Hmm, it's suspicious that they're targeting accounts that obviously wouldn't be active enough to notice the money coming out. They can eventually just bleed them dry.
Hmm, it's suspicious that they're targeting accounts that obviously wouldn't be active enough to notice the money coming out. They can eventually just bleed them dry.
It seems like another way of saying "if you forget about money in a PayPal account, it's eventually forfeit". Much as I dislike PayPal (and they have a special place in my heart ever since they...
It seems like another way of saying "if you forget about money in a PayPal account, it's eventually forfeit". Much as I dislike PayPal (and they have a special place in my heart ever since they stole £500 from me), I don't actually see this move as being that bad - the money is effectively dead, so someone may as well make use of it.
Presumably calling it a fee, rather than just outright saying they're claiming dormant balances, is a way of giving themselves an iron-clad legal basis to claim the money.
Sure, the person that owns it, not the entity holding it. If they're worried about money sitting in their system then charge the fee, close the account, and mail a check to the user. I can't find...
I don't actually see this move as being that bad - the money is effectively dead, so someone may as well make use of it.
Sure, the person that owns it, not the entity holding it. If they're worried about money sitting in their system then charge the fee, close the account, and mail a check to the user. I can't find if this applies to US paypal accounts, but in the USA every state has some sort of unclaimed property1 system in place for these funds if they check isn't cashed or they don't have an address.
1
I highly suggest anyone in the US check for unclaimed property regardless of age. My wife found her old college sent money to the state instead of her, I had an apartment do the same with a deposit, and my father had a few grand lying around from old insurance companies and a dead relative.
This. I can’t believe someone came up with an argument to defend PayPal here. Fuck banks!* *And payment processors because I’m sure a pedant will bring it up.
This. I can’t believe someone came up with an argument to defend PayPal here. Fuck banks!*
*And payment processors because I’m sure a pedant will bring it up.
IMO this is fine, mainly because Paypal is a payment processor, not a bank. See, payment processors aren't banks - rather, they're the go between. When you send money to someone on paypal, the way...
IMO this is fine, mainly because Paypal is a payment processor, not a bank. See, payment processors aren't banks - rather, they're the go between. When you send money to someone on paypal, the way that "instant" transfer works is actually that you send money to Paypal's merchant bank (eventually, it takes like 3 days), and paypal increases the number in the database for the merchant. If they want to withdraw, then Paypal takes money out of their merchant bank account.
Basically, money is this fungible stream in and out of Paypal's merchant accounts. When you send money, it's not your dollars that are going to the merchants, it's your dollars that eventually go to paypal, and some of paypal's generic money that immediately goes to the merchant. There's much complicated algorithms to ensure that this works well behind the scenes.
With that background out of the way, where it can hurt is that there are actually a lot of regulation on user and merchant money. For one, there are liquidity regulations, that require that you have somewhat enough cash in your merchant accounts for the outgoing and income balances, and there are regulations that you don't touch user money.
Which means that unlike with a bank, Paypal doesn't earn interest on floating money, but it must have more floating money to handle the number in your account, so with all the years and all the accumulated vestigial paypal accounts, they want to clean those up.
The User Agreement update that will go in effect on 16 December 2020 includes an annual inactivity fee. Only PayPal accounts with no activity in the previous 12 months will be charged an inactivity service fee. The fee will be £9, or the remaining balance on the account if less than £9
Hmm, it's suspicious that they're targeting accounts that obviously wouldn't be active enough to notice the money coming out. They can eventually just bleed them dry.
It seems like another way of saying "if you forget about money in a PayPal account, it's eventually forfeit". Much as I dislike PayPal (and they have a special place in my heart ever since they stole £500 from me), I don't actually see this move as being that bad - the money is effectively dead, so someone may as well make use of it.
Presumably calling it a fee, rather than just outright saying they're claiming dormant balances, is a way of giving themselves an iron-clad legal basis to claim the money.
Sure, the person that owns it, not the entity holding it. If they're worried about money sitting in their system then charge the fee, close the account, and mail a check to the user. I can't find if this applies to US paypal accounts, but in the USA every state has some sort of unclaimed property1 system in place for these funds if they check isn't cashed or they don't have an address.
1
I highly suggest anyone in the US check for unclaimed property regardless of age. My wife found her old college sent money to the state instead of her, I had an apartment do the same with a deposit, and my father had a few grand lying around from old insurance companies and a dead relative.
This. I can’t believe someone came up with an argument to defend PayPal here. Fuck banks!*
*And payment processors because I’m sure a pedant will bring it up.
IMO this is fine, mainly because Paypal is a payment processor, not a bank. See, payment processors aren't banks - rather, they're the go between. When you send money to someone on paypal, the way that "instant" transfer works is actually that you send money to Paypal's merchant bank (eventually, it takes like 3 days), and paypal increases the number in the database for the merchant. If they want to withdraw, then Paypal takes money out of their merchant bank account.
Basically, money is this fungible stream in and out of Paypal's merchant accounts. When you send money, it's not your dollars that are going to the merchants, it's your dollars that eventually go to paypal, and some of paypal's generic money that immediately goes to the merchant. There's much complicated algorithms to ensure that this works well behind the scenes.
With that background out of the way, where it can hurt is that there are actually a lot of regulation on user and merchant money. For one, there are liquidity regulations, that require that you have somewhat enough cash in your merchant accounts for the outgoing and income balances, and there are regulations that you don't touch user money.
Which means that unlike with a bank, Paypal doesn't earn interest on floating money, but it must have more floating money to handle the number in your account, so with all the years and all the accumulated vestigial paypal accounts, they want to clean those up.
https://www.paypal.com/uk/smarthelp/article/what-is-the-inactivity-fee-faq4427