Several PayPal users, mostly eBay buyers from the Philippines, recently complained that PayPal selectively limits certain accounts.
It was reported that this usually happens, after a user has logged in to the account. Worse, the account could be limited after an online purchase is almost complete — that is, the transaction has been debited from the credit card but the payment is frozen and not sent to the seller.
What happens, then, is that the user ends up with a limited PayPal account, charges against the credit card, and an unpaid seller who won’t send the product because payment is not received. What an unfortunate situation to be in, indeed.
Pending further account verification
A few users reported that they merely logged in to their account one day only to find a notice from PayPal that their account has been frozen pending additional verification.
Some said they tried paying for a product purchased online but payment is held by PayPal before the transaction is completed and the account has been limited.
Owners of accounts limited by PayPal normally see a message similar to this:
As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. During a recent screening, we noticed an issue regarding your account.
Our system requires further account verification.
Case ID Number: *****
For your protection, we have limited access to your account until additional security measures can be completed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
To review your account and some or all of the information that PayPal used to make its decision to limit your account access, please visit the Resolution Center. If, after reviewing your account information, you seek further clarification regarding your account access, please contact PayPal by visiting the Help Center and clicking “Contact Us”.
We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department
Paypal’s message on how to address limited accounts
If you ask PayPal how you can restore access to your account, you will receive a message similar to this:
Thank you for inquiring as to how to restore access to your account.
PayPal is constantly working to ensure security by regularly screening the accounts in our system. We recently reviewed your account, and need more information to help us provide you with secure service. Until we can collect this information, your access to sensitive account features will be limited.
To return your account to regular standing, please complete the checklist items indicated when you login to your account and click on the link provided on the ‘Account Overview’ page.
The link will appear as: Click to Resolve or Check Status.
Once you complete all of the checklist items, our Account Review team will review your case and send you an email with the outcome of the review. Cases are reviewed in the order they are received.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and we would like to restore your access as soon as possible. Please do not respond to this email, as responses to this message will not be answered.
Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Team
Documentary proof required to verify account
Normally you will be asked to fax them a copy of a utility bill that contains your name and address that correspond to the name and address in your PayPal account profile.
Once they have received the documents, PayPal will send you this message:
Dear *****,
This message confirms that we have received the documents you sent to PayPal. The documents have been successfully attached to your PayPal Account and will be reviewed shortly.
We review documents in the order in which they are received and generally require 3 to 5 business days to process these documents. Once we process your documents, we will contact you about the status of your PayPal Account.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation.
If you have any questions, please contact us using this link: *****
Sincerely,
PayPal
How many days before limited Paypal account is lifted
If after 5 business days PayPal still has not resolved your account, contact PayPal again and follow up your case. Once the limit imposed on the account is lifted, you will receive a message similar to the one below. Normal access to the PayPal account is then restored.
Dear *****,
Our review is complete and we have restored your account.
We appreciate your patience and thank you for your help in making PayPal the safest and most trusted online payment solution.
Sincerely,
PayPal
It sometimes takes PayPal several more days to resolve issues as opposed to the promised 3-5 business days. The key is to continue following up your case and to sometimes contact them by phone rather than email to personally inquire about the status of your case.
If there are no irregularities in your account and you sent the needed documents, you will again have access to your limited Paypal account in less than a week.
How do we know?
We’ve also had our Paypal account limited, and our sample email messages above were actual messages we got from Paypal when we resolved the issue.
Must read these other related, useful articles:
I have a PayPal account in Thailand. I put in thousands of dollars. When I tried to download the money to my bank account, PayPal says I have a $0.00 monthly withdrawl limit. I can’t take out ANY money. Fucking criminals! I sent dozens of e-mails to customer support since October 22, but they have not responded. I think they want to keep my money forever. If you can help, send e-mail to americanoregon@hotmail.com
PayPal Thailand accounts are eligible to withdraw funds to their bank accounts in Thailand so I’m not sure why you have a $0.00 withdrawal limit. Is your PayPal account verified? Have you enrolled in the Expanded Use Program? Have you registered and verified your Thai or US bank account? Regarding customer support, it does take time for PayPal to reply to emails, what you can do is continually follow up your case or try calling them via the Support Phone.
“Uh-oh, looks like users in the Philippines are already starting to experience the horrors of using PayPal”
How come you still have PMT paypal service if paypal really sucks?
do you have limited paypal philipines send me a message https://www.facebook.com/rich.chard.92505
Hi Jerry, unfortunately PayPal remains to be one of the primarily-used electronic currencies so if you have to deal with clients, buyers, or sellers who prefer PayPal, you have no choice but to use PayPal no matter how you dislike it. Also, PayPal does not really suck — although several users have complained before of annoying PayPal rules. As long as you transact with verified and reputable PayPal users and religiously follow the rules, you are less likely to have your own PayPal “horror story.”
are you buying limited paypal accounts?
Cut them some slack. They have to comply with various international money laundering laws. The things that crooks think up to scam them are extremely creative, and it’s a complete headache to deal with. They’d love to just forget about it, but they can’t. Given all the problems with Philippines accounts, you’re lucky they’re even doing business there.
Hi! Hope you can answer me here. Its my first time to get limited by paypal and I have funds in it. Its a Philippines account and here are the questions they asked me:
*Provide a full description of what the payment was for
*Provide tracking information if you shipped the merchandise
*Provide details of other payments related to this transaction or set of transactions
*Provide information on any relationship or arrangement you have with the people involved with this transaction or set of transactions
*Provide details of any other payments that you sent related to this transaction or set of transactions
*Provide any email correspondence between you and the buyer(s)
I sold an eBook to a guy and with a coaching service good for a month for $115. What should I tell them when I don’t have any receipt?
Hi,
Where did you upload your docs? I am also from Philippines and they are asking for some docs.
Thanks,
Maurelle Mejos
Hello,
I am an online buyer. I never had a problem with the seller. My problem is with Paypal.
I received an email from Paypal November 29, ’11
That they noticed some unusual activity on a credit card linked to my PayPal account and they hold the payment I made
So I replied and told them that there is no problem with my transaction since my card is already verified and I told them the transactions were made by me.
December 3 I received a reply from them
“I understand that you need assistance in resolving your limited account access. I checked your account and saw that you have successfully confirmed your registered credit card. Please do not worry as I am now working with one of our specialists in reviewing your account. You do not have to do anything at this time. I assure you that we will send you an email update as soon as we are done with the review.”
I was very happy when I read there reply and thought that they will release the money so the seller can process my order because I will be needing the products before Christmas.
But on December 5, I received an email that my appeal was denied.
“If your PayPal account balance is zero, and you have no unresolved buyer
complaints or chargebacks, your account will remain limited.”
The option to release the money is to wait 180 DAYS or if anyone will ask a refund from my client.
First of all, I am the buyer not seller. So I am so mad that they hold my money for no valid reason. They can also check my account that I never received money from anyone. I am the one who sent it.
I called them and explained that I am the buyer here. But they said I need to wait and they can’t even explain why they hold my payment.
They investigated on their own and my side was not heard. I emailed them telling them I can show them my billing statement or whatever they need but until now December 9, 2011 no reply was received.
I googled the case and read so many stories about paypal holding their money.
Ive read that they put the money in their bank for 180days so they will profit thru interest.
Paypal is a SCAM.
I just recently had my account limited as well, permanently too if I may add on Christmas day after purchasing a couple of games off Steam. I’m starting to guess it may be due to our IP addresses. Considering ALL our wireless ISP’s use shared public IPS, this may be flagging our accounts for review
Hi..
My account was also limited today. They just asked me to change my password and questions. Then they asked me to re-verify my account using my credit card. So, I did and it only took me about 5 hours to lift the account limitation that includes me waiting for the expuse that paypal send to your credit card.
I have a paypal acct. and the acct is limited, i am new to paypal i receive my payout from my employer and since my paypal acct. is not yet verified i transfer the amount to my friend coz her paypal is verified. the problem is it got me a dispute message. and since i dont know how i just follow the instruction there. my problem is the money is on hold… is there a possibility that the money will be lost? until when will this dispute be solve
Happened to me as well. Any idea how to get this fixed? Or does paypal get to keep our incomes?
Hi..Dear..
My Paypal Account is Limited. It has 36.00 US$ so i can’t withdraw.
Paypal wants to see Philippines Address Proof & Credit/Debit Card Verification onto it.
I am living in India so i can’t do it.
If anyone can help me remove limitation i can give 10US$ to their account.
Please help any Philippines Account Holder.
Contact me at : prabhsingh4@gmail.com
plz i want to know how i can withdraw my funds on my limited paypal account without bank account,,coz my account was limited with any bank account linked,,and now that its limited,,i cant add any bank account even my funds were legible for withdrawal,,plz help me,,i want to know what i need to do to withdraw it
what are the reasons may occur for one PP account to be limited
PLEASE HELP! i’m from the philippines and i need to withdraw my funds from paypal badly.. but my account is unverified and limited,,, to i tried to verify it using my debit card but its giving me an error message saying my account is limited.. so it means i need to solve this limit issues first before i verify my account? i sumbited my utility bill years ago for proof of address but untill now it says in progress. I tried to email them through costumers support, but i dont know where will i find their reply, is it on the email i liked on my paypal account? if yes.. the email i linked with my PP account is deactivated already.. i tried to change my email there but it says i dont have permission and its telling me to contact the person that is holding my permission.. AND I DONT KNOW WHAT IT MEANS!!!! PLEASE HELP! PLEASE!!!
Do you accept “applications” for official letter writers?
Hello, can someone help me please. I just got an email today that my paypal account has ben temporarily limited and I was instructed to login to my Paypal account and follow the instructions there to lift the limitation. So I opened a browser and went to the paypal website and tried logging in. But then I got an error saying, “We’re sorry, we can’t log you in. If you think there’s a problem with your account, contact us and we’ll help resolve it.”
So I click on “contact us” and it gave me the option to call or email. So since i’m in the Philippines, I opted to email them. When I clicked on “Email us”, It gave me an option to login for faster service but the problem is…I can’t log in because of the error message I mentioned above.
Can someone help me please?
Thanks!
My PayPal was limited as well. I contacted Auction Essistance and it turns out it was a permanent limitation. So I am out of a PayPal account. Was hesitant on going stealth, but Auction Essistance was able to coach me back on without getting linked to my limited PayPal.
Having trouble getting your account with PayPal?
Hi Im Kirsten Williams, Im working with PayPal for 10Years now. I can help you get the money out of your account and remove the limitation on it permanently. You can reach me at kirswills143@gmail.com . Thankyou and Godbless 🙂
Would it be safe to use Auction Essistance to help me create a new PayPal account after mine got limited?
I recieved a big amount of money from paypal and they sebd it to my e-mail but i dont have an account to withdraw.
How can i recieve the money without using a debit card or bank account?just a paypal transaction only!
Having trouble getting your account with PayPal?
Hi Im Kirsten Williams, Im working with PayPal for 10Years now. I can help you get the money out of your account and remove the limitation on it permanently. You can reach me at kirswills143@gmail.com . Thankyou and Godbless 🙂