“You can no longer use PayPal” all of a sudden; PayPal wants me to close my 11-year-old account!

I received an unexpected email from PayPal saying I can no longer use PayPal.

You can no longer use PayPal


After a review, we decided to permanently limit your account as we found potential risk associated with it. You’ll not be able to use PayPal to send and receive payments or shop online.
If you have funds in your PayPal balance, we’ll hold the amount for up to 180 days. After that period, we’ll email you with information on how to access your funds.


We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

This was shocking and irritating because I’ve been using my PayPal for over 10 years, and haven’t done anything unusual, aside from update my name because I’m already married.

When I logged in to PayPal, the issue was in the notifications list so I clicked “Resolve Account Issue.”

However, the resolution page does not help at all. It seemed like my account was in a dead-end.

So I send PayPal support a message, asking why my PayPal became limited, and actually no longer usable.

I received the following reply:

We received information/documents showing that you are currently under the age of 18 and thus cannot have an open PayPal account.

I told them that it’s a mistake, and attached photos of my IDs showing my birth date. I am waaaaay over 18 years old!

Then, they replied:

Thank you for contacting PayPal in regard to the  issue.
We have limited your account because you were not yet 18 years old at the time of account creation. Now that you’ve turned/over 18, you can open a new PayPal account, by closing the current account.
 
Here’s how to sign up for a PayPal account:
 
1. Go to PayPal website.
2. Click “Sign Up” at the top of the page.
3. Review and select the account type that suits how you’re going to use PayPal, and click “Get Started”.
4. Follow the instructions on-screen to create your PayPal account.
5. Check your email for a confirmation email from PayPal (the email might take a few minutes to reach your inbox).
6. Click the confirmation link in the email.
7. Enter your password and click “Confirm”.
 
Once you’ve completed the sign-up process, you can start using your PayPal account to send and receive payments.

WTF?! Seriously? I created my account 11 years ago and they tell me now that I should close it because I wasn’t 18 yet when it was created?

Sigh. Maybe a change in policies, huh?

Oh well, nothing I can do about that. I just hope that I’ll be able to withdraw my balance ASAP!

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Catzie

A Filipino programmer with a variety of interests such as baking, singing, making up silly song/rap lyrics, K-pop, drawing, creating unique dessert flavors, obsessing about finding out how some things works, board games, anime, video games, and forgetting things that usually go in her long list of interests. Running small-time online dessert shops Cookies PH and Catzie's Cakery.

5 comments on ““You can no longer use PayPal” all of a sudden; PayPal wants me to close my 11-year-old account!

 

  1. That’s quite mysterious. I too have an old PayPal account. Better check my account which I haven’t use for a long time. I used to use it in sending remittance but now I shifted to Remitly.

    I’ll use PayPal for something else when buying online and hope that it remain activated.

    Hope you can make new account without hassle.

  2. This is what happens to me right now. But im on the right age when I made my account. The notif says inconsistent activity. Which they didn’t specify. I guess I have to wait for 180days, for my balance. But I needed PP for my online payments. What is happening to them? And they did this in this trying times! (Covid19) I needed the funds! Btw, did they let you withdraw after 180 days? How did it go?

      1. I encountered problems even while closing my unusable PayPal account. Can you believe that? They’re asking me to close it but I didn’t let me close it.

        I had to create a business type account to use PayPal again. They allow us to have 1 personal and 1 business account. My unusable account was personal type.

        1. I have the same problem also so I just want to close that account. Will it be a hassle to close the account? What kind of problems did you encounter closing it? And did you register a different bank when you made a new paypal acc?

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