Paypal won't release my money to me

[HatingPaypal]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? OR

We should have listened to the negative reviews about Paypal.

My husband and I both recently opened Paypal accounts. Neither of us have sold anything, nor received money for any sales. My brother owed us money, and felt securest paying through Paypal, and since he already had funds in an account, okay. So he paid us each the amount we wrote checks to him for, $699 to me, $500 to my husband. These were marked as personal payments for money owed.

We each started using the funds to buy a few things we were planning to buy anyway, when Paypal limited our accounts, claiming "unusual activity with the credit card on file." Even though neither of us have used the *debit* cards we added to our accounts. So how can there be usual activity with our cards?

To release the balances in out accounts to us, Paypal is demanding everything down to our social security numbers and additional card numbers. Neither of us are comfortable with this, especially due to the claim that this is over card activity when neither of us have had to use cards due to the money in our accounts.

I called Paypal and a rep told me that if we don't give them all the information they are demanding, that they will never release the money and that this is for Paypal's security. Janet, the rep, said that this is their policy, so if we want our money, then we need to send in everything. My husband has e-mailed a couple times and hasn't had any reply at all.

Is this legal? Can Paypal hold our money hostage permanently if we don't give them scads of personal information? Since the utilities are all on my husband's name, I can't provide a copy of a utility bill in my name anyway. Yes, they want utility bills, among other things. Honestly I'd rather lose the money than give photos copies of our social security cards and driver's licenses, bills, etc., to a company that has lost our trust already. But we want our money. Is there a limit to how long they can keep OUR money? Remember there have been no sales of any sort, only the two transactions from my brother. Paypal won't let us refund the rest either. Or is this legal theft and they can keep our money forever? Under NO circumstances short of a court order will be give Paypal more information that we need to open bank accounts or buy cars. That's ridiculous.

 

[Zigner]

Either comply or don't. It's really quite simple and you agreed to this when you signed up.

 

[HatingPaypal]

Where in Paypal's TOS does it say that Paypal has the right to permanently keep money if we don't give them everything down to utility bills whenever they decide? What law allows them to claim the right to someone else's money? A bank can't decide to hold your money if you don't give them your car insurance (which Paypal wants as further proof of location) and tell you tough luck. They can decide not to do business with you, return your balance, and refuse to allow you to have an account in the future, but nor decide your money is now theirs.

 

[Silverplum]

Where in Paypal's TOS does it say that Paypal has the right to permanently keep money if we don't give them everything down to utility bills whenever they decide? What law allows them to claim the right to someone else's money? A bank can't decide to hold your money if you don't give them your car insurance (which Paypal wants as further proof of location) and tell you tough luck. They can decide not to do business with you, return your balance, and refuse to allow you to have an account in the future, but nor decide your money is now theirs.

You'll have to read their TOS carefully.

(I'm not going to do it!)

 

[Zigner]

You'll have to read their TOS carefully.

(I'm not going to do it!)

I will:


6. Withdrawing Money.

6.1 How to Withdraw Money. You may withdraw funds from your Account by electronically transferring them to your bank account, requesting a physical check through the mail, or using your PayPal Debit Card (eligible Users only). If you request a physical check, you will be charged the Withdrawing your Balance Fee as set out in Section 8. Generally, we will send checks only to Confirmed Addresses, unless you have a Verified Account. We will not send checks to P.O. Boxes. If you would like us to send a check to an address that does not meet these criteria, you must contact Customer Service and provide the documentation that we request to verify your association with the address. If you fail to cash a check within 180 Days of the date of issuance, we will return the funds to your Balance but we will retain the Withdrawing your Balance Fee.

6.2 Withdrawal Limits. Depending on the degree to which you have Verified your Account, we may limit the amount you may withdraw to $500.00 USD per month. You can view your withdrawal limit, if any, by logging into your Account and clicking on the View Limits link on the Account Overview page. In addition, we may delay withdrawals of large sums of money while we perform a risk review.


and

9.1 Restricted Activities. In connection with your use of our website, your Account, the PayPal Services, or in the course of your interactions with PayPal, other Users, or third parties, you will not:

*
*
*
h. Refuse to cooperate in an investigation or provide confirmation of your identity or any Information you provide to us;

[SUB]This comes from https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/UserAgreement_full&locale.x=en_US
(Section 14 refers to dispute resolution - I'm not going to paste all that info.)[/SUB]

 

[HatingPaypal]

So you think that it's reasonable for them to be demanding car insurance information? They have gone beyond reasonable. If they want medical records to prove my identity, is that acceptable? Or what about if they want employer information to confirm with the employer that I am who I say I am? There have got to be consumer protections that do not give companies the right to demand unreasonable information.

Also there is nothing at all in the TOS that says that if a member violated the TOS (if you want to consider not being willing to give insurance information to them, as well as changing over utilities to my name to give them copies of utility bills in my name, to be a violation) that the member forfeits their money. If I'm wrong and there is something saying money in a member's account become's Paypal's money, then show me. I've found nothing to that effect.

 

[davew128]

What US law do you think it is that they violated?

 

[Zigner]

So you think that it's reasonable for them to be demanding car insurance information? They have gone beyond reasonable. If they want medical records to prove my identity, is that acceptable? Or what about if they want employer information to confirm with the employer that I am who I say I am? There have got to be consumer protections that do not give companies the right to demand unreasonable information.

Also there is nothing at all in the TOS that says that if a member violated the TOS (if you want to consider not being willing to give insurance information to them, as well as changing over utilities to my name to give them copies of utility bills in my name, to be a violation) that the member forfeits their money. If I'm wrong and there is something saying money in a member's account become's Paypal's money, then show me. I've found nothing to that effect.

Section 14 lists the dispute resolution process. Feel free to avail yourself of that procedure.

 

[HatingPaypal]

Dave, without everything down to my insurance, they're going to permanently keep my money. This is theft.

Zig, if they want to not do business with me, how does that give them the right to permanently keep my money? If a company wants to cease doing business with someone, what laws allow them to keep what is not rightfully theirs? "I don't like you since you won't change your utilities, so I'm going to keep your money," doesn't cut it.

 

[Zigner]

Dave, without everything down to my insurance, they're going to permanently keep my money. This is theft.

Zig, if they want to not do business with me, how does that give them the right to permanently keep my money? If a company wants to cease doing business with someone, what laws allow them to keep what is not rightfully theirs? "I don't like you since you won't change your utilities, so I'm going to keep your money," doesn't cut it.

I'm sorry - maybe my earlier post didn't go through:

Section 14 lists the dispute resolution process. Feel free to avail yourself of that procedure.

 

[davew128]

Dave, without everything down to my insurance, they're going to permanently keep my money. This is theft.

Theft implies deliberate and permanent taking.

 

[mmmagique]

Paypal does this to many people. They've done it to me once or twice, but have always released the funds in a timely manner. It's no big deal until it happens to you.
OP, I suggest you read this article, and follow the link inside of it for Paypal contacts. They won't keep it forever (unless you or your husband have been running "adult" transactions through) but they do make it painfully difficult to recover your funds at times.
Good luck to ya, and please let us know when you get your money back, and what you did to make that happen.