Good results with Amex GCs and PPal

ploughman · #1 05-13-2013

In the spirit of giving back I wanted to share my most recent data points. Once again the Amex gift card (this time from our favorite mall chain) looks like a winner with keeping PP going. I last attached an Amex GC bought at a grocery store back in 2008 and was very happy with the long expiration date and (knock on wood) lack of being bothered in the interim (Back then the VGCs were only good for 2 years, maybe).

Anyway, as before it took an 800 number call and talking to a human to get them to enter the full name and address info. I called around 10:30 p.m. and might have gotten India, but the agent did fine, read everything back and then submitted it. I tried adding the card on PP a half hour later and it sailed through (if I'm not mistaken PP has the tougher AVS than EB). Hopefully luck will be the same with this one as far as not getting bothered or suddenly de-verified as used to happen.

(The account is also getting the tax ID nags, though maybe it's on track to receive about $14K gross (including postage) this year, so I might need advice on all that soon. It's an old stealth, and for an old reason.

With EB I noticed my regged address was different from PP (even a different zip). I haven't linked the EB and the PP and generally didn't want to rock the boat, so went the vanilla route with EB (matching only the zip, I guess) and that also worked (so far). Though it sounds like a weaker AVS.

Back in 2008 I was able to do both EB and PP on the same Amex. I think what happened in the interim was that I bought something (for maybe $8) and the doofus seller used the address on eBay's initial e-mail (i.e. the registered address) rather than the one given via PayPal (and this old guy had 1,000+ FBs). It got returned (as the address used the post-office-street-address trick) and maybe he was paranoid he was heading for his first negative or something and must've called eBay about it, hoping to feed his case if I left a neg and blamed him (which I wouldn't have ever done even though he did make a mistake). Next thing I know I get an e-mail from eBay saying I have to verify my address, and I did but changed the registered address to the business's P.O. box. When maybe it'd be better to just not buy anything anymore from my seller account, but, again, it's a carefully preserved stealth.

I've been pleased using Amex for this purpose.

rsot · #2 05-23-2013

That is a good story - nice contribution.

I have not had success with using Amex GC for PP.ca - I suspect because there is no way of changing the address or AVS issues with it. Wont let me allow it. Never tried for .com though.

GreenBean · #3 05-23-2013

Others have liked AMEX as well.

Nice contribution

ploughman · #4 05-09-2019

I'm baaackk!

In checking the cards linked to my PP account, it looks like the Amex gift card bought back in 2013 is still the important one, and showing as "Credit." I also have a Vanilla Visa from the same year linked, but that is showing as "Prepaid." I assume anything that shows as prepaid isn't very helpful as far as meeting the requirements.

But: the Amex expires in 2021

So the question is: Should I get another Amex GC and does it still work? My situation is that it's an old PP account started in 2007, stealth, and upgraded to business and EIN-linked (no SSN), so very fragile in that sense. The linked eBay account has had long-term viability but gets 1-2 nuisance VERO hits in an average year. I was concerned about that and privacy back in 2007 and now have just avoided rocking the boat and have an odd situation. But it has been stable (knock on wood) and I'd love to tack on another 8-9 years by adding the right card, if that's still possible.

Any advice appreciated.