Consumer complaint received 2025-07-09 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Managing, opening, or closing your mobile wallet account — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: OR

Complaint narrative:
I opened a business account from my personal profile in XXXX  on XX/XX/year>. There was nothing in the mobile business registration that gave any warning or information to me that my business could possibly fall into a restricted user agreement activity during the sign-up process. I provided all of my business information including our website, contact info, and IRS EIN number. 

On XX/XX/XXXX the business email received the following message : Hello [ Business Name ], We have recently reviewed your usage of XXXX XXXX  services, as reflected in our records. Due to the nature of your activities, we have chosen to discontinue service to you in accordance with XXXX XXXX User Agreement. As a result, we have placed a permanent limitation on your account. 

We ask that you please remove any and all references to XXXX  from your website and social media accounts. 

We thank you in advance for your cooperation. If you have any further questions, please reply to this email. 

Sincerely, XXXX  -- Concurrently on the same day XX/XX/XXXX I received an email from XXXX  support to my personal email regarding the business account it read : Hi [ Business Name ], Weve noticed some unusual activity linked to your XXXX  account which may be in violation of our user agreement. To help us protect your account, your account has been suspended until we hear back from you. You may have also received a separate email providing more information about the suspension of your account. To resolve this issue, please submit a picture of your photo identification via our Document Upload Form, linked below. For your privacy and security, please do not reply back to this email with your documents.

What is a valid photo identification?

Acceptable forms of ID include a drivers license, state ID card, US passport, US Visa, or green card. The name on your photo ID should match the name registered to your XXXX  account. Expired documents are not accepted.

How do I upload the documentation?

You can find our Document Upload Form here : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
Unfortunately, until your information is reviewed you wont be able to send or receive money and may not be able to withdraw money from your XXXX  account.

Once youve provided your information, well review and respond about the status of your account, usually within 7 business days.

We appreciate your help with this matter.

XXXX  Team -- Then on XX/XX/XXXX, two days later, I received the same email but this time addressed to me personally through my personal email account : Hi [ First Name ] Weve noticed some unusual activity linked to your XXXX  account which may be in violation of our user agreement. To help us protect your account, your account has been suspended until we hear back from you. You may have also received a separate email providing more information about the suspension of your account. To resolve this issue, please submit a picture of your photo identification via our Document Upload Form, linked below. For your privacy and security, please do not reply back to this email with your documents.

-- I thought the duplicate emails were very strange but complied with the request and sent in a photo of the front and back of my driver 's license on XX/XX/XXXX the same day I received the email to my personal account addressed to me by first name. Later that day, I already received a response back : You have a new message from XXXX  regarding request # XXXX. To respond, simply reply to this email. 

Hello [ First Name ], Thank you for sending us your ID.

While we encourage the use of XXXX, we must ensure all users abide by our User Agreement. After reviewing your inquiries and account activity, we have found that your actions and activity have been in violation of this agreement.

As a result, your account has been permanently deactivated and we regret to inform you that we can no longer offer you the XXXX  service. We do not make these decisions lightly, and when we do, it is to help improve the safety of the XXXX  community. Note that creation of a new account will not change this decision.

If you have questions regarding this decision, please note that we do not divulge our decision-making criteria in order to protect the systems that monitor activity on XXXX.

Regards, Accounts Specialist -- When I emailed back the same day regarding this asking why my personal account is being impacted. After reviewing XXXX XXXX user agreement ( which links to PayPal 's user agreement ), I understood why the business profile I created would be suspended and requested to have the business profile closed as I am unable to do so without direct support help.

Our business is a faith-based matchmaking and dating support business that also hosts local events. We have a very low-cost service and high-level of interaction with each of our clients to ensure they are real people and that we provide value to each client. In our faith-community being a matchmaker is a legitimate and respected profession we were entirely unaware that our services would fall into the category of restricted " Online Dating '' when I created the business profile ( and again there were no warnings given during the sign-up process in the XXXX  mobile app ).

In reviewing the PayPal acceptable use agreement which XXXX  uses for their user agreement criteria it states that our business falls under " Activities Requiring Approval '' and that " PayPal requires pre-approval to accept payments for certain services as detailed in the chart below. '' In order to sell through PayPal under their acceptable use, I would need to reach out to PayPal sales ( which I have done as of XX/XX/XXXX ). 

I believe it is vital to note that the business account setup in XXXX was never funded and never had any transactions made or attempted during the time the business account was active. Therefore, the account never made any unauthorized or unacceptable transactions under PayPal acceptable use policies.

I asked for more information and an appeal to my personal account being impacted. I have never used my personal account for commercial activities nor any transactions related to our business. I was given the following email reply back to my reply on XX/XX/year> : You have a new message from XXXX  regarding request # XXXX. To respond, simply reply to this email. 

Hi there, Any further question or support needed contact our Support team by visiting XXXX XXXX XXXX or by chatting in from our mobile app ( M-F 24 hours a day ; Sat-Sun XXXX EST ) or give us a call at ( XXXX ) XXXX, XXXX XXXX Central Time, seven days per week. 

Regards XXXX XXXX. 
Account Specialist | XXXX  -- - I called the number given today, XX/XX/year> and was told that the support staff available at the number given are not able to assist or further explain and that the account specialist staff only communicate via email. I tried the chat support in the mobile app and was told they would re-escalate the issue before the agent abruptly ended the chat while I was still typing asking that my notes be added to the XXXX ticket for further review. I have sent in an additional email to the support email thread as instructed by the phone agent but do not believe my request is being properly reviewed by the account specialist staff.

I have been a XXXX  user for many years without any issue and this service is how all of my peers split costs and send funds to each other. I also split rent with roommates and this is how we collect rent to send to our landlord. I have never done any personal transaction ( or business transaction for that matter ) that violates the user agreement and am now taking steps to properly apply to use PayPal-based services for our business venture in line with the acceptable use policy. This personal account suspension is unwarranted and the fact that an account specialist can not cite any specific offense - although this seems clearly targeted toward my business- is a sloppy application of user agreement rules. I am requesting XXXX  close my business account linked to my personal account and re-instate my personal account to full functionality.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation