Consumer complaint received 2026-02-10 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Trouble accessing funds in your mobile or digital wallet — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: PA

Complaint narrative:
XX/XX/XXXX, my XXXX  debit card suddenly wasn't working. The next day I received an email saying that my account has been frozen and to verify my identity. Despite being frozen and not allowing me to use, access, or withdraw any money in the account, they were perfectly fine allowing my direct deposit to enter the account, which I also couldn't take off of my account since they froze it and won't let me do anything or change any info. I had a backlog of direct deposits come in, as a result of covid, and that resulted in XXXX  locking up almost {$2000.00}, most of which wasn't even in my account at the time that they froze it. After calling customer service, they refused to transfer me to anyone that could actually talk to me about it or do anything about it. XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email that read as follows " 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. The funds in your account will be held for up to 180 days for loss prevention purposes. We will contact you at the email address on file with your XXXX  account should these funds be available for transfer in the future. 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. '' After trying yet again, almost a whole year after the 180 day deadline had passed, I tried to resolve the issue again. On XX/XX/XXXX & XXXX, XXXX I received 2 of the same email that read " If you are reaching out to inquire about a remaining balance in your account, please know that the funds in your account will be held for up to 180 days for loss prevention purposes. We will contact you at the email address on file with your XXXX  account should these funds be available for transfer in the future. Please be aware that any future contact or inquiries will not be answered and that this matter will be considered closed upon your receipt of this email. '' There was literally no other communication with me about the situation other than that twice sent email. Since then, I have never been reached out to by them and XXXX is well beyond the 180 days they have a right to hold my money before having to return it as is established in their own legal documentation, written by their own XXXX  department. I've contacted them multiple times since and it's always the exact same process and communications. They repeatedly cite that same policy of 180 days but immediately admit that it's been well beyond that yet the funds are not available for release and adamantly refuse to give any further explanation/communication on the matter. They've never contacted me to return the money, never tell me anything when I inquire yet again, and they claim my account was deactivated and that the funds can't yet be released. Yet, I can still log into my account, it still shows the money in my account, and simply a notice that says it's suspended. If it's passed the 180 days and they aren't returning it, why hasn't my account actually been shut down nor have I received a notice that they've determined the money is being taken? All they ever say is " can't be released yet. '' This is literal theft, admitted by their own legal paperwork they have no right to do. PayPalXXXX has been doing this to an uncountable number of people for more than a decade and yet none of the government agencies or institutions responsible for consumer protection or monitoring and enforcing financial/trade regulations or such seems to have ever done anything about it. Emails attached below are numbered in order of communication. Most were part of a chain, used multiple times over the course of about a year and a half and multiple attempts to resolve the issue, with the last few being in response to me once again calling customer service to inquire about the matter all over again

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief