I’ve recently been locked out of sending money from PayPal because I’m abroad. There’s no error or anything. It simply stated that I had no funds and I had to add money to send money. The thing is, I had more than enough to send the money I was trying to send.
I called PayPal customer support to find out what was going on. A security flag went up on their end. I’ve been traveling to various countries for the last three years using PayPal and I’ve never gotten this specific error message before. Customer support on the phone couldn’t explain exactly why this has never been triggered before but that it was suppose to (that concerns me).
PayPal has a feature that you can plan out your travel plans. If you go to My Profile then My Settings, you’ll see a link for travel plans. In there you’re suppose to include your travel plans for the next year. If you set this up, you’ll avoid this issue.
Here’s the problem
I don’t know what the travel plan screen looks like. If you’re already abroad and did not set your travel plans, you will not be able to set your travel plans thus locking you out from sending money. On the road for the next few months and didn’t set your travel plans on PayPal? Too bad according to the customer support call I had. I haven’t seen the screen yet but what were to happen if I visited a new country that wasn’t on the list and I’m already abroad?
Luckily I’m going back home in a few days, otherwise I’d have to call every time I wanted to send money to give me the exception. I sent a few more payments today but I’m told that the flag could come up again at any time.
They’re now providing me a free PayPal Security Key for the trouble which was pretty nice of them considering it cost $30. It’s a tiny device with a randomly generate security key that I can travel around with. I think this could solve many of the problems I’m having and it’s a clever way of protecting my account. Of course, this only works if you’re at home to receive the device and you don’t lose it.
Another tip they gave me is to make sure all your credit cards and bank information verified with PayPal. It’ll lower your chances of being locked out if all your information is verified.
What problems have you had while abroad using PayPal?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Whenever I’ve had problems, I’ve tweeted @askpaypal and they’ve resolved it the same day.
Theodora recently posted..Photo Essay: Market Day in a Small Egyptian Town
I haven’t experienced any problem with Paypal in my travels, but this post is a good reminder so that I’ll know what to do if it ever happens to me.
Sharon recently posted..water vapor cigarettes
I never thought that this may happen. I never experienced like this before when i am going to travel. Hope it will not happen to me.
Marnie Byod recently posted..brisbane property site
I hope I will never have to experience that. That means I really have to look into all the details as I make my travel plans.
Angelique recently posted..where to buy mens scrubs
I haven’t had any Paypal issues but I’m glad you mentioned this because I’ll just make sure to transfer enough into my bank account so I’m not stuck. Never heard about the security key, that is a cool option.
Spend out a couple of bucks a month for a VPS in the US. It could be the same one you use to host your sites. Use Firefox+Putty to SSH tunnel your way to an easy VPN (google is your friend) or install OpenVPN. Access Paypal over the VPN every time. You’ll avoid problems and the bonus is that you can stream Hulu and Netflix any time.
I had a VPS but sometimes I’d forget to turn it on and PayPal would see that I’m logging in from another location then lock me out.
Michael Tieso recently posted..Giveaway: A Months Supply of Stock Photos for Your Blog
I like selling with Ebay, deals I pick up around the place then sell on. I find the really annoying parts of both services are the fees for a start (EBay fees are ridiculous!) Now Paypal has introduced a system them limits whether money is available for a set time period for items sold on Ebay, which is up to 21 days.. get really annoying, no more quick money by selling stuff on EBay anymore. Still it’s pretty cool money is that easy to send/receive now.
Peter – long term travel recently posted..Teaching Calculus to Primates