypal acct does not allow me to log in and that means - NO MORE BUSINESS for Paypal from me as I have been a customer for more than a decade and tens of thousands of dollars have past through my acct for there profit...... and I do not have a mobile as I am recluse and deaf and I will not be bullied into purchasing something I have no use for..... BTW    I  was writing code for the computers back before any of you had internet..... Dial up 1985 with Apple IIe .... I am 72 years young......
Jim


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Moonstar3
Contributor
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How sad, wrong and false that this topic is marked Solved when no solution whatever has yet been shown here.

I hope someone able at PayPal comes along here to remove that untrue Solved signage.

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Aurymn
Contributor
Contributor

You're correct. It hasn't been solved because PayPal still requires you to submit a mobile phone number in order to access your account.
What, they can't call you during normal business hours the same way banks do to confirm an account?

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gfml
Contributor
Contributor

I guess PayPal doesn't want the 10% of people in Canada who don't have cell (pardon me, "mobile") phones as customers. As I keep telling those remarkably patient and polite people in the Phillipines who function as PayPal's support team, that many people in Canada don't have "mobile" phones because Canada has the highest "mobile" phone usage rates in the world in addition to having just about the worst "mobile" phone service in the civilized world! I've called the support team many times to complain about PayPal requiring their customers to have a "mobile" phone to log in to their service, and they tell me repeatedly that the reason why PayPal requires that you give them your "mobile" phone number to log in is for security reasons because receiving a "verification code" number on a "mobile" phone is the most secure way of sending such a code. I've told them that is absolute balderdash, and that having a person or even a "bot" call me on my landline to give me the "verification code" number would be just as secure, and to tell that to their idiot PayPal bosses in the U.S.! Although I am still using PayPal occasionally it is becoming less and less useful to me, as I can no longer update any information in my PayPal account because I can't log in to it with no "mobile" phone number. I do not need a "mobile" phone for any other reason, so I am certainly not going to buy a "mobile" phone and subscribe to a "mobile" phone service just so I can log in to PayPal! Even if I did that, the "mobile" phone service would be useless to me much of the time because I live in a rural area much of the year where although I do have good internet service I have very poor or nonexistent "mobile" phone service. 

Maybe it's time to look for another payment service that is available in Canada and that doesn't require you to have a "mobile" phone, such as Wise

 

gfml 

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kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@gfml 

 

Population of Canada... 38.25 (2021).

Number with mobile phones...31.38 (2020).

 

10% of the population = 3.8.

Think your maths is a tad out. 


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gfml
Contributor
Contributor

Even if the 10% of people in Canada I referred to who do not have "mobile" phones may be somewhat out of date now and your figures are correct, that means that there are still about one and one half million people who do not have "mobile" phones and therefore cannot log in to PayPal. That is a significantly large enough number of people that PayPal should make an exception for us and come up with some other way that we can log in to their service. In addition, as I mentioned, many of those who do have a "mobile" phone may not be able to use it to get a verification code number to log in to PayPal if they happen to be in an area at the time where Canada's notoriously unreliable "mobile" phone service does not allow them to get a signal. 

 

gfml 

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