Right, so I have loads of money in my PayPal... [Archive]

Chen

Fri 4th Jan '02, 4:52pm

...and I have no way to withdraw it. :mad:
Why couldn't they say somewhere clearly that international accounts (at least the vast majority of them) are not accepted?!
I have a nice amount of money there ($497.99 to be exact), and the sum only gets bigger and bigger every day... and currently I have no way of using it other than buying in their stupid shops!

Any ideas? :(

amykhar

Fri 4th Jan '02, 4:54pm

Paypal it to an American that you trust, and have them get it for you and mail you a check. You would have to trust them a hell of a lot though.

Amy

Chen

Fri 4th Jan '02, 5:03pm

Good idea, I think I have someone in mind. :)
(poor guy ;))

Chris Schreiber

Fri 4th Jan '02, 5:05pm

Actually if you are thinking of giving it to me, I accept! :)

Chen

Fri 4th Jan '02, 5:08pm

Geez what a mind reader! :D

Valkyre

Fri 4th Jan '02, 5:14pm

If you send me a nickel I will forever be in your debt :D

Sinecure

Fri 4th Jan '02, 5:23pm

Thats what happened to my friend as well. He sent me all his money through paypal and then I sent him a cheque. I lost about 30 bucks on it though, due to the exchange to canadian funds :(

Oh well, he deserved it, he did a lot of good work for me ;)

Kaizen

Fri 4th Jan '02, 5:33pm

I have a working PayPal account.... and dont mind sending a cheque to Israel ?

Can I help ?

MattR

Fri 4th Jan '02, 5:36pm

I'd be more than happy to transfer the money... for a small fee of course. ;)

Chen

Fri 4th Jan '02, 5:39pm

Originally posted by MattR
I'd be more than happy to transfer the money... for a small fee of course. ;)
I already lose 2% or something like that, you also what a chunk?! :D
That's ok, I got it all sorted. Thanks. :)

- Note to self: Next time you need help just mention money in the thread title and everyone will come to see what's it's all about. ;) j/k

Kaizen

Fri 4th Jan '02, 6:12pm

Are you going to ignore my post *sob* ?

eva2000

Fri 4th Jan '02, 7:20pm

glad to see it's sorted out.. it's annoying with paypal not being able to allow alot of international accounts to withdraw... i was annoyed until they allowed Australian accounts :)

samtha25

Fri 4th Jan '02, 7:42pm

Originally posted by FireFly
[B]...and I have no way to withdraw it. :mad:

Oh no .... :(

Longer term possibilities:

Have someone you trust set up a checking account in US bank, then send you the ATM card. You can withdraw money from a US account nearly anywhere in the world via an ATM machine. After it's set up, the account address could probably be changed to your home. Also, with a US account, you could request a PayPal ATM/Debit card.

You might be able to set up a US account online with one of the big US-based international banks that have international branches in Israel. Maybe Citibank?

Setup an account with an online bank that has general ATM access to funds. Don't keep anything beyond minimum balance in such an account, though, as you never know how long these companies will be around.

Martin

Fri 4th Jan '02, 8:15pm

well, if you sent it to me, I would keep it for you and you wouldn't have to worry about all those pesky taxes!

Fred

Fri 4th Jan '02, 9:42pm

FireFly, if you don't mind me asking - why do you have a large amount in there, and why does it grow daily? Is people giving you money to keep your site up (like a charity fund)?

Also, I have a International account for me (Im Canadian) and I have the money withdrawn to my bank account in Canada. Works fine for me.

Jake Bunce

Fri 4th Jan '02, 9:43pm

you should be able to attach a bank account to your paypal account and transfer money between them at no charge.

Fred

Fri 4th Jan '02, 9:45pm

Jackman - they take 2% from your transfer. I transferred $125 USD the other day, and they took away $5.

Sinecure

Fri 4th Jan '02, 9:45pm

Jake Bunce

Fri 4th Jan '02, 9:46pm

Originally posted by Sinecure

I send him $5 dollars a day to be my friend :)

wanna be my friend too? :D

Goldfinger

Sat 5th Jan '02, 12:12am

it takes $100 to open a checking account :).

c-prompt

Sat 5th Jan '02, 12:59am

Originally posted by Sinecure

I send him $5 dollars a day to be my friend :)
Damn! I've been paying 10! ;)

Chen

Sat 5th Jan '02, 4:25am

Originally posted by Jakeman
you should be able to attach a bank account to your paypal account and transfer money between them at no charge.
Yeah but not an Israeli account.

Chen

Sat 5th Jan '02, 4:27am

Originally posted by Fred
FireFly, if you don't mind me asking - why do you have a large amount in there, and why does it grow daily? Is people giving you money to keep your site up (like a charity fund)?

Also, I have a International account for me (Im Canadian) and I have the money withdrawn to my bank account in Canada. Works fine for me.
Again, I'm from Israel, and they don't support it yet (hey, who does support us? ;)).
And the money comes from things I sell... that's all. And of course the daily $15 from Sin and pr0mpt helps. ;)

Why do I have a large sum of money there? Because I also need it to buy things... that's the catch.

Chen

Sat 5th Jan '02, 4:27am

Originally posted by Martin
well, if you sent it to me, I would keep it for you and you wouldn't have to worry about all those pesky taxes!
Thanks for the kind offer! ;)

JamesUS

Sat 5th Jan '02, 6:11am

Originally posted by samtha25

Oh no .... :(

Longer term possibilities:

Have someone you trust set up a checking account in US bank, then send you the ATM card. You can withdraw money from a US account nearly anywhere in the world via an ATM machine. After it's set up, the account address could probably be changed to your home. Also, with a US account, you could request a PayPal ATM/Debit card.

You might be able to set up a US account online with one of the big US-based international banks that have international branches in Israel. Maybe Citibank?

Setup an account with an online bank that has general ATM access to funds. Don't keep anything beyond minimum balance in such an account, though, as you never know how long these companies will be around.

That would be ideal for me actually. At the moment I try to keep my paypal balance to a minimum, and I use whatever I have in there to pay hosting fees. I do still have a fair bit of cash coming in to it though, and it would be nice to be able to withdraw it to a US account. That gives a lot more flexibility than any others.

I did take a look at some of the major US banks online but none seemed too happy to set up online international accounts - can you recommend any other than citibank?

Citibank need a £2000 deposit and a £20000 annual income - sadly as a student I can't really manage either of those. Being a student sucks!

Skeptical

Sat 5th Jan '02, 9:42am

I would suggest you cash out of PayPal as much as possible. What if Paypal goes belly up, someone steals your account, or paypal decides to freeze your account? It can and does happen.

Take a look at this site:

www.paypalwarning.com

Nicholas Brown

Sat 5th Jan '02, 9:57am

:eek: @ that site!!!!

JamesUS

Sat 5th Jan '02, 12:11pm

In my experience that site is not all true. I have had a fantastic experience with PayPal and I honestly do not feel that there is much risk.

PayPal have not been given a chance to stick up for themselves on that site, and they deserve a chance. I seem to remember reading a post by Damon @ PayPal on another board with their version of that story, which I feel very inclined to believe.

Joe Gronlund

Sat 5th Jan '02, 12:25pm

Originally posted by FireFly
...and I have no way to withdraw it. :mad:
Why couldn't they say somewhere clearly that international accounts (at least the vast majority of them) are not accepted?!
I have a nice amount of money there ($497.99 to be exact), and the sum only gets bigger and bigger every day... and currently I have no way of using it other than buying in their stupid shops!

Any ideas? :(

Hi Firefly, how did you accumulate so much, web site dev, services etc?? :cool:

Chen

Sat 5th Jan '02, 12:47pm

Originally posted by Asendin
Hi Firefly, how did you accumulate so much, web site dev, services etc?? :cool:
Things like that, as well as selling Warez, games, etc. And don't forget distributing vBulletin for a low price is a gold mine.

yes I am kidding...

Joe Gronlund

Sat 5th Jan '02, 12:48pm

Originally posted by FireFly

Things like that, as well as selling Warez, games, etc. And don't forget distributing vBulletin for a low price is a gold mine.

yes I am kidding...

lol good one :D :cool:

Chen

Sat 5th Jan '02, 12:55pm

Asendin, seriously now - yup that's how I get money. :)

And from that site:
From: USAInfoToday (12/12/01)

I have used paypal for over 2 years, and have contributed thousands of dollars to them. THOUSANDS!!!!
I sent a payment of $200 to someone for a product, which never arrived. I filled a complaint, after 2 months, paypal emailed me back, the confirmed that I was the victim and was owed $200. but, there was nothing they could do about it since there is less than $200 in the persons account.

The best they could do was to refer me to the "SAFETY TIPS PAGE" which would help me not get ripped off in the future. as long as I follow their SAFTEY tips, I should not get ripped off. Funny thing is, I followed all the safety tips for this transaction, and still got screwed by the seller and by paypal.
So now it's PayPal's fault someone ripped the guy off? Give me a break.

Thanks for the warning :), but I don't usually pay attention to sites like that. *shrugs*
PayPal won't disappear tomorrow, at least not without a front page article in every second website.
And if someone steals my account? Well that's a risk I'm willing to take I guess. *shrugs once more*

TheComputerGuy

Sat 5th Jan '02, 1:11pm

I have used paypal all the time, I have had 300 dollars transferred and in my account, and never had a problem with them, Daemon even sent me a free Tshirt!! lol, well I mean I keep anything I get paid in there, but I will not upload money into the account but I will send echeck via them.

PayPal has made my life simpler. anyone that has a small problem goes and tells his brother Joe Smoe and by the time it gets to some lunatic named Larry Jones, he writes web pages like this.

Chen

Sat 5th Jan '02, 1:20pm

I agree with TheComputerGuy, PayPal definitely makes things a lot more easier... especially when you need to receive payments frequently.
I find it hard to believe to such a site (PayPalWarning.com), that's all.

Kaizen

Sat 5th Jan '02, 1:22pm

Originally posted by FireFly
I agree with TheComputerGuy, PayPal definitely makes things a lot more easier...

heheheheh

Even though you cant withdraw anything :D hehehhehehehe

Chen

Sat 5th Jan '02, 1:25pm

Originally posted by Kaizen
heheheheh

Even though you cant withdraw anything :D hehehhehehehe
But I already worked around that... I:
- PayPal the money to someone
- He pays me back to my bank account using a wire transfer

It's a lot easier than telling someone I just sold something to "Yeah send a cheque to this address at Cali".

Goldfinger

Sat 5th Jan '02, 3:22pm

Originally posted by JamesUS

can you recommend any other than citibank?

Wells Fargo

Kaizen

Sat 5th Jan '02, 4:03pm

Originally posted by Goldfinger

Wells Fargo

Lol, that is Paypal.

samtha25

Sat 5th Jan '02, 5:20pm

James, sorry, but I haven't researched the banks.

I have another option, though, for Firefly. Use Citibank's c2it instead of PayPal. c2it will mail an international draft to Israel or transfer to an account (the mail is oddly cheaper). The recipient of the money doesn't need a c2it account, but the sender does. The catch is that the sender pays the fees and there's a hefty fee for international tranfers - $10 for mailing a check and $15 for a direct deposit. Aren't wire tranfers quite expensive, too, though?

Jake Bunce

Sat 5th Jan '02, 5:53pm

jake say:

i liek paypal

Wayne Luke

Sat 5th Jan '02, 7:17pm

Actually if you have a verified account, you can get a Paypal debit card. I use this and simply withdraw money at any ATM or use it at any store I wish just like any other debit card.

If you sell on eBay you can get 1.5% cash back for every purchase as well so its not that bad of a deal and a heck of a lot faster than geting money transferred into our bank account.

chrispadfield

Sat 5th Jan '02, 8:43pm

wayne, pretty sure that the paypal debit card is only for US members so wouldn't sovle FireFly's problem. Wish we could get one, would make it a bit easier although as I can withdraw straight to my account it is not much of a problem.

tubedogg

Sat 5th Jan '02, 10:12pm

Yeah the debit card is US-only. However if you have a US-based friend they could open an account in their name, get the card, and send it to you. You just couldn't use it in stores cause the name doesn't match yours, but you could use it at an ATM.

Chris Schreiber

Sat 5th Jan '02, 10:29pm

Originally posted by tubedogg
You just couldn't use it in stores cause the name doesn't match yours

Well actually you could, I have used other people's credit cards all the time, and have never been questioned about it. :)

tubedogg

Sat 5th Jan '02, 11:19pm

Depends where you go. They are supposed to check but most don't. Best Buy is one store I have noticed that is very good about checking against your ID. So is Circuit City. A lot of the trendier clothing stores (The Limited, Express, etc.) tend to check as well.

Chris Schreiber

Sat 5th Jan '02, 11:25pm

Originally posted by tubedogg
Depends where you go.

That's true.... I remember being asked for my ID once at Best Buy because I hadn't signed the back of my credit card.

Goldfinger

Sun 6th Jan '02, 1:20am

Originally posted by Kaizen

Lol, that is Paypal.

um no... Wells Fargo is a bank.. and paypal has not affliation with them as far as i know..

nuno

Sun 6th Jan '02, 2:15am

paypal *sux*

Jake Bunce

Sun 6th Jan '02, 2:49am

Originally posted by nuno
paypal *sux*

i totally agree. snail mailing checks is much better. :rolleyes:

Skeptical

Sun 6th Jan '02, 5:33am

Originally posted by Jakeman

i totally agree. snail mailing checks is much better. :rolleyes:

*Jake learns to make creative sarcastic comments*

:D

Kaizen

Sun 6th Jan '02, 6:09am

Originally posted by Goldfinger

um no... Wells Fargo is a bank.. and paypal has not affliation with them as far as i know..

Then how come whenever I withdraw money from Paypal it is debited to my account by "Wells Fargo and Co". Are they not affiliated ? I find it hard to believe that Paypal just have a merchant account themselves with a bank for their business ?

Wayne Luke

Sun 6th Jan '02, 2:32pm

IIRC, Paypal and X Bank merged to form the company as it is now. X Bank was one of the first pioneers in online banking as they didn't have any branches. This is why they can now offer credit cards, money market accounts and FDIC insurance (provided you don't join the money market account). In essence it is almost like a true bank account. As competition increases they will probably add more banking features and even eventually get a true routing number so it is a bank account. Actually they must have one now but it isn't made publicly available because they don't issue checks. :)

When you sign up for a paypal account though, you can make it a verified account in the United States by linking it to an offline bank account. This link can be with any bank. All you are doing is authorizing electronic transfers in the case of an overdraft of your paypal account. So when you make purchases or withdrawals on your paypal account, funds will be removed from your attached account if there are insufficient funds already.

Wells Fargo does not necessarily have to be a partner with PayPal since you authorized the automatic deposit and withdrawals of funds by linking the account(s) and verifying the account. Automatic paycheck deposits and billpay withdrawals work on the same premise. This is why you must supply both routing and account numbers for these services.

samtha25

Mon 7th Jan '02, 8:04pm

Originally posted by Kaizen
Then how come whenever I withdraw money from Paypal it is debited to my account by "Wells Fargo and Co". Are they not affiliated ? I find it hard to believe that Paypal just have a merchant account themselves with a bank for their business ?

It's not a merchant account, but not being a bank themselves, PayPal needs services that only a bank can provide. Many credit unions have similar arrangements with commercial banks.