Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by graniter 3149 days ago
Ok. But what would be the problem? If you legitimately have two bank accounts in two countries in two different denominations, what's the problem with having two different PayPal accounts connected to the different bank accounts? I don't know what would be illegal about that.
2 comments
gambiting 3149 days ago
I do that, but it's explicitly against Paypal's terms and conditions. If they ever decide to crack down on it I will lose one or both accounts. Also, Paypal's currency conversion rates are terrible. Transferwise actually offers very good rates and the money is in my bank account within 30 minutes(vs ~2 days for a proper bank transfer).
link
dboreham 3149 days ago
It would correlate strongly with people trying to evade taxes and/or launder money. PayPal doesn't like to facilitate illegal activity. I'm not theorizing about this -- I have first hand knowledge.
link
graniter 3149 days ago
Ok I am not trying to be dense. I really am curious. Maybe it correlates strongly, but there's nothing dishonest or illegal about it that I can tell. PayPal has all your personal info. They have your bank account info on both sides. People transfer money between. So maybe it's a pattern that money launderers use, but so do regular people. What am I missing?
link
bckygldstn 3149 days ago
PayPal isn't obliged to accommodate all legal banking patterns.

If 1% of all customers are fraudulent but 5% of customers with multi-country bank accounts are fraudulent, that might be enough to tip their risk/reward balance.

And I've dealt with this first hand. I have paypal accounts and legal bank accounts in multiple countries, and when I've tried to move money between them I get a call from customer service saying they blocked the transactions, and "you're not supposed to do that with paypal".

link
noselasd 3149 days ago
Paypal can't know that you're not doing money laundry even if they have the bank info on both sides. Paypal will err on the side of caution and will often block your transfers, no matter how many documents you can produce that claims what you are doing is legal.

I think you are assuming that paypal operates on reason, but it rarely does.

link