How do I get money from a dead PayPal account?
October 29, 2020 7:18 AM Subscribe
I sold an item on ebay, and the payment was sent. Then I received an email that the funds were being held. Then it got weird.
Apparently, I have two PayPal accounts. One that I set up at least two decades ago when I first joined Ebay, and another that is linked to my account now, and that I use for buying and making payments. I had no idea the old one still existed - I thought I'd cancelled it when I changed banks after my divorce, and set up the new account. When I listed my item for sale, the system defaulted to the original account, and now I can't receive the money - or access the account.
I called PayPal, and they traced the payment to the old account (and clued me in that it still existed). But I can't remember the password, and they can't do anything if I can't prove it's mine. The phone number associated with the account is a landline I had around 15 years ago, so I can't change my password (since I can't get a text or a phone call). They won't accept my social security number or the fact that my ebay account from which I sold the item is linked to a different paypal account. The old PayPal account is linked to a bank account that no longer exists, but they told me they can verify me if I can give them the last 4 digits of that linked bank account. The problem is, for security reasons they can't even tell me which bank chain (I moved cities a lot, and have been through at least 3 in the last 20 years), and I don't have any saved paperwork from accounts that old.
Ebay suggested I contact the buyer and ask to dispute - refund their money and create a new listing to be repaid. I contacted them and am waiting to hear back. But the item already shipped, and there's no reason for them to do this - frankly, if a seller sent that request to me, I would assume it was a scam. And there's nothing to stop them accepting the refund and then not re-paying.
TL;DR Is there anything else I haven't thought of to resolve this with PayPal? Or, is there a way to find out all my old bank account numbers, when I don't even remember the banks?
Apparently, I have two PayPal accounts. One that I set up at least two decades ago when I first joined Ebay, and another that is linked to my account now, and that I use for buying and making payments. I had no idea the old one still existed - I thought I'd cancelled it when I changed banks after my divorce, and set up the new account. When I listed my item for sale, the system defaulted to the original account, and now I can't receive the money - or access the account.
I called PayPal, and they traced the payment to the old account (and clued me in that it still existed). But I can't remember the password, and they can't do anything if I can't prove it's mine. The phone number associated with the account is a landline I had around 15 years ago, so I can't change my password (since I can't get a text or a phone call). They won't accept my social security number or the fact that my ebay account from which I sold the item is linked to a different paypal account. The old PayPal account is linked to a bank account that no longer exists, but they told me they can verify me if I can give them the last 4 digits of that linked bank account. The problem is, for security reasons they can't even tell me which bank chain (I moved cities a lot, and have been through at least 3 in the last 20 years), and I don't have any saved paperwork from accounts that old.
Ebay suggested I contact the buyer and ask to dispute - refund their money and create a new listing to be repaid. I contacted them and am waiting to hear back. But the item already shipped, and there's no reason for them to do this - frankly, if a seller sent that request to me, I would assume it was a scam. And there's nothing to stop them accepting the refund and then not re-paying.
TL;DR Is there anything else I haven't thought of to resolve this with PayPal? Or, is there a way to find out all my old bank account numbers, when I don't even remember the banks?
Best answer: Could you pull a free credit report and see if there is any info on there old enough to be useful in trying to work this out with PayPal?
Also, it might be worth trying to sort this with a couple different folks at PayPal. It might be that someone else will be able to be more helpful than the first person you communicated with.
posted by ElizaMain at 7:45 AM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
Also, it might be worth trying to sort this with a couple different folks at PayPal. It might be that someone else will be able to be more helpful than the first person you communicated with.
posted by ElizaMain at 7:45 AM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Would it be possible to pull your credit report and see if these old accounts are still mentioned? I'm not sure about US credit reports, but I see accounts going back 20 years on my Canadian one. Mine even has the last 4 digits of account numbers but even if yours doesn't it could tell you the bank chain at least.
posted by cgg at 7:46 AM on October 29, 2020
posted by cgg at 7:46 AM on October 29, 2020
Best answer: My other half had a similar problem recently - the eBay Paypal payment went to an old email address that was no longer associated with Paypal. They got around it by apologising profusely to the eBay buyer and cancelling the sale through eBay, and telling the buyer they would immediately relist the item and the buyer could Buy It Now for the same price the auction ended on. My other half had to do this for 4 or 5 items, and most or all of the buyers were fine with it and re-purchased the items.
On preview....
However, now I see the line "But the item already shipped" and uh, my advice is "don't send stuff until you have checked you've received the money".
"> And there's nothing to stop them accepting the refund and then not re-paying."
I would ask the buyer to re-pay you at the correct address. If they don't well, you didn't have the money in the first place, and you still don't have it now. Yeah, it kinda sounds scammy BUT I think the secret is to explain it clearly in a friendly tone. Most scams are badly written and use excuses like "I'm out of the country so I need you to send the money to my brother" or something. If you say you messed up and put the wrong email address into the auction, it sounds more genuine. You can also admit that if they don't want to re-pay, then there's nothing you can do, so it's more like you're relying on their good faith instead of trying to force them into something fraudulent.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:57 AM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
On preview....
However, now I see the line "But the item already shipped" and uh, my advice is "don't send stuff until you have checked you've received the money".
"> And there's nothing to stop them accepting the refund and then not re-paying."
I would ask the buyer to re-pay you at the correct address. If they don't well, you didn't have the money in the first place, and you still don't have it now. Yeah, it kinda sounds scammy BUT I think the secret is to explain it clearly in a friendly tone. Most scams are badly written and use excuses like "I'm out of the country so I need you to send the money to my brother" or something. If you say you messed up and put the wrong email address into the auction, it sounds more genuine. You can also admit that if they don't want to re-pay, then there's nothing you can do, so it's more like you're relying on their good faith instead of trying to force them into something fraudulent.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:57 AM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
If you've only lived in three cities you know what bank chains you used. Go to a branch of each bank chain and explain to a branch manager that for accounting purposes you need to know your old account numbers. Bring multiple forms of picture ID. Passport as well as drivers' license if you have it. I don't know how long they keep records, but they may be able to tell you. Then you can give PayPal the last four digits that they asked for.
posted by liminal_shadows at 10:01 AM on October 29, 2020
posted by liminal_shadows at 10:01 AM on October 29, 2020
Response by poster: Thanks everyone. In the end I figured out my password (yay to rotating between only a few variations of the same one for everything back then?), so I didn't need to go another way, but I think the suggestion of chasing down my credit report would have been a good option (especially since the buyer never wrote back). And it turned out that it was linked to a bank that not only doesn't have a branch where I live, it was one I had no memory of -- I didn't even remember the chain existed.
posted by Mchelly at 3:38 PM on November 2, 2020
posted by Mchelly at 3:38 PM on November 2, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
If you can't access the funds there's no harm in issuing the refund, and hope the buyer does the right thing. I imagine once they receive the refund they won't think it's a scam.
posted by askmehow at 7:41 AM on October 29, 2020 [2 favorites]