Paypal woes.. restricted account! :(

[Renzsu]

Has anybody here ever had to deal with this? I just sold a lens through RFF with Paypal, received the money for it and then Paypal told me the transaction was about a certain threshold and that because of EU counter money-laundery regulations I had to prove a whole bunch of things before I could actually transfer the money to my bank account (send in documents to prove my current address, my creditcard info (which I don't have.. my paypal is coupled to my debit bank account) and more of such things. I'm just wondering if this is going to be a big deal or not and if anyone here can tell me if they've had to deal with this before and how that went?

On top of this, they mentioned the threshold in Euro's, the money I actually got on my Paypal account was less than that threshold. And that's even before the money they kept to themselves as paypal fees (which were btw, more than the 3.4% that I read about). And to add insult to injury, the exchange rates they used to calculate from USD to EUR was much less favorable than the most recent ones on xe.com (which I always use).

This whole thing has left me very unimpressed with Paypal, I'm not even sure if I want to use them in the future (and seeing how people don't trust IBAN / Swift, I'm not sure even if I want to go beyond just local selling of stuff (to be honest, can't blame people for not trusting sales with IBAN/Swift.. ugh I've seen too many scams here involving bank to bank transactions)).

If I'm overreacting, well I needed to vent. After all, I don't want to put my reputation on the line as a seller because of Paypal being a pain in the neck.

 

[jesse1dog]

Interesting post.
I gather you haven't an eBay account.
I would think that your debit card details would be acceptable as credit card details. And sometimes Paypal do want address confirmation although I am usually asked this at a different time to making a transaction. And the EU counter-laundering regulation can be a pain.
Are you sure the request from Paypal was genuine?
Just random thoughts - and I'm not surprised you feel a bit peeved and disillusioned. And as for eBan ....!!! I refuse to deal with sellers who insist on this method of transaction, and tell them so and why.
Bit of bad luck though nevertheless. Sorry to hear about the difficulties. Not quite the end of the world but ......
Jesse

 

[Renzsu]

Hi Jesse, thanks for looking. I do have an eBay account, but I only use it to buy stuff..
I'm sure the request from Paypal was genuine, I used the correct URL to log in and everything was properly encrypted. I know IBAN / Swift are not good for these kinds of transactions, I suggested actually to the buyer that I would transfer the money back from Paypal and we find a different way to do this, but even that was no longer possible.
I'm going to give them a call on Monday and ask for some explanation, I want to know how this was even possible.

 

[jesse1dog]

I did wonder about trying to ring Paypal - I gather it can be somewhat frustrating getting in touch and then having a sensible conversation.
I think I would try though - best of luck.
jesse

 

[sepiareverb]

Exchange rates were substantially off going from dollars to pounds recently.

 

[Renzsu]

Thanks guys, I'm thinking about taking the day off tomorrow so I can deal with all this. I have no problems staying polite in such situations, so yeah, lets hope it's indeed not really a big deal.

 

[jesse1dog]

Keep us up to date.

jesse

 

[Renzsu]

Gave them a call this morning, they made sure that my bank account was properly registered so I didn't need to send any creditcard info. I sent them a scan of my passport and some insurance bill to have my address checked and a few hours later it was all sorted and I had access again over my own account. Phew!