Author: Sandra Livingstone
Undoubtedly, Paypal is one of the most well-known online payment platforms. Countless users like it because it makes transactions, such as shopping online, paying bills, and transferring money, easy and convenient. If you have been dependent on Paypal, panic might be your initial reaction after realizing your Paypal account has been frozen because you can no longer process credit cards or debit cards.
Learning through this guide can help you take immediate action to resolve your issue on your PayPal account.
Even if your account randomly gets frozen, the most important matter is that you know what you must do. Hence, you won’t get stuck with just panicking and wondering what to do.
Reasons Why PayPal May Limit or Freeze Your Account
Despite being user-friendly, PayPal has strict terms. That’s why many accounts are frozen. It is not about any personal vendetta or power-tripping. Instead, it might be an effort to prevent unusual activity.
Here are some of the triggers why your PayPal account gets frozen:
- Low credit score
- Using an unverified PayPal account
- Violation of PayPal’s user agreement and policy
- Logging into your Paypal account from a suspicion location
- Using multiple IP addresses to access your Paypal account
- A series of chargebacks have been placed against your account
- Customers complain to PayPal about your business
- You received an abnormally large amount of money in your account
- Receiving many refund or chargeback requests from customers
- Outdated or inaccurate personal information on your PayPal account
- An unusual increase in your account transaction volume
- Your business is questionable
How to Unfreeze Your PayPal Account
Now that you have discovered the triggers that can get your PayPal account frozen, then dive into what you can do to resolve that.
With a frozen PayPal account, you’ll be directed to the Resolution Center once you open it. There, you can learn the steps how to reinstate your account successfully. Among the steps, you may be required to provide documents. Here are the top types of documentation required:
- Proof of identity — official state ID, social security, passport, driver’s license, etc.
- Proof of business — DBA registration, bank account information, utility bills, tax license and documents, contact phone number, etc.
- Proof of shipping
- Proof of product — name of product supplier and the contact information
Usually, PayPal will inform you if it has received the documentation you’ve sent. In the next few days, you’ll be notified if your PayPal account will be reinstated or not. When you get your account back, you can return to your usual business.
What Happens If PayPal Doesn’t Unfreeze Your Account
If your PayPal account remains frozen, all you can do is wait 180 days to get your funds back. To expedite the process, you can call the PayPal customer care team and ask if there is any document that can help to get your money faster. They often ask for:
- Proof of identity: Your state ID, driver’s license, social security number, passport, etc.
- Proof of business: Your Doing Business As documents, tax documents, licenses, bank account information, utility bills, contact numbers, etc.
- Proof of product: Your supplier’s identity and contact information.
- Proof of shipping: Proof that you shipped the flagged item.
To continue your business, you are always free to open another PayPal account. However, you need to be mindful so that you won’t encounter the same issue and have your account frozen
Takeaway
Indeed, you can always do something when PayPal suddenly freezes your account because of an alarming trigger noticed from its activity. Yet, it might be time for another solution if your one try is unsuccessful. What’s great to do is to open a high-risk merchant account to avoid having your account frozen
