posted on March 18, 2002 11:34:47 AM new
After reading the hundreds of posts, many by sellers who had lost thousands of dollars indefinitelly by paypal freezing their accounts, I was wondering if there is a way to contain these risks to just $400.
Would it help for the sellers to keep their paypal account near zero, have their credit card limit lowered to $200 and keep their bank account at $200, with instructions to the bank to never allow any overdrafts? Would that limit your total risk of paypal only being able to freeze $400?
Or would paypal make you keep adding more money as you accumulate auction sales, because they each add to your total 6 month chargeback risk?
Many sellers that posted here lost around $5,000 when their accounts were frozen, but why so much? Did they leave too much in their paypal account? Or was that amount stuck in there anyway with some kind of chargeback reserve? If so, what % of your total auctions is held for reserve?
Mr/Ms paypaldaman, I read a post about a guy who went to China and tried to access his account from there, which triggered an immediate status of restriction. Does this mean that we should not check our accounts while traveling?
posted on March 18, 2002 07:51:53 PM new
If the country you are in is not a PayPal-approved country, they will most likely restrict the account, and there have been many users who have tried for months to get their accounts unrestricted because of this.
As for keeping PayPal safe, if you were selling, and you absolutely had to use PayPal, you don't need to lower your credit limit. If PayPal charges you then you can dispute the charge. With the bank account it gets a little more tricky. What sellers should do is open a seperate bank account solely for PayPal, like you mentioned, and try never to keep any money in it. Have money transfered out of your PayPal account as soon as it enters, and have it enter another bank account (not known to PayPal) as soon as the money reaches the bank account. You should also have your e-mail address for your PayPal account different than any e-mail address buyers would know. That way, if your account is restricted, then they wouldn't know where to send the money because you wouldn't tell them. It is best not to ship goods until the money is in the bank account.
If PayPal restricts your account before you have time to get the money out from a transaction, tell the buyer to dispute it with their credit card company, or file a buyer complaint with PayPal to get it back. If PayPal won't give the buyer the money back and the buyer used a bank account, the buyer should be able to reverse the transaction with an affadavit at their bank, since PayPal never really gave the money to the seller (never followed through on the service).
The reason many people lose money with PayPal is because they would never believe a company like this would restrict accounts for weeks and months while making you jump through hoops just to get information on why the account is restricted, let alone getting your money back. Some might think that the insurance applies if something happens to their money and PayPal refuses to give it back. Some like the rate of return with the money market fund, again not realizing what PayPal can do with your funds. In my opinion users should never try to use a service as a bank even though it is not licensed or regulated as one.
posted on March 19, 2002 07:50:32 AM new
one astute observer pointed out a possible reason why some folks keep so much money in their paypal account is exactly that it is not a bank,to avoid child support or irs????
think of it,how many people know you have money in your paypal account if you dont tell them?? no monthly statement?
only you know and you can tap the fund by using the debit card to buy gas,food and merchandise.
think of some countries which have exchange control,you can keep us dollars in usa without the govt knowing it.
posted on March 19, 2002 08:30:33 AM new
stopwhinning the pros and cons of this are insane. if paypal were a proper bank with regulation then yes awesome idea if u want to hide money......however they are not they do whatever they want whenever they want with YOUR money.
