Re:Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business
by sacrosancty on Friday September 16, 2022 @04:09AM
(#32863464)
I've had my Paypal account frozen because I was cheating by living in a different country, not just on holiday. I managed to recover it by giving them the documents they wanted to "prove" that I lived in the country my account was in. I think this included getting my bank to send statements to a family member's address and have them email me a copy. I know some people really do get locked out for good but that wasn't my experience.
Trying to get money from a real bank account (Lloyds in England) after moving out of the country was much harder though. It involved writing several letters and getting a policeman to stamp something, as well as multiple phone calls, including to several staff who gave me wrong advice. But still, they returned my money eventually.
If you login during a vacation overseas and get your account locked, they keep everything in it. Doesn't matter if you never did any transactions yet and all that money is yours from the bank account you linked. If you get banned, you lose it. Getting your account and/or your money back is about the same level of difficulty as getting unbanned from a google account. It's not impossible, but be prepared to take them to court.
If you only use PayPal to purchase things online, the protection is great, but you don't want to be on the other end of that transaction.