deleting PayPal account

August 2, 2022 7:32 AM

I need to delete my PayPal account and start fresh. There are some complications due to recurring subscriptions tied to this account. Can someone help walk me through how to do this step by step so I don't mess up my subscriptions?

My account was compromised - someone got in and charged $1200 worth of... merchandise? ... from a business in Mexico. I've contested the payment and it looks like PayPal will be refunding me so that's not the issue. Normally I'd just change the password and that would be that but I'm spooked enough by this that I want to wipe things clean and start fresh.

Trouble is, I have subscriptions to several publications I need for work tied to this account (I get reimbursed by my workplace), and my subscriptions to Netflix and other streaming services, as well as my mail-order pharmacy, are also tied to this PayPal account. I don't want service interruptions. I'm a bit overwhelmed. How do I go about canceling these auto-pays from PayPal, deleting, and starting fresh by changing the billing contact on these subscriptions? There's a lot and I don't know how to go about this in an organized fashion without messing something up. Explain to me like I am 5, please?

posted by nayantara to Work & Money (5 answers total)

Best answer: Are the auto-pays something you set up on PayPal or did you set them up on the sites you subscribe to? I'm assuming it's (at least mostly) the latter, so you're most likely going to have to go to each of the sites and change your payment information according to their procedures.

So, like, you'll go to Netflix, go to "My Account," go to "Manage Payment Information" and add your new payment info. Then you'll do something similar for all those other services. it's going to be a pain in the ass but it's unlikely to be complicated.
posted by mskyle at 7:36 AM on August 2, 2022

Best answer: Adding to mskyle, I think the first step is to open the new account. Only close the old account after changing all the payment informations on the subscription accounts.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:23 AM on August 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Nthing the "go to each site and set things up separately there". It'll be time-consuming, but easy.

And if you're worrying maybe you've forgotten one - don't worry, they'll tell you. Usually all that happens is you get an email saying "oh no we tried to process your payment and it didn't work, log on to your account and update things" and you'll just go log on and update the paypal info. They won't cancel your account or your subscription without emailing you at least a couple times first to give you a chance to fix things.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:19 AM on August 2, 2022

Best answer: As an FYI, PayPal may balk at you creating a new account if you use the same banking/payment info on that account. Their official help page on closing a paypal account has some other useful pointers.

I'd suggest adding 2-factor-auth to both your existing paypal account and your new one to help avoid future compromise. (TBH, I think just adding 2-factor-auth to your existing account would be enough to secure it against the vast majority of future hijacking attempts, and you'd avoid the pain of having to set everything back up.)
posted by Aleyn at 11:03 AM on August 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Note from the same help section, you may only have one personal account and one business account. I would be very leery of setting up a second account of the same type as it’s liable to get both accounts banned.

Unlike changing a credit card or bank account number, there really is no benefit to starting a new PayPal account. You can change the email and password, and as Aleyn said, adding two-factor would also be a big boost in security. But there is nothing about your existing account that makes it any more or less likely to be compromised in the future.
posted by tubedogg at 11:17 AM on August 2, 2022 [3 favorites]