I guess Paypal pretty much axed any accounts that had a connection to Rebatekey or H@rdb0dy on Friday. If this was your first ever shutdown, I feel bad for you. You probably went through the 5 stages of grief, but I’m sure by now, you’re over it and probably pissed. Anyway, if they are withholding a good amount of your money and you didn’t do any Ebay sales that would make them hold your money for 6 months, I’d give CFPB a shot to get your money out quicker (that used to work YEARS ago; not sure it still works today, but I’d give it a shot anyway since what do you have to lose?) If you do have Ebay sales, it might be tougher to get your money out and you may have to wait the 6 months.
If you had no money in Paypal and it was an aged account, besides sentimentality, that Paypal account is no different than any other Paypal account and should be treated as disposable. I’m on my ‘teenth Paypal account now. After the second or third ban, it doesn’t even affect you anymore. Like when I was banned 2 weeks ago, I just shrugged my shoulders.
What about your Venmo account? Usually that gets axed pretty quickly, so if you still have it by the time you’re reading this, it might be safe. I had created my Venmo email address AFTER it was banned by Paypal and I think before Paypal even bought Venmo, so that might be why my Venmo is still active.
So what do you need to get back in with Paypal?
- A new email address of course
- A new phone number that you readily have access to. They like to send texts to this phone number, so make sure you have it handy. May I suggest this $50 HSN Tracfone with 1 year of service.
- As for an address, you can just find a random Google Maps address IN YOUR ZIP CODE (the reason you want in your zip code is because when you enter your cc, I believe they check the matching zip code.)
- You can use the same credit/debit card that was just axed. I think you can use the same bank account, but I don’t like entering my bank info into Paypal anymore.
- They haven’t been asking for SSN lately (but that may be because I don’t have payments sent to it.) Even if they do, I believe you can use the same axed SSN
- If you did shenanigans on your PP account, you can do the same shenanigans again.
Going forward, I don’t like to send ANYTHING to my Paypal account (no settlement checks, no rebates, etc.) Your Paypal account should only be used to buy stuff or shenanigans. If you do need to receive payments, I suggest you make a 2nd one with P2’s info and don’t do any shenanigans on it.