i cant verify my phone number

[icantverifymyph]

I've double checked my phone number and it's correct, i've clicked "resend" so many times, but i never recieve a message. The paypal help section was pretty useless as it only told me how to verify and not what to do if it never sends the code.

[PayPal_AshleyM]

Hey icantverifymyph,

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble verifying your phone number. This is usually related to one of three issues:

1. Your phone is a prepaid phone

2. Your phone bill is under someone else's name (such as a family member)

3. Your phone is a company phone or under a business name

If any of these three reasons apply to your situation, you won't be able to use that phone for verification. If not, please provide any other details you can regarding the situation and the community will help in any way we can. Thanks! 🙂

- Ashley M

[YaroslavD]

Same problem. Is it possible to happen if the name in Paypal is written in Latin instead of what's appropriate in local language? E.g. I'm in Russia, so it would be Cyrillic for me.

[zemlanin]

Emmm… Are you sure that’s not the issue with whatever service sends verification codes? Because otherwise this would mean that PayPal locked out users with *old* prepaid phone numbers I can’t open my PayPal dashboard without this now-required verification (neither sms nor call fallback work). Do I need to sign a contract (and change that phone number, because of how this works in Ukraine) with a non-native spelling of the name (neither to me, nor to the phone company) just to get back into 10+ years old PayPal account? Cool…

[PayPal_AshleyM]

Hey YaroslavD,

Great question - yes, this would affect verification. The name on the bill for the phone has to match your PayPal account name exactly (barring a nickname or middle name/initial issue). If they're different beyond those minor things, it won't work.

- Ashley M

[9876543210_]

I also cannot verify my phone number.  It's annoying how poor paypal's international support is.  Venmo is no better.  Starting to think these are outdated platforms and I should start telling friends to use something different.

In this particular case, the paypal app and website are not recognizing my international phone number (my US phone number is the primary phone number, but I have been outside of the US due to covid and am not using it atm).  I have changed it to the correct international code (84) and certainly know the VN phone number.  paypal does not recognize the phone number.  Maybe it's because the VN phone number has 9 digits (to my knowledge all VN mobile phone numbers are 9 digits while landlines are 10 digits)?

A simple solution would be to offer an alternative for verification.