November 2020 Complaints Against PayPal

Compiled from Public Data by FairShake

If you have an issue with PayPal, you’re not alone.

The US government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) collects complaints against financial companies.

In 2020, the CFPB received 2497 complaints against PayPal. PayPal ranked Number 16 among all financial companies for the most complaints.


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Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: November 18, 2020

Company Official Name: Paypal Holdings, Inc

State: MN

Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-Product: Mobile or digital wallet

Issue: Fraud or scam

Full Complaint:
I was messaging a person on XXXX on XX/XX/2020, and they promised that they would transfer {00.00} into my Paypal account of I sent them a transfer fee of {.00}. I sent them the money and they never gave me my money in return. I asked the person to transfer my money back to me but they had blocked me and deleted the conversation we had about this subject.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: November 18, 2020

Company Official Name: Paypal Holdings, Inc

State: TN

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose prepaid card

Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-Issue: Problem using the card to withdraw money from an ATM

Full Complaint:
I have continuously tried to reset password in which I was successful in doing so multiple times, paypal is preventing me from accessing my account although I have successfully reset my password. This seems to be retaliatory for prior complaints, and aimed at preventing me from accessing my funds which are available on my card and those which are being held.

Complaint Tags: Servicemember

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with non-monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: November 18, 2020

Company Official Name: Paypal Holdings, Inc

State: GA

Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-Product: Domestic (US) money transfer

Issue: Fraud or scam

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: November 19, 2020

Company Official Name: Paypal Holdings, Inc

State: IN

Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-Product: Checking account

Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-Issue: Transaction was not authorized

Full Complaint:
On Saturday XX/XX/2020 at approximately XXXXXXXX XXXX I attempted an ATM withdrawal at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, IN from my Venmo checking account for {0.00}. The ATM displayed a message that I did not have sufficient funds, although my balance showed {0.00} available. I tried the withdrawal a second time and received the same message. I removed my card and no money was dispensed. Approximately 15 minutes later, the {0.00} was deducted from my account. I immediately reached out to Venmo Support and was advised they would look into it because they show the money was dispensed. On Monday XX/XX/2020 I contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX and they verified that the money was not dispensed to me. Venmo still has not returned the money to my account and efforts to communicate with them have not gotten any reply.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: November 19, 2020

Company Official Name: Paypal Holdings, Inc

State: FL

Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-Product: Mobile or digital wallet

Issue: Managing, opening, or closing your mobile wallet account

Full Complaint:
Paypal asked me to verify some information to open a PayPal cash account, I provided my ID, proof of address and a paystub with my SSN. Even though I provided all these details PayPal has still partly restricted my account and I am unable to use PayPal cash services.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: November 19, 2020

Company Official Name: Paypal Holdings, Inc

State: None

Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-Product: Mobile or digital wallet

Issue: Managing, opening, or closing your mobile wallet account

Full Complaint:
Two days ago paypal sent me an email notifying me about a permanent account limitation.I can’t no longer send/receive nor withdraw my funds. I reached out to their support team by mail and phone and they couldn’t provide with any reason for the aforementioned limitation. They agreed with me that i didn’t violate any of their terms and conditions but they are not cooperating on solving the issue.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: November 18, 2020

Company Official Name: Paypal Holdings, Inc

State: MA

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose credit card or charge card

Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-Issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Full Complaint:
Paypal had a failure in thier software and sent my money to the wrong recipient {0.00} on XX/XX/31 was sent to the incorrect XXXX XXXX even though I selected the correct contact that is saved in my Paypal contacts. The XXXX XXXX who received this payment isnt someone I know and I have never sent money to the email address attached to the account it went to

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: November 18, 2020

Company Official Name: Paypal Holdings, Inc

State: OR

Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-Product: Domestic (US) money transfer

Issue: Other transaction problem

Full Complaint:
I have a current complaint with this same company # XXXX. Now they have created another problem for me. On XX/XX/XXXX they sent me this message in an email : Hello XXXX XXXX, Your bank account ending in XXXX was re-added to your PayPal account on XX/XX/2020 at XXXX PST. If you confirmed this bank account when it was originally added, it will be reconfirmed automatically. If not, please log in to your PayPal account and confirm your bank account details. You must confirm your bank account to use it with your PayPal account. Thanks, PayPal Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

I have little idea what is going on here but I do not want any bank acct linked to my paypal account unless it is at my direction. I dont believe I ever had the acct mentioned linked so I have no idea what they are talking about. I need paypal to undo any actions like this they have taken. And I need them to respond and take action related to my original complaint so I can access my funds and take care of any other issues. I need access to their company not just a website that does not work.

Complaint Tags: Older American, Servicemember

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: November 19, 2020

Company Official Name: Paypal Holdings, Inc

State: MS

Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-Product: Mobile or digital wallet

Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Full Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, funds were transferred to my PayPal account by a third-party in the amount of {00.00}. PayPal never stated any kind of hold would be placed on these electronic funds. Immediately after the transfer — money I was in need of right away — PayPal placed a hold on the funds for ” 21 days ”. I contacted PayPal immediately, but only receive a message from an automated system that states they are experiencing high volume and no sales representative are available. I was then directed to their website and given instruction to follow links that did not exist for ” help ”. How is it possible that a massive banking institution can have ZERO customer service agents available? Secondly, PayPal deducted {00.00} MORE from my personal checking account and then placed these funds on hold. The {00.00} in my personal account was for bills to be paid. Now PayPal wants to put a hold on these funds as well for 24-72. PayPal is holding {00.00} for ” verification ” or whatever other reason they have. I need my funds reversed and refunded to me. PayPal is holding my money, my checking account is overdraft and they have NO CUSTOMER SERVICE available. I need to speak with someone there.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with non-monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: November 18, 2020

Company Official Name: Paypal Holdings, Inc

State: TX

Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-Product: Domestic (US) money transfer

Issue: Other transaction problem

Full Complaint:
On XX/XX/2020 PayPal sent me an email stating that they were closing my account and would be holding any funds in my balance for 180 days. The email did not contain any explanation of their decision to close my account. I was able after holding on the phone for several hours to speak with a live agent who said my account had been closed because of price gouging. He stated that I had been warned by PayPal and when I said that was not true he said that XXXX had warned me, which was also not true. XXXX did remove my listings because I listed a package of items which included hand sanitizer and masks and they stated that because they were having problems with price gouging they were only allowing authorized vendors to sell those items and were not accepting applications for new vendors. I was able to relist the original item with just the nitrile gloves with no problem and pricing was similar or less than all other listings on XXXX. PayPal had previously limited my account only due to the fact that my volume had increased so drastically that they were requiring invoices for the product I was selling and proof of ownership of the company which I provided and my account fully restored twice before this. When they arbitrarily closed my account and accused me of violating the acceptable use policy I had {000.00} as a balance. I was told that the hold was to make sure that there were no chargebacks on the account and the funds would be available in their entirety for me to withdraw after that time. Turns out 180 days later I received an email saying my funds were available only to find out that they had debited my account {000.00} with ” damages to PayPal ” in the memo. I have sent messages and have only received automated responses from them and hold times are 2 hours plus if you try to call. I feel like PayPal stole {000.00} from me and can not even talk to anyone there to correct the issue. They force you into arbitration in there terms of service so attorneys will not even touch the case. I have already sent them notice of dispute and plan to initiate arbitration as soon as the 30 day notice is over.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


FairShake accessed this complaint from the public archives of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). You can file your own complaint with the CFPB here.

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