My Paypal account FROZEN and lots of VERY WEIRD questions... can you help?

Lately, I've been hearing a lot of paypal problems. Many accounts are getting frozen and paypal does it uninhibitedly and does not bother providing logical reasons. I don't know the solution to your problem but I'd advice you to move to some other processor soon like 2CO or AlertPay. PayPal has been causing a lot of trouble in recent times.

I'm guessing that PP have seen multiple similar payments coming on over a week and figured out these are not just friends sending money, that there is some kind of business going on.

They will want you to upgrade to Premier or Business account if you're trading in any way. It's nothing to be afraid of.

The three options they are offering as to what kind of business you are will help determine which of the two kinds of 'upgraded' PP account you are eligible for.

An individual consumer is a person who isn't really in business at all. This would be appropriate if you were just selling off your old stuff on Ebay from time to time.

A sole proprietor (also called sole trader) is a person who is in business on their own account, trading in their own name (rather than a business name).

An unregistered business is similar to a sole trader (except that there might be more than one owner, ie a partnership) but using a business name (eg ABC Services rather than John Smith).

Basically I think they are asking for an idea of who owns your business and how it operates.

If you are John Smith and you're not really doing a business, you are an individual consumer.

If you are John Smith and you are in business as John Smith, and bill your customers as John Smith, you are a sole proprietor.

If you are John Smith, you are in business calling yourself ABC Services, and bill your customers as ABC Services but you are NOT an Incorporated company (eg ABC Services LTD), then you are un unregistered business.

I'm not a lawyer or a PP employee, and I don't even play one on TV. But that's my understanding of the question they're asking, and how I would answer it.

Yes, I read myself hundreds of thousands of paypal horror stories.

However I want to get my money, but it seems right now I have to work a whole week just to jump through circles and provide them a lot of documents, and still from most of other people experience, this insures only that Paypal will have all your personal documents and everything about you, but it doesn't mean at all that they will unfreeze your money...

All these considering that everything I did was 100.00% legitimate and honest,
and I never even had one single refund request, all my clients are extremely happy.

What to answer to the Paypal's weird questions above?

Thank you

Ruby I saw now your reply. Thank you, it helps a lot. I wish I can have the opinion of other warriors as well.

Once again, I have been selling Facebook - social networking promotion - advertising on my fanpages, and I have been paid about $900 in last week for this,
from 10 different clients.

Thank you very much.

The questions they are asking are fairly clear.

1. You are using a personal account to receive money from 'clients'. You need at least a Premier account to do this.

2. They said 'You must comply with EU regulations'. This is where a lot of people aren't clear with PayPal. PayPal is not a bank, but they are regulated by the laws of the countries they operate in.

Look for threads here about PayPal in India. It's not PayPal that makes the people there jump through hoops, but the government's regulations.

Best bet is to give them the info they want and get your self set up to do business. Sounds like you could do well with it.

Thanks,

John

I got asked this question by PayPal the other day. I guess PayPal suddenly have to comply to some EU law since I had never been asked this before. My account is a business account anyway, but I told them I was a sole proprietor because that's what I am and it was as simple as that, no problems.

The description above should definitely help you to answer the questions. And you should be registered to pay tax on your earnings in your country anyway, so you'd probably need to know what category you're in for that too.

If it's the same as I had the other week, which it seems to be, then this is nothing to worry about.

~Ruth

Adana;

Your account has been flagged because it is a Personal account when in actuality it should be a Premier account. It takes nothing to make this upgrade and you really should have set it up this way to begin with; now that it's been flagged PP is going to @#$% with you- plain and simple. Why? PayPal does not like Internet Marketers.

The worst thing that will happen now is that your account will remain frozen and your funds will be held for up to 180 days. Because PayPal is NOT a bank, they are not bound by the normal regulations that protect banking consumers.

AND, not trying to be rude, but all of their terms, fees and services requirements for all types of accounts are unfortunately clearly spelled out in their TOS. Yes, it's very long and has a bunch of legal jargon, but everything you need to know is there. You really need to read it in its entirety.

I LOATHE PayPal more than any entity in this world- it's disgusting how truly awful they are. Once I had a client pay for services with a stolen credit card. PayPal didn't discover the card was stolen for about 6 weeks. When they did, they sent me a simple message asking me if I had ever done business with a Mr. X. I said no, because Mr. X was the real credit card holder- I did business with a scammer, so of course I had never heard of Mr. X.

Once I responded "no, I do not know this person," PayPal then informed me that the account used was stolen and because I said I did not know the original cardholder, that was an admission of responsibility on my part and I would have to repay all money for work that I legitimately produced. WTF!?

How many of you think I paid?

Anyway, the point is that it doesn't matter how much of a great business person you are, with no complaints and no refunds ever. PayPal doesn't give a @#$%. They're doing this to tens of thousands of IMs: freezing accounts, earning interest off the frozen money, and possibly someday returning it to you...in 6 months. Some people never get their money back at all. So if you intend to use PayPal as your primary payment processor, you're taking a BIG risk. So here's my advice:

1. Provide the info they want, but understand it might make NO difference at all
2. Hedge your bets and start using another payment processor
3. Read the ENTIRE TOS of any payment processor before you click "agree."
4. Spread your PayPal horror story as far and wide as you possibly can
5. If the funds are released and you continue to use PP, make sure you transfer money to your bank account as soon as it hits- DO NOT LET FUNDS BUILD UP IN PP! PayPal almost never @#$%s with people who transfer their balances out right away. Why? There's no money in it for them!

Try:
****edited**** Sorry links included don't seem to work like they once did. Read this page for PayPal Alternatives: http://blog.webdistortion.com/2010/0...es-e-commerce/

Whatever you do, DO NOT go to the URL or website called "PayPal Sucks.com." You WILL pick up a virus there.

Good luck!

-Russ

You mention EU here. Are you from EU?

Yes, you need at least premier account. Person account is only for paying and receiving small amounts. Like $100. But with Premier Account you MUST verify and submit both ID and proof of address copy (if you live in EU), otherwise you will get your account frozen. Why? Your account has a limit and if you don't verify who you are...they will shut you down.

I have been using my personal account for copywriting, freelance
writing and other IM business since the beginning of paypal, I guess.
The writing and freelance writing since 2006.

I've never had a problem with them including receiving 4 figures at a
time for writing jobs.

I'm not trying to defend them, just pointing out that they are not
against online marketers, freelancers, etc.

Last year an overseas business with whom I was working had their
account limited, or maybe frozen, by paypal. This business had been
operating for over a year, I think.

They sent everything PP asked for and the limit was lifted in about
a week and a half or two weeks.

Yes, it's a hassle. Just take care of it and cruise on. You'll be fine.


Ken

You may be interested in these: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Class-...06952092666298

Firm Files Class Action Lawsuit against eBay for PayPal Holds

As far as i am concerned, paypal sucks big time. I have ever dumped it for alertpay. And i foresee a possible hot competition between Paypal and Alerpay

Honestly, I don't know how you can feel bitter when you were using a personal account and you were/are clearly running a business and should have had a premiere account.

Paypal in EU have different regulation compared to US. You need a Premier account if you have big amounts coming in. A business account will be better. Again if you have regular income from your IM business it will be good to get your business registered. It will save you from lot of troubles with Paypal and elsewhere.

The real benefits of upgrading to business or premium is that this is less likely to happen. $900 is not that much ... shouldn't have raised a flag unless it was dodgy or risky products. With a business acct, this probably wouldn't have happened with this amount of money.

I think the OP is being a little unfair to PayPal. In the EU they are required by law to ensure that their service is not being used to launder money.

As someone selling something, the OP is running a business that exposes PayPal to some risk. It doesn't seem unreasonable for PayPal to ask for details of that business. The business should also be registered for tax etc too, so the details requested should be readily available.

Last year, to comply with the law, PayPal required all EU businesses using their services to send in details of business ownership etc. They gave 6 months to do so and were very helpful with enquiries.

While some might find it a pain to have to do this, here in Europe we are afforded a bit more protection than our friends in the USA due to the regulation that is in place.