I have to admit that this issue has been sneaking up on me for a couple of months. I got a warning from Paypal months ago saying that, because I had received more than $3,300 in total payments to my account, access would be limited until I could verify a few things with them.
PayPal is required by law to comply with European Union Anti-Money Laundering regulations by collecting information from customers when they receive more than the set limit in total payments.
For months they didn’t do anything to my account and the only limitation placed on it was that I wouldn’t be able to close it. I could still accept and send payments and withdraw to my bank account so IÂ ignored the warning. I was in Bangladesh and there wasn’t much I could do anyways.
Well I guess I’ve ignored them for a little too long and now my account is totally frozen. I can’t accept payments and that’s not good, especially since I have some subscription payments lined up. More importantly, I can’t withdraw to my bank account and my UK funds are depleating.
There are three steps to remove my account limitations:
- Add and confirm a bank account – I already have a bank account and creditcard attached to this account so it was just a matter of Paypal making a small deposit to one of them (I forget which. I needed to check my statement, find the code that showed up next to the deposit and enter it on the Paypal website.
- Provide business information – I don’t even remember what this step involved so I’m guessing it must have been an easy one.
- Validate account information – This isn’t really a big deal but it’s turned into a nightmare! They need to verify that I live at the address they have on record. They do this my making an automated phonecall (how this verifies the address I don’t know) and when someone picks up, there’s a message that tells them a code or to push some buttons and that’s that. I tried to get my aunt to do this but had the phone numbers screwed up so the call went to my old, broken, UK mobile phone. Now the phone option is out (guess you only get one chance) and they need to send a letter that can take up to 20 days (!) to get to the UK. The first one, of course, didn’t arrive. I emailed them to ask for a second one to be sent and it should arrive by June 9th. I’m counting on my old housemate to track it down and email me the code. The pressure is on.
Their customer service people have been pretty good but they always reply to emails in a really annoying, formal way. It seems like they’ve got pre-typed answers to every question because the replies are a bit robotic and don’t seem to take into consideration inividual circumstances until you harass them a bit more. But a new letter is on its way so I can’t complain too much, especially since it’s my own fault that I’m in this mess.
So if you’re heading abroad and will be counting on Paypal payments to keep your beer buying funds high, do not ignore these messages! Sort things out as soon as you get the first warning. They gave me plenty of time and now I could potentially be screwed for money very soon. Silly me.
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