restriction incomprehensible

[Alphas74]

Hello, It is now three months since you made the decision to permanently restrict the use of my PayPal account without giving a precise explanation. According to you, I would not have respected your terms of use. However, although I have scrutinized all the transactions carried out on PayPal, I do not see any that contravene those conditions. As you may have seen for yourself, I only use PayPal to make online purchases, pay for a few subscriptions or pay money to relatives. In short, I confess that I do not understand the heavy penalty taken against me. As you know, I have had an account PayPal for many, many years during which I have been singing the praises of your app. Many people have opened an account with you on my advice. You will understand, therefore, that I feel unjustly punished. In my opinion, this situation can only result from a huge misunderstanding. That is why I ask you to reconsider your decision. If, by some extraordinary measure, however, you decide to maintain it, I would be grateful if you could clearly inform me of the reason or reasons for it. Without calling into question your right to impose such sanctions, PayPal, like any natural or legal person, must respect the elementary principles of universal law that govern any State governed by the rule of law, such as the right to be heard, equal treatment and the prohibition to act arbitrarily. If my banker decides to block my account, he certainly has the right to do so, but he must nevertheless justify his decision and give me the opportunity to explain myself, to defend myself. That is the way it is, at least in a democratic country. Undoubtedly, PayPal would lose all its customers if it were to turn out that this company arrogated to itself the right, in defiance of the most elementary and fundamental rules of law, to block the money of its customers for 180 days, or almost 6 months, without giving the slightest justification for this serious and harmful decision. I dare not believe that PayPal knowingly adopts such a despotic attitude, going against the principles of freedom that she claims to embody. I prefer, at least for the time being, to think that my situation is the result of an unfortunate misunderstanding. That is why I have no doubt that you will be keen to answer me. Yours sincerely, Olivier [removed]

[cjperplexed]

I find myself in the same situation as you have so eloquently explained in detail.  In my case I am even more perplexed as the account that has been blocked had only been opened a week or 10 days prior, no transactions involving buyers or sellers was undertaken.  The only act was an attempt to transfer a small amount to the new account to see if it was working.  I tried to close the account and was not allowed to do so without first contacting customer support. I thought that would be a routine matter, but it was far from that.   I did contact them, and explained the situation as above.  Almost instantly, their algorithm terminated my ability to EVER use PayPal again, and put a 180 day block, supposedly  to allow time for any complains to be made. How can that be when there were no transactions, i.e., no buyer or seller transactions.  I felt as though I was in a court of law that found me guilty of a crime, without ever telling me what the crime or circumstances that led to that decisions was based upon.  Mine, is a restriction incomprehensible squared.

[kernowlass]

@cjperplexed 

Most common reasons for an account limitation are:-

1. You have a previously limited account (temporary or permanent) and you have tried to open a new account and not resolved the issues with the other account first.
2. Using a VPN.
3. Not being in the country where you have opened a Paypal account.
4. Being under 18 / minor account.
5. Having 2 Paypal accounts or more of the same account type.
6. Not having your legal name on your Paypal account.
7. Selling items (often virtual or digital) that Paypal consider a high risk of disputes/chargebacks OR items that violate their acceptable use policy.
8. Using the friends/family option for sales transactions to try and evade Paypal fees and risk of disputes.
9. Violating their acceptable use policy as per link.

https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/acceptableuse-full?locale.x=en_US

If none of those then...

You need to contact customer services to resolve any limitation or account specific issues.
Click help / contact bottom left of Paypal pages for options available for your country.

Or have you considered contacting Customer Service via Facebook or Twitter?
You can send them a personal message from their Facebook or Twitter pages.
It's: https://www.facebook.com/PayPal and @AskPayPal for Twitter.