Here's a horror story from the other side (the buyer's -- or person-who-wanted-to-be-a-buyer's) of PayPal.
I'm American, but 7 or so years ago when this happened was living abroad, had no credit card, and wanted to buy things online. So I created a PayPal account and transferred $100 in from a bank account. I then tried to make a purchase, but found that as an outside-the-US user, I would not be able to make payments until I registered a credit card with them. I couldn't qualify for a credit card at the time... oh well. So I tried to move the money back to my bank account. But that transaction was covered by the same policy; I wouldn't be able to do it until I registered a credit card with them.
Looking through the ToS, I found that this rule was in there; an international user had to register a credit card in order to disburse any funds from the account. So the fool in this story is indisputably me. Still, I found it hard to believe that the system was set up to allow black hole accounts, which money could enter but never leave. Over a lengthy email exchange, I was assured that such accounts were indeed possible, and that I had created one.
Eventually I let go of the $100. But I never let go my scorn for PayPal.
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Here's a horror story from the other side (the buyer's -- or person-who-wanted-to-be-a-buyer's) of PayPal.
I'm American, but 7 or so years ago when this happened was living abroad, had no credit card, and wanted to buy things online. So I created a PayPal account and transferred $100 in from a bank account. I then tried to make a purchase, but found that as an outside-the-US user, I would not be able to make payments until I registered a credit card with them. I couldn't qualify for a credit card at the time... oh well. So I tried to move the money back to my bank account. But that transaction was covered by the same policy; I wouldn't be able to do it until I registered a credit card with them.
Looking through the ToS, I found that this rule was in there; an international user had to register a credit card in order to disburse any funds from the account. So the fool in this story is indisputably me. Still, I found it hard to believe that the system was set up to allow black hole accounts, which money could enter but never leave. Over a lengthy email exchange, I was assured that such accounts were indeed possible, and that I had created one.
Eventually I let go of the $100. But I never let go my scorn for PayPal.