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Comment by judge2020 | Hacker News Reader

judge2020·

I'm in the opposite boat: I told paypal I was under 18 when I was under 18, called them, they kept my account locked, but as soon as I turned 18 I was unblocked and could used my original account. And I made the account when I was 11.

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I made a PayPal account when I was 17 and used it happily for 12 years. In 2021 (being almost 30 years old) I got a payment from US (I'm in the EU) and had to provide ID to PayPal.

They figured out that I made my account a few months before my 18th birthday and permanently locked my account.

It seems all of this is arbitrary more or less random bullshit.

What if you filed a legal request for all the information Paypal has on you, then for deletion of that information? This is permitted by EU law, is possible in most EU countries and should fix the permaban issues for most cases.

Companies are not required to delete infomation they have a legitimate reason to keep. For a financial service this is almost certainly going to include enough information to identify you.

At what age did you call to report that you broke the TOS by certifying you were over 18?

PayPal really kept a dormant account with an underaged persons PII for 7 years? Interesting.

It's possible that when they signed up/created the account, it wasn't required.

Paypal was founded before there were any laws about age for signing up for things online, and minors are legally allowed bank accounts that their guardians don't have access to. (Or at least they used to be allowed: I had one at 14 in 2002).

Tried to verify my age at 16, which locked the account. Called them and they said they can't do anything until i'm 18. After 6 months I was able to withdraw the funds into a bank account I owned. Only at 18 was I able to log in and redo KYC/driver's license upload.

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