Consumer complaint received 2026-04-23 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: MI

Complaint narrative:
Fact are in my complaint letter to PayPal : " I am trying to purchase a rare coin on XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX The price is {$76000.00}. I have my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX account linked to my PayPal account and verified, and the money is in the account, having been wired into it from my XXXX brokerage account. Despite this, the transaction has been blocked by a security hold. This is probably because, though I am a XXXX XXXX XXXX of PayPal, I have not used the account much. Also, the amount is rather high value, though not as high as some rare coins sold on XXXX. I have contacted the standard support centers ( all of them overseas, as far as I can tell ) that tell me they do not have the ability to set the hold aside manually. '' " I am more than happy to verify my identity and the legitimacy of these funds. But I cant seem to get to someone who will receive the items I will offer in support, and who has authority to do an override. The deadline for me to pay for the coin is Sunday, XX/XX/XXXX. The people in the call centers have no authority and I dont see any ombudsman or concierge service attached to PayPal . '' " I request that a U.S.-based specialist from a Strategic Risk or Executive Escalations team review my account manually. My goal is to complete this transfer immediately. As I said, the deadline is Sunday. But even if this transaction fails, I will likely be purchasing more rare coins on XXXX or other sites and will have the need to use PayPal again for these purposes. So, I would like to get this straightened out in any event. '' Here is the last communication I got from them : We can not release the exact details of how our system works as to do so would undermine the security itself by encouraging people to try and find ways around it. While we recognize that this can be a frustrating experience for you this security system helps uphold the safety and integrity of the PayPal community overall. " Due to the literally thousands of transactions flowing through PayPal each minute, it is logistically impossible to manually review each one. This requires an automated process that can not be overridden. This model is hard-coded into our system. We do not have the capability to override or manually change the security settings. '' When I tried to pay with my XXXX account, which was the preferred method I chose, it kept coming back asking me to submit another credit card, with no option to call anyone for assistance or otherwise meaningfully challenge their effective refusal to pay. In addition, in the back in forth of this process, no less that two individual PayPal people also suggested ( in writing in emails ) that I try to get around the problem by paying the XXXX seller directly and not through XXXX -- - something XXXX takes umbrage at and that is borderline consumer fraud. Don't they have to provide a better reason than this? Also, at several points in my interactions with them, they told me that the problem was fixed when it wasn't. This was a misrepresentation, which should be prohibited somewhere. I finally was able to complete the purchase by using a debit card from my credit union. But the PayPal problem took me 6 days to non-resolve before that. I would have lost my purchase on XXXX to the 5 day limit on paying for items had the seller not been understanding enough to wait for his money. But, as I say in my complaint to them, I plan of making more rare coin purchases on XXXX and need a reliable way to pay for them.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation