Locked Paypal Account and frozen funds

[cathleengarvey]

Good Morning!

Wanted some advice about locked paypal accounts, I discovered my paypal has been locked on the 15th this month (just after CC sent payment!) and now its frozen my funds inside. They need passport, address, and these things but I have heard it takes weeks to get it unblocked and sometimes it never gets resolved.

It states that you can still issue refunds so I am thinking of issuing a refund to CC and asking them to send the payment back by bank transfer or to a friends paypal instead. I really need the payment from paypal as they managed to freeze it in the worst possible moment (day before rent is due, new house, just got back from vacation, etc) so I'm trying to get it out as soon as possible.

Does anyone have any advice or experience with this before I bother Ed with my problems?

Thanks!!!!

[Lysis]

They did that with me, and I called them up, gave them some info (I think I had to fax them my driver's license?) and I had it cleared the same day.

You said you went on vacation. Did you access the account from wherever you were? If it's another country, it can be bad news bears.They are tricky about that.

[cathleengarvey]

Hi Lysis,

The same day, that's really encouraging! I have been reading horror stories online. I didn't access it from another country, they gave me a certain amount of time to send all this info and I just completely forgot, so only myself to blame =(

I'll send them the info and hope I'm one of the lucky one too!

[Lysis]

Sounds like you got the same security check I got. It came out of the blue for me too. I have no idea why they did it, but yeah, I sent them the info and called them and the girl on the phone removed the lock that day. It came right after a payment too. They are bastards for making a payment a trigger. It wasn't even a big payment, so I have no idea what triggered mine either.

[evaku]

Yeah, payments are triggers. It was only an $80 payment that triggered it for me last March. I followed all the steps for verification by phone, and even though I did everything absolutely according to the instructions, the site simply didn't accept my verification code. So I chose be verified by mail instead, and waited and waited and waited for my letter with a code to come. When it looked like it wasn't coming, I started complaining as nicely as I could on their facebook page (had no luck with e-mail). Whoever was working on the page at the time was super nice. They messaged me, I told them I thought my letter must have been lost and if they could resend, but they simple asked for my name and e-mail, said they could just "forget about the verification", and unlocked my account.

The letter came only a few days later anyway, but I was still happy to have it dealt with sooner. The process can be a pain, I hope you are able to get it sorted out!

[Lysis]

I guess she did! I think they do random security audits. I funneled tens of thousands of dollars through Paypal when I freelanced full time. Then, I went back to corporate last year and dropped to only a few hundred and got flagged one day. 4 years of freelancing and they did it when my payments went from like $6000/month to like a few hundred. I have a business account too. I think they just do security audits randomly, but yeah I am just glad they didn't do it to me when I relied heavily on it. I've seen people talk about horror stories with them, and then when it happened to me my heart sank! But I can't complain too much. Faxed them my ID and called and boom done.