Disappointed With PayPal

*UPDATE* It seems that PayPal restored the access to my account, all I have to do is to remove the Donation button. I have make changes to the button and the code so that it is now a “Buy Now” type instead of “Donation” type. But of course, I will never trust PayPal again.

The email as follows:

Your PayPal Account Access Has Been Restored

Dear Lester,

We have restored your account. But you need to replace other PayPal button with Donate Button on your website. Please understand that Donate button is used predominantly to solicit donations for charitable purpose.

To remove a donate button from your website, you will need to delete the button HTML code that you pasted on to your site.

Delete the PayPal text between the following tags:

< form ACTION="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" METHOD="POST" >

and

< form >

Once code has been deleted, the button will no longer appear. We sincerelyapologize for the inconvenience caused you.

Thanks,
PayPal

My PayPal account has been with me since 2001 and all the while it is a personal account which is verified. My account was flagged with some suspicious terrorist activity back in June 2010. I cleared the flag by photocopying my NRIC and my SingTel bill to them.

On 16th September 2010, I received the email below stating my account is limited because of some non-registered charities and non-profit organizations reasons. But the thing is my account is an individual/personal account, what the fuck does it has to do with charities or non-profit organizations.
Notification of Limited Account Access RXI107

Dear Lester,

We appreciate your interest in PayPal. However, due to legal and regulatory constraints, PayPal Private Limited is unable to process payments for non-registered charities and non-profit organizations (NPOs),
political party/organizations, religious institutions, personal/organizational fundraisers, etc. in countries under its jurisdiction. You may refer to the PayPal Private Limited User Agreement
link (https://www.paypal.com/sg/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/ua-outside) to review the list of countries under its jurisdiction.

This is not a decision we make lightly, and we deeply regret any inconvenience or frustration this matter may cause you. Please understand that this decision is final.

If you have any questions, you may contact us at apacdd@paypal.com.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey
PayPal Compliance Department
PayPal, an eBay Company

Send them an email to ask how to remove the limitation:

Case ID “PP-001-072-431-XXX”

Hi,

My account has been marked as Limited by PayPal (My case ID is “PP-001-072-431-XXX”). And this is the SECOND time PayPal is doing this to me.

The first time, my account was marked as suspicious activity, submitted my NRIC and teleco bill and it was cleared.

This time round I got this “PayPal requires accounts within the charity/non-profit category to provide us with some additional information regarding their organisation”.

How do I go about removing the limitation?

I have been using PayPal since 2001 to collection donations for my WordPress Plugins (https://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/) which I offer for free. With this donations, I used it to buy stuff online, renew my domain, etc. I am not a registered charity/non-profit organisation. Just an individual. I tried upgrading my account to a Business account in the hopes my limitation flag would be clear but unfortunately to no avail.

I am looking forward to your reply.

Thanks a lot.

With Regards,
Lester Chan (gamerz)
https://lesterchan.net

They replied promptly the next day denying my appeal:

PayPal appeal denied

Dear Lester,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns.

Based on the email you received, we have determined that it is in our best interests to part ways. This is not a decision we make lightly, and we deeply regret any inconvenience or frustration this may cause you. As previously advised, no further appeals will be allowed on your account, thus the account will remain in its current status. If you would like to conduct personal activities, please open a new account.

We definitely know that you do the right thing for your organization and believe your business is not associated with any financial crime. However, due to legal and regulatory constraints, PayPal Private Limited is unable to process payments for non-registered charities and non-profit organizations (NPOs), personal/organizational fundraisers etc in countries under its jurisdiction. This policy and approach applies to all customers in all countries which contract online with PayPal Private Limited. It is not specific to you, your organization, or your country.

Your balance can be handled in one of two ways:

1. Your remaining account balance can be used to provide refunds to your donors. PayPal offers a way to give donors a full or partial refund for up to 60 days after their payment date. Fees will be returned for this process.

If you cannot provide refunds to your donors via “Issue Refund” option, please log in to your account and contact us with the following information:
1. The transaction date.
2. Donors’ email address.
3. The PayPal Transaction ID of the payments you would like refunded.

OR

2. Your remaining account balance will be held in your PayPal account for 180 days from the date your account was limited, in accordance with our User Agreement. After 180 days, any remaining funds will be available for withdrawal.

Please understand that our decision is final, and may not be appealed. You may try to use another payment solution to continue your business.

Again, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused you.

Sincerely,
Nolan
PayPal Compliance Department
PayPal, an eBay Company