The Expanded Use or EXPUSE Number is a requirement to lift the $100 sending limit in PayPal.
Those who paid the $1.95 Expanded Use fee via credit card can normally get the EXPUSE Number on their billing statement the next month.
Those who used debit cards, however, need to call their card issuer to get the EXPUSE Number, as in the case of UnionBank EON CyberAccount or eWallet users.
But PayPal “strongly discourages” this policy of contacting card companies to get the Number, as seen in the following note from the PayPal website.
PayPal’s note reads:
PayPal strongly discourages customers from calling their credit card companies in order to obtain PayPal Expanded Use Numbers. If PayPal receives a complaint from Visa, MasterCard, or your card issuer about a phone call made to obtain PayPal Expanded Use Numbers, the complaint will be investigated. As a result, your PayPal account may be closed. Please check for your Expanded Use Number on your online credit card statement (monthly transaction history) or when you receive it in the mail. It may take up to 3-4 business days for the number to appear on your statement.
If PayPal already explicitly announced its dislike of the method, why do card issuers like UnionBank still do this?
Most PayPal account holders who are using UnionBank cards are annoyed because they have to wait 3-5 days after paying the Expanded Use fee before they can get the Number. There are reports that some EXPUSE Numbers are not available even after 5 days.
In the past, EXPUSE Numbers were available in the online banking account of a UnionBank customer. For whatever reason, some months ago UnionBank removed this feature and instead asked clients to call their Customer Support Hotline at 84-186 or 841-8600.
A few weeks ago, however, there seemed to have been a bug in the system because I myself was able to enroll my account in the Expanded Use Program without having to call UnionBank! Later on, a few users reported that the process did not work anymore.
The note above indicates that PayPal doesn’t like users calling card companies for the EXPUSE Number. In that case, shouldn’t PayPal investigate why UnionBank still gives these numbers over the phone? And isn’t it high time for UnionBank to offer EXPUSE Numbers online so as to make it convenient for their users?
Just asking.
Must read these other related, useful articles!
