I know what you may be thinking. That Paypal closed or limited my account and you’re about to read some horror story pertaining to that. No, not at all. That’s not what this is. I actually closed my own Paypal account after moving to live in a different country and finding out that Paypal accounts are country-based, so you can’t transfer a Paypal account from one country to another.
Read on to find out what happened.
Opening Paypal, the Beginning
When I started trying to make money online back in 2013 I lived in a European country. So I opened a Paypal account there in order to be able to receive payments from my online activities. I also opened a bank account / debit card, and connected that card to my Paypal account, in order to be able to withdraw money from my Paypal to my bank account/debit card, and then go to the AMT machine and use my debit card to withdraw the money in cash.
At some point later on Paypal also asked me to verify my account by sending them a photo of my ID and proof of residence. For proof of residence I sent them a photo of my debit card’s monthly statement, as that was the only document that had my name and address attached to it (I was still living with my mom, and all the other bills were in her name).
That was it, in a nutshell. I had a Paypal account, I could receive and send money with it, I could withdraw money from it to my bank/debit card, and there was never any problems as far as that goes.
Moving to a different country
About 1 year later I moved to a different country. This was my native country actually, even though I hadn’t really lived there for about 14 years. I made the decision to move hastily, so I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for anything. But as Paypal was a very important aspect of my online moneymaking activities, I looked into what I should do about Paypal and my move.
I came to discover that the country I was moving to didn’t have Paypal available as an option for receiving money. You could own a Paypal account, and you could use it to deposit money into it and make payments with it (for example, shop on eBay), but you could not receive money on it. Well… fuck me…
The thing was, the only reason I was able to make the decision to move was because I was making some money online. Without that income, I’m going to a country where I never really lived, my language skills are questionable, my survival is in danger. In other words, without Paypal I’m royally screwed. But going back on the move was out of the question. I was moving, and it was final.
So I made the decision to do nothing about my Paypal situation. I had the account, it was verified, the debit card it was connected to was valid for 2 more years at that time if I remember correctly. All I would have to deal with is that my mom would be withdrawing money from the bank when I had some in there using my debit card at the ATM machine, and then send it to me when a friend or whoever was coming over.
For the next 2 years, give or take, that worked. It was an inconvenience for me to have to meet with someone (mom’s friends, family) every time someone was coming over, but I would always get my money eventually, and things worked.
Paypal becoming available in my country
At some point Paypal became available in the country I live in now. That was great news for me, as having my Paypal registered to my address where I actually lived, linked to my debit card in a local bank, so that I can withdraw the money there and go get it. That would make my life so much easier, instead of having to “funnel” the money – have my mom pick it up in the other country and then send it to me in cash whenever possible.
And then Paypal was suddenly available, but I’m no fool. I didn’t jump at it immediately, as moving my account from that other country to my current one would mean I can’t go back on that. Once it’s done, it’s done. So I decided to wait for a little while. Let other people test the waters, read the forums to see what experiences other people are having, can they receive money, what the fees are, if everything is working correctly, and then move my Paypal from old country to current country.
Only 3-4 days went by, and Paypal became unavailable again for receiving money. After doing a bit of research, according to the government it was disabled because Paypal had technical difficulties, and other reports said it was disabled because the country didn’t have the proper laws in place. No one knew for sure…
A few months went by, and receiving money on Paypal became available again. But, again, I wasn’t going to risk it. Let others be the pioneers and test it out, and I’ll get to it when I know it works and has been working for some time. Like, I had no problem testing it out, but this was my livelihood. If I lost the ability to receive money on Paypal at that time I would have been in Huge trouble. Huge!
Opening Paypal locally
A few months went by, and according to all the local forums and other peoples experiences, receiving money on Paypal was working fine. So I decided it was time for me to move my Paypal account from the country I used to live in to the country I live in now. I thought this would be as simple as changing my address on the account, maybe having to contact Paypal to make the switch. That was not the case…
After looking into it and even contacting Paypal support, I discovered that Paypal accounts are country-based. So if you open your account in Country A, you can never move that same account to Country B. What you would have to do is close your account from Country A, and then open a brand new account in Country B. This came as a shock to me, and at the worst time! I had about $5,000 dollars in my Paypal account, and the debit card I had attached to my Paypal account had just expired a month earlier, so withdrawing that money to that debit card was impossible! Holy Shit!
Me physically going to the country I used to live in was impossible – due to reasons I won’t get into here – so I couldn’t renew my debit card, neither could I get a new debit card in that country. I thought about attaching my mom’s debit card to my Paypal account, but that wasn’t allowed because the name on your debit card has to match the name on your Paypal account.
Two options, and an epiphany
Eventually I came to the conclusion I had two options. One was to somehow renew my old debit card (which had expired) without physically going to the country, and the other was to simply open a new Paypal account in the country I was in now, and then send the money from my old PP account to my new PP account, incurring any fees and losing the money from the fees. On the $5,000 dollars or so that I had in my account, the fees would’ve been big. When I say big, I mean big for my standards. I was really making a low income and very difficult, I didn’t want to lose a single cent if I didn’t absolutely have to. I was really in a scarcity and conservation mode.
I told my mom to go to the bank and ask if I could renew the debit card without being physically present. She did, and I could, but it was complicated. I also called Paypal, explained the situation, and asked if it was okay and safe for me to open a new Paypal account and send the money from my old Paypal to the new one.
I was worried for two reasons. One that it was a large sum, and I needed that money. I couldn’t allow for it to be lost or frozen or any problem with it. And two was that both Paypal accounts would be in the same name, therefore maybe Paypal would think I’m doing something shady and limit me or something. I COULD NOT AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT A PAYPAL ACCOUNT. My Life Depended on it!
I decided to go with the first option and renew my debit card. It wasn’t gonna cost me a lot of money, just time on the paperwork that needed to be collected and whatnot. So then I called the bank in the other country, told them what I wanted, they sent me a document via email. I printed it out and filled it out. The one other thing that I also needed was like a paper authorizing my mother to sign for me. But since the two countries have completely different languages, I had to find a licensed translator, have him or her write what I wanted to say, then translate it, and stamp it. It had to be official. And so I went out to find a translator for that specific language. I went to one government building, a second one, and a third one. Eventually at the third place they gave me a phone number for me to call, told me the translator only works 1 specific day of the week, I have to call them and arrange a meeting.
I remember leaving the office feeling like total shit. Now I have to pay the translator. I have to arrange a meeting on their own time and place. I had to wait and waste my time. I actually called the number they gave me straight away, no answer. I was fed up already…
The epiphany
In my anger and irritation, a thought crossed my mind. See, when I initially called Paypal and asked if I could transfer the money between two Paypal accounts between two different countries, they told me I would incur the international transfer fee. But now I thought, what if I open a new Paypal account, in my mother’s name, and then transfer the money between the two Paypal accounts in the same country. Then I could have my mom open a debit card, withdraw the money from her Paypal account and send it to me like we had always done. And if that worked, when it’s all said and done, I would get to keep all of my money and have a backup Paypal account available to me in case I ever needed it.
So I decided to go ahead and do that. I did it, I sent the money as a Gift (Friends and Family) payment from one Paypal account to the other, so I didn’t pay absolutely no fee for the transaction, and it was done! Hell yeah!
Closing my old Paypal account
It was official. My old Paypal account was empty, no money left in it. I withdrew the money from my mom’s Paypal account to her debit card in the bank, and she took it out in cash and sent it to me. I had my new Paypal account with my current address and everything in the country I was in. It was all done, and done! Perfectly done, I kept all my money, I wasn’t left without a functional Paypal account for one second, and I now had a secondary Paypal account (the one I opened for my mom) as backup, just in case I ever needed it. Success!!!
In the end I decided to close my old Paypal account. The only thing I did before closing the old account was I went in and changed my email address. So I added some secondary/throwaway email address I had on the old Paypal account, made that email as primary, and removed my actual email address from the account. Then I deleted my old Paypal account.
Here is the email I received after I did that:
Hello [NAME] [LAST NAME],
We are sorry that you have decided to close your PayPal account. With millions of members in dozens of countries and regions across the globe, PayPal is continually improving and expanding its award-winning services.
PayPal is the world’s leading online money transaction service for individuals, businesses and merchants. From customized shopping carts and ATM debit cards to one-click purchases, PayPal offers individual and business solutions that are time-saving, secure, cost-effective and easy-to-use.
Should you decide you want to have a PayPal account again in the future, visit https://www.paypal.com/cy and follow the few easy steps to open a new account.
If you did not authorize your account to be closed, please report this email to us at
https://www.paypal.com/cy/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_contact_usSincerely,
The PayPal Team
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day everything worked out great. I’m not gonna lie, it wasn’t a fun experience for me. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I came out of it having lost nothing, having gained experience and knowledge. Here I am over two years since that whole situation and Paypal is working fine for me. I never had any other problems since then.
What I did try to do at some point is figure out a way to withdraw US Dollars from Paypal to my Debit card instead of Euros. I realized that converting US Dollars to Euros directly on Paypal wasn’t the best deal, as Paypal doesn’t give a good conversion rate. But if I could withdraw US Dollars from Paypal to my bank, and then go and take out dollars in cash from the bank, and convert the Dollars to Euros (or to the local currency) at a 3rd party currency conversion place locally, I could get the most bang for my buck.
Unfortunately, after talking to the bank and talking to Paypal, and trying out a couple of things, this was impossible. I’m still not 100% sure why, but it’s not possible, and I decided to leave it at that. I’d rather concentrate my efforts on making money than trying to squeeze a bit more of my money’s worth. Hey, I gave it a shot. Maybe I’ll write my article about that whole experience some day.
Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or would like to say anything feel free to comment below, and I’ll make sure to respond as soon as I can.