A few weeks ago I went to my Paypal account and I tried withdrawing some money from Paypal to my Debit card which is connected to it; like I’ve been doing for over 2 years with no problems.
Upon clicking “Withdraw,” I received this error:
“Sorry, we are not able to process your request. Please try again later” – Well thanks for nothing…
I tried again, and again and again. I tried logging out of my Paypal and in again. I tried updating my Firefox and trying again. I tried with Chrome. I tried clearing cache and cookies on both browsers, and tried again. Nothing worked, I kept getting the same error every time!
I thought maybe the problem is because just a few days before that I got asked by Paypal to verify my account by providing them proof of identity and proof of address. I never got limited, I was just approaching my account balance limit and Paypal asked me to provide them with some information as part of their continuous efforts in complying with regulatory requirements. I submitted the documents they requested and I got verified successfully. The problem I’m facing with withdrawing money should have nothing to do with this.
Then I went hunting!
I went to Google and searched to find other people that had this problem in the past, and I also did custom searches to find only results from the past week and month. I also posted about the problem in a few forums, to see if anyone has any valuable information to give me about the situation.
I also contacted Paypal and asked them about it, and this is the response I received:
I have reviewed your account and would like to confirm that there has been a slight technical issue due to the recent page maintenance, please accept my apologies. Our technical team is working on this problem and trying to resolve it as soon as possible.
Then I replied, and they replied back again:
I understand you have been experiencing a difficulty withdrawing funds to your VISA card issued by [Insert Bank Name Here]. Please be advised that this was caused by a technical issue we are experiencing at the moment and I have added your account into the list of users that have been affected by it.
To minimize this inconvenience and avoid disruption to your business, our engineers are working hard to address the issue as quickly as possible. Due to the nature of this issue, however, I am unable to provide a specific date as to when it will be fully resolved.
In the meantime, you may add a card issued by another bank, if available, to withdraw your funds using the following workaround links:
- www.paypal.com/wdfunds
- www.paypal.com/wdcheck
- https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_withdraw-funds
It was my pleasure to assist you. You are always welcomed to contact us should you require any further assistance.
Eventually I ended up on a local (for my country of residence) Facebook group where I found a lot of people facing the same problem. It was refreshing to see I wasn’t the only one. After a bit of reading I concluded that the problem was with the bank I was using. The same bank is used by about half the people from my country that make money online and use Paypal. Everybody was facing the same issue.
The conclusion was to not do anything. The bank was aware of the problem and they were working on fixing it. Switching banks would just be a hassle and a waste of time, seeing as by the time I got a new debit card and linked it to Paypal and went through that process, the old bank would probably fix the problem.
And indeed, that’s what happened. A few days went by and people started reporting that they were successfully withdrawing money. I tried it, and it finally worked. A feeling of relief washed over me.
Summary
The point is, shit happens. If you’re facing the same issue and that’s what brought you to this article, take a deep breath, and go contact Paypal and ask them about it. Then go to Google and search for articles, forum discussions and social media posts of people reporting about having the same problem at the moment, and sooner or later you will find why this is happening to you.
This is the internet, forever changing and updating. It’s technology! :D