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Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Hi all,

New on this forum but i'm sure we are all here for the same reasons!

Need some advice from you experts. The background is I had an account from a few years ago that must have had a charge back and went into negative balance.

A couple of weeks ago, the current paypal account that I have been using suddenly got limited - reasons citing that it was linked to another one (see above) where there is a negative balance.

Now the only issue is there is a decent amount of money in the current one and from reading all of these horror stories, i'm concerned that even If I pay off that negative balance from the other account, I might still not be able to access the current accounts balance.

What are my options here? I have spoken the agents and they all said that I need to pay off the negative balance first before. A few questions:

1) do I just wait 180 days and hope that the funds can be withdrawn to the bank account?
2) pay off the negative balance and hope that I can access the current account?

Would love to hear from your guys.

thanks in advance.

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Anyone able to help me?

sorry for the bump

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

1 - If they have linked you to an account with a large negative balance they may well not let you withdraw until the negative balance is paid off

2 - This is the best option. They may well not reinstate the account, but the negative balance needs paying one way or another anyway so this is your best bet

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

I had the same thing, but after 180 days it was still possible to withdraw.

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Welcome to the forums OP - all the best as you master stealth :thumb:

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Thanks for the responses guys.

@ TKT234

How large was your negative balance if you don't mind me asking?

I also dont believe they can stop us from accessing our own money - banks can't even do that unless there is a court order - how would PayPal be able to?

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

I don't remember. It was not a lot. It was a long time ago.

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

thanks for the replies guys -- helpful.

Can I just check, if I already have an Australian bank account linked to this account, after 180 days and I still cannot resolve with Paypal, can i withdraw the existing funds into the Australian bank account? or do they remove the bank account as part of the limitation at some stage?

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

You should be able to withdraw after 180 days mate regardless of your other account. I've had this a few times and always been able to get it after 180 days, although they do sometimes try mess you about for an extra day or so and the bank you have attatched now will be fine to withdraw.

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

thanks Mike. Helpful.

180 days seems like a long wait - I guess i'm only like 25 days in!

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

I can confirm as well. Wait the 180 days and then withdraw regardless of other negative PP account. PP has no legal authority to take money from your current limited PP account to transfer this to your negative. They can ask you but you have no obligation to assist. If you pay it off you played right into their hands and your current PP account and the negative one I am certain will still be limited as you be conidered a risk to PP. If PP want the funds back they need to take legal action against you which they are unlikely to do and most probably passed on to the debt collectors who you should just ignore if you haven't already done so :)

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Sorry James totally disagree personally from experience. PP cannot retain the funds any further to pay off a negative balance.

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Thanks for that.

haha maybe JamesNorth101 works for Paypal! :bounce:

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Normally the negative balance will need to be brought to $0 at least.

Have you gotten the stealth guide yet? I recommend it, it's extremely useful not just to create accounts, but also to understand how it works and how to operate one the right way.

Haha maybe James is a secret member of staff! He might know something different. That is my understanding in the UK PP here.

Where are you located and how old is the linked negative PP? Is it a big balance?

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

haha I was being facetious of course!

I'm based in Australia (account is Australian) - old account is about 3 years old and the balance is c. $1,000-2,000 (let me know if that overturns your original thoughts). I was a victim of the notorious "Not as described, file a claim and send back a rock, paypal will refund regardless" so I said no thanks.

I've also filed a complaint to my local Financial Ombudsman for review. It doesn't seem right - they shouldn't have any legal claim to the funds in the account. A real bank can't withhold me from accessing my money (unless court freezes it) so how can Paypal be above that?

Keep you all posted on how the complaint goes. Thanks for your help.

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Did you lend some money from paypal ? Maybe that's why its showing you negative balance

you have to give back these money to paypal in order to withdraw in future

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

gents:

I read the T&Cs carefully. There is a clause (see below) that states that they can take money from one account (that has credit) and transfer it to another.... have anyone seen this happen before?

Also, my limitation is now "High Impact" - is there any instances where Paypal wont let you withdraw after 180 days? thanks again.

------------------------

12.3 If there are insufficient funds in your account to cover any amount you owe us, our Related Bodies Corporate or eBay, the amount becomes immediately due and payable. You authorise us to satisfy any such monetary liability to us, our Related Bodies Corporate or eBay notified to you by:

- Debiting your account at a later date;
- Debiting your selected Payment Method;
- Setting off the credit balance of any account you have with us or any monetary liability we owe you in and towards satisfaction of your monetary liability to us, our Related Bodies Corporate or eBay; or
- Any other legal means.

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

This is similar to "Right of Offset" rules that banks use. It legally gives them the right to take funds from one account to satisfy the deficiency in another.

I know that PayPal isn't technically a bank, but they use many of the same rules and procedues that any normal bank does.

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

I haven't read from other users here (well none that I have seen so far) that has experience them taking funds from one account and put into another before?

Also, i'm currently going through the Financial Ombudsman complaint route so i'm assuming they are not going to touch the account until things become resolved / or unresolved. Which also reminds me, does continuing to dispute this with Paypal mean that they are "Reviewing" this case, i.e., its actually delaying the 180 days rule given they keep "opening" the case?

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

There is no right or wrong answer, they might pay out at 180, or they might seize the funds for the pay-off.

I only heard once or twice on forum that monies were taken and used across accounts....I think it is rare.

You can just not pay off the neg amount, in case, the 180 money does not get paid out either...... if they are going to take money off you, let them do it from the 180 money....

I have heard of them in UK not paying out at 180, but that was for different reasons to your scenario.

or pay it off and fingers crossed.

what affects decision also is - it depends on the differences in balances, is the neg money alot more or less that the 180?

have you tried saying the neg acc has nothing to do with you? or are you too linked up?

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Thanks for the reply. Its linked up as it was my legitimate account prior to opening this one. I only opened a new account as I got scammed by a buyer who sent back an empty box (almost empty) and Paypal sided with him.

The amount in the 180 day account is almost 2x the negative account.

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

well you learned a lesson on this one, a properly made stealth should not get linked to any other....you can do those in future......

much as it would choke me, paying off the neg might be best thing, not because you are at fault, as these chargeback scammers are the worst (happened to me too) but as the account is in legit details, just for peace of mind for yourself...

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Appreciate your thought / advice. My fear is that even if i pay if off, they may still not unlimit my account. They are terrible to deal with. I can play the waiting game if I have to....I just hope they won't stop me from withdrawing after the 180 days / or decide to take money from one account to repay the other.

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

I think a lot of depends also how much debt you have at this negative account.
Is this a couple of hundreds or thousands?

I'm talking c$1500 - current limited account has $3000 in it

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

A quick update on this.

One thing that i've noticed is that now when I click on "Withdraw", it brings up an error page saying

"There were a few errors in retrieving your data.

Please retry after a few minutes. We apologise for the inconvenience."

Whereas prior, it would actually allow me to get into the funds page but of course won't let me withdraw. Has anyone else encountered this issue?

Btw, I have been fighting Paypal through our local Financial Ombudsonman and have managed to have to enforce Paypal to release any amount above the negative balance as a starting point.

I will follow up the remainder through local small claims courts - will keep everyone posted.

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Haven't had this error. Did you try a different browser to verify? Best of luck

Re: Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

Was not aware you had started getting limited accounts Downunder

This is something that PayPal AU have with some accounts.

:deadhorse:

Re:RESOLVED Negative Balance from another account - Account limited now
 

I want to give everyone an update on this. Firstly, thanks for everyone who has given their thoughts on my debacle, it has certainly given me strength to fight Paypal. Secondly, for future Australian (even international) Paypal users that run into issues with Paypal, there is hope.

Long story short is I managed to get all of my funds released to me recently. What I have learnt is FoS (financial Ombudsman) and the local courts are actually quite powerful, especially if you know how to leverage them

I think its useful to document below the experience that I have had and the various thought processes along the way. If anyone has questions, feel free to reach out to me directly. If there is merit in actually having some sort of sticky, I'm happy to go into more detail and provide sample forms for all to reference in the future.

Background to my issue:

- In 2014, a scammer took me for $1,500 when he claimed not as described and then returned a package with anything but the original item. I spoke to Paypal who didn't care as it was confirmed delivered and refunded the buyer. However, as I had already withdrawn the funds into my bank, my paypal account then went into negative balance. I spent some time trying to plead my case with Paypal, all fell on deaf ears so I opened a new account, moved on and continued to sell.
- In 2017, through sheer luck, Paypal connected the new account with the old account and added the limitation. The outstanding balance in the new account happened to be around $3,000. They said the only way I can access my fund is if I paid off the negative balance.
- From then to recent, I tried going back and forth with the Paypal executive escalation team with no luck. They kept insisting that the negative balance needed to be paid off, despite my claims that I was scammed in 2014. I threatened legal action only to be countered saying they have their own legal team and happy to defend (in my opinion, just hot air now that I've moved through the whole process).

So with the background layered, this is what I did in response.

1) I filed a complaint with FoS, a few pages to fill out and you speak to their team and they make a decision which Paypal has to obliged with. However, for my case, FoS could only force Paypal to release half the funds (i.e. the excess amount which was $3,000 less $1,500) stating that Paypal had no rights over the excess as the negative balance was only $1,500. However, it was a win in my mind - having Paypal release half the funds is half the battle already.

2) I followed up with Paypal's executive escalation team saying they should consider releasing the other half otherwise I will go to small claims court. They refused and effectively said "see you in court".

3) I filed a claim with my local small claims court and served them with an affidavit seeking full amount plus legal filing fees plus interest.

4) One week later, I receive an email from Paypal saying funds are available for withdraw and a credit for the legal filing fees and interest.

I suggest everyone who is currently having issues with Paypal consider the above steps (i'm sure U.S. and U.K have similar authorities that could help). My opinion is if you take them to court, if its for a nominal amount, they won't contest it as it will cost them more to send legal representative and will likely lose the case also given most courts will see consumers more favourably.

I urge you all to share this story as well with others who are having Paypal issues as spreading the word strengthens us all. In one of my emails to Paypal, I told them that if they don't release the funds by a given date (and without me having to resort to court), I would spread the word of my journey on social media and other anti-Paypal websites.... here's to starting!