For me at least…
Until now I’ve been using an unverified PayPal account. And it worked very well. Recently though, I’ve hit the $500 USD transfer limit of the unverified account (one can only send a total of $500 USD).
Trying to verify my account I was always redirected to the same page – add another credit card. Every time I did so (not that I have so many credit cards, but still), I was brought back to my profile page. Still unverified.
I asked for help from the support team, and quickly got a response. It seems there is plenty of credit card fraud going on, because they asked me to fax (fax? what’s that?) them these documents:
1. Please include a cover page and address it: Attention – Global
Account Expanded Use Enrolment Process. On the same cover page, include
your name and the email address registered to your PayPal account so we
can identify the account.2. A copy of a government issued photo identification listing your
name. Examples of acceptable identification include a passport, a full
driving licence or a national identity card.3. A copy of the credit/debit card statement that shows at least the
last four digits of the card, your name and your postal address that
matches the address registered in your PayPal account.4. A copy of the front and back of the credit card.
Can I get all those and fax them? Yes. Will I? No.
I think that there is a problem with the credit card system and that it should be fixed (the problem is having all information needed for money withdrawal printed on the card itself). By supplying the above mentioned documents I will be supporting the workarounds and hacks to the problems with credit cards. And that’s something I don’t want to do.
For me verification with Paypal was much simpler. They deducted something like 1 EUR from my credit card, and then asked to specify reference number from the description of transaction that I get from my bank.
A smart and secure enough method.
hazard,
indeed. I wish they asked the same from me. :)
Not to worry though, I’ve voiced my protest against their policy in their “review our support” form that they’ve asked me to fill.
I got verified same way as Hazard did. They also asked for my home phone number, their automated system made a call and asked me for the bank transaction reference number. In the UK you have to have a Direct Debit set up by PayPal with your current account – you cannot get verified with only a credit card registered.
There are several solutions to the problem with payment cards. My Mastercard is SecureCode enabled i.e. supporting online merchants will ask me for a password before allowing me to use my card. This is not well spread yet but gaining strength. Surprisingly large amount of russian online retailers require you to enter you SecureCode of you use Mastercard. There is a similar technology for Visa, too. However I suspect that you’ll need your card issuer to support this and not all banks do yet.
With high street UK retailers you will not be able to use your card if you don’t know your PIN number unless your card is not Chip&PIN enabled which none of UK issued cards are.
Oh, well.. It seems that for the time being, I’ll be shopping at stores that accept my Visa card without Verification Over Fax (VOF) ™ :)
Gladly, there are many of these. And I’m not spending thousands anyway – a t-shirt here, a book there, a camera or less over there…
SecureCode is called “Verified by Visa” in VISA world.