Introduction
I’m sure everyone has once bought one of those Paypal MyCash cards. Even today, you still can. However, like death and taxes, you WILL eventually get warned from Paypal if you do heavy volume on the MyCash cards. You may get lucky and get a warning or 2 warnings, but a 3rd warning is a BAN! Or you may get unlucky and go straight to a BAN! Either way, when I hear people say they are still using MyCash, I advise them to stop. I mean, do you reeally think a normal person would spend $4,000 worth of spend EVERY month? I think a Paypal account is just too valuable to risk that, but that’s your call.
The 1% cashback lives on
Now while I have stopped loading with MyCash, I still use my Paypal Business Debit Card to get the 1% back on signature purchases. The key is to load the funds to Paypal with your bank account. I know, I know, that sounds risky, but I’ve been doing this for nearly a year and it’s been fine. You just have to remember that it’s the loading of MyCash [and MS spend] that Paypal didn’t like; it wasn’t the 1% cashback that was the issue. Thus, if you load with a bank account, then go to town!
How is this a play and limitations?
I’m not going to spell it out for you since I consider it somewhat fragile. If Paypal changes the vendor code, then it’s game over. Of course the theoretical max you can do per month would be ~$90,000 (and $900 cb) since there is a spend limit of $3,000 per day on the PPBDC card. I come nowhere close to that. Part of the reason is that it takes about a week to transfer money from your bank account to Paypal, and I usually only initiate the transfer when one is complete. I also don’t want to float too much money in PayPal. It’s not a HUGE play, but it does change my spending habit.
I’ve run 9k in PPMC since July, and I’ve used it almost exclusively to pay Citi. I don’t know if I am skating by because I haven’t maxed out, or because paying Citi looks like a purchase to their computers, but I’m going to keep doing this until I get a warning.
Ryan, you are due for a shutdown; the algorithms just haven’t caught up to you yet. Even the Citi payments aren’t signature purchases, so they aren’t making any money from you. Enjoy it whie it lasts.
You think I get shut down without warning? It’s certainly possible. But I don’t really use my PP account for anything else, so it wouldn’t be a great tragedy if it happens. But I’ve never seen a datapoint for someone who got shut down only for paying Citi, so I’m hoping the algorithms won’t find me for a while.
I got shutdown for paying citi and even putting some signature spend (which is what thhey wanted).
I’m running $3K to $4K per month of MyCash – so far without problems. I liquidate solely via signature purchases for things that are not in any useful category bonus: insurance, doctor, dentist, pet food, memberships, etc. I think (and hope) that this what PayPal wants us to do
You are the only other person I know who is still running MyCash w/o having been warned or shut down.
But every time I get a fake PayPal shutdown e-mail, my heart skips a beat
Why not load with MyCash and then use PPBDC as a credit card for ordinary spend? Isn’t that exactly what PayPal wants us to do? I assume that MC cards exist to draw in the “unbanked” and encourage them to use PayPal as their bank. So yeah, loading exactly $4K/month from MC looks a little suspicious and money-laundery. But if you buy just enough MC cards to cover spend on the card, wouldn’t that keep PayPal happy?
And if you buy the MC cards with a 2x card, you make 3x back on everything. But PayPal neither knows nor cares how you paid for the MyCash cards. They just don’t want you doing something shady.
yeah, except that you have to pay around $4 per $500 or just under 1% thus making buying the MyCash pretty much a wash.
Sharon, that’s what everyone WAS doing and still got the warnings and eventual bans. So take out MC from the equation and load from bank account and use PPBDC to get the 1%.
regarding source of funds coming from bank account, IME I got 1st warning back in April 2015 while using MCs to push to Serve and just a few days ago (6 months to be exact), I got 2nd warning that is exactly the same email I got in April except my source of funding is purely my bank account with NO PPMCs. I called to clarify why I got 2nd warning and compliance department staff said loading to any reloadable prepaid online is considered as withdrawal regardless of where funds are coming from. hearing this, I quit pushing funds from my bank to paypal if I can’t w/d them via Serve. It is clear to me that they are also looking what you’re paying for.
The only way to earn using PPDC is to “buy” something via signature purchase to earn CB and with little effort turn them back to cash when using it for MS activities. It’ll be useless to do PIN transactions because it doesn’t earn CB.
That happened to me too. I got a 2nd warning although I stopped. I think it’s because my buddy sent me money from his Mycash loaded funds OR there was a delay on when Paypal sent out a 2nd warning. Either way, I called them up and got unbanned. I’ve been doing this for almost 9 months fwiw.
you’re luckier than me, I just quit using PP after getting the 2nd warning since I need the account for ebay and wag purchases. I asked them directly why I got a warning when my source of funds is my bank account and they mentioned load to amex which they are also monitoring. That made it clear to me because I don’t plan to use PPDC since I can earn straight rewards using my CC in-store and websites.
Agreed. vVinh must be using the PPDC for something he cannot use a CC for that still earns the 1%. MO at a cash checking place? Tax payments?
subscribed
So where do you make your signature-based debit transactions? I’ve tried Walmart load to Serve and it doesn’t count towards the 1% cb 🙁
That’s debit….
Buy “things”….this is straight forward…but only fools do kinda thing from all the reports and warning from the author…
It’s NOT at Walmart. Use my gfit card matrix and try everything out.
Kind of forget about the 1% cashback. Might be time to pull my PPBDC out of the sock drawer.