tes21966

I need to vent. I have had a PAYPAL account since 1997 and never had to link my bank account to the account to receive payments. Well today, I received an email stating that I had an unaccepted payment. I logged onto my account and saw a payment for $85.00 that I had not accepted. I clicked the accept button and was prompted that I was not verified and must either link my bank account or either apply for a PAYPAL credit card to accept the payment. Keep in mind, I have had this account for 15 years and only ever had an American Express Card on file and there was over a $2700.00 balance in the account. Trying to resolve online only got me a case number and a phone number to call. After being on the phone with 3 different people for over an hour I was told this was in fact correct policy. I asked why after 15 years was this now changing and I was told that it must have "slipped" through somehow and linking my bank account was perfectly safe. Well, it may be but I am just not going to do it. I do not even do online banking. I have heard to many horror stories about being hacked. PAYPAL told me if I did not accept payment it would be credited back to my buyer. In otherwords, I felt they were holding me hostage over $85.00. My only option was to give in or decline payment. I declined payment with hopes I could explain this to the buyer. I also told PAYPAL I was going to close my account and I wanted my money sent to me. Guess what? Got to link my account to get my own money or pay them $270.00 (10%) to send me a check.

Am I being overly stubborn for not willing to give in to their new policy? Are my principles worth paying their "ransom" demands and the risk of buyer not sending the payment by other means?

What Say You??????

CHassan

My Feedback: (13)

Open a new bank account with $10. Link to Paypal. Problem solved.

You do online banking with PayPal. Only difference is they don't give you any APR.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

I agree, but the real banks are paying next to nothing APR,, Not much of a selling point there,, LOL
I too have a separate bank account I use just for paypal.

"Overly Stubborn"?? no, just cautious, I've had my account linked for probably 15 years too,, never had an issue.

Why you think you having a $2700 balance makes a difference to them is what I don't understand,,, you could spend that in 30 seconds as far as they are concerned. The account balance means nothing as far as verifying you.

Good luck

AwwNaww

The story I was given when confronted with the "you must be assimillated" order was that after so many transactions, they required linked account. I did exactly what CHassan recommends. I have been hacked before and I do not choose to have any significant funds accessible to a Paypal hacker. I understand and agree with you rant...but the borg won

Bill G

The money that can be made from hacking is probably why someone hacked rcg passwords some time ago. People tend to use the same passwords, making them easier to remember, but also easy for hackers to crack. It's not that difficult to start linking identities and passwords in the relatively small rc community. I would not want my account directly linked.

If people were realists, then there would be a competitive business to ebay that is not so hard on good sellers. Realistically paypal offers little protection in many cases. The smart rule is only to deal with people who have stellar reputations. I have better things to do than filing disputes. Generally I will only buy from someone who has a great reputation, to the point where I could care less if I have so-called paypal protection. I'd be glad to buy from a seller like that at a site similar to ebay, but a site where the seller did not have to play all the games that paypal makes them play. Most of us operate this way when buying on the rc forum classifieds. People work to build a high seller rating, and tend to want to keep it. That is your protection. I'm even thinking of placing a wanted ad for something I've been looking for, and stating "high seller rating only". Too bad, if anyone without a high rating is offended, as anyone can respond to wanted adds and send a brick.

AwwNaww

I agree, Bill. I use Paypal only when there is no other option. Part of my dissaffection is they are politically motivated in some of their restrictions, the rest is simply due to their utter arrogance bred from a lack of competition.

tes21966

scale only 4 me,

You are correct in the fact that the balance could be spent in a matter of seconds. The only reason I mentioned it was to show stability of the account and point out the fact that I am not in fear of PAYPAL taking my money. They have fraud protection for money in "their" accounts. I just want someone to give me a reason why linking my checking account makes my account more "verified" than having a credit balance for years and having a nationally recognized credit card verified on the account that has also been there for years. YES, I can go to local bank and open a free bank account and do it "their" way but I just want to know why that makes me less of a risk to use their service.

The answer " Just Because I Said So" stop working when I left my parents roost. I asked 3 people at PAYPAL yesterday and now I ask you. Why does a checking account with a $10.00 balance make me less of a risk?

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

Because it is another point of confirmation who you are who you say you are, a Bank account confirms your SS and address, just like the Amex does.

Even with my account linked they made me jump through a hoop a couple years ago, re-verifying my account, my account was down for a couple days, they wanted to send a access password to my CC billing address to confirm that card and Me I guess. I didn't take it personally, seams to me this is to protect me and my money and them and their money.. not to difficult a thing to understand in my mind.

If you think that's too much info for them to have there are always Money Orders, But millions of people have been linked this way for a long time. If it was an issue we'd be hearing about it. Seams to me they have been pretty secure with that info since inception.