I tried to send you a PM, but the system said my mailbox was full. Here is the message:
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Dear Tuba Diva,
I have tried to renew with pay pal. I get a message that “This card cannot be used to …” something something something.
Would this be a result of me not yet being at my expiry date, or some other reason?
-Paul, in Qatar
Don’t know why you got that message but I’ll see about clearing out my PM mailbox today.
I also don’t know why PayPal didn’t take your credit card – I do note that most of the people who have had problems have been outside the United States. Apparently PayPal does not accept every credit card all over the planet.
As to why they are so picky I can’t begin to speculate. I’m sure it’s not your fault. It’s not our fault either, which still leaves us with how do we get you to where you need to be here.
I’m going to ask you to go to the other thread in ATMB and ask your fellow Dopers for assistance. Someone there will get you covered and y’all can work out the details.
I’m sorry it’s not working for you directly; that’s a pain and a PayPal problem I cannot solve. But your friends here can make this better.
Hope we see you on the other side.
I meant to say the system said my PM box was full, not yours.
Allow me to try to sue Pay Pal again. It is a US card with a US billing address. I keep it that way to avoid problems. Keep your eyes crossed for me.
If PayPal isn’t taking it, it’s most likely because the card was once linked to a PayPal account and they want you to actually log into PayPal using that old account to process the transaction.
This can be solved, it appears, only by calling PayPal directly and getting the card de-linked from the account.
Yes, I once tried to create a Pay Pal account. Let me give logging on a try. After that, heck with it; I feel little need to help someone take my money.
I’ve had reports from people who went through the delinking process and then were still unable to use their credit cards – or at least use them immediately.
(Apparently most everything at PayPal not involving them directly taking your money – which they do with breathtaking speed – takes 3-5 business days to transact.)
It’s because of situations like this that we have emphasized keeping track of your expiration date and resubscribing early – it’s important for those who want to keep their Charter Member status that they do so.
I’ve been trying to catch people who didn’t get there in time but I’m finding that the system is not letting these people resubscribe at the Charter Member rate – it appears that, as warned earlier once the expiration date is reached it it really is game over and there’s nothing any of us can do about it.
Regarding cards from foreign countries (including US issued cards), there is a reason that these are sometimes rejected. I work for an IT firm that develops Internet commerce software, such as payment gateways. Many clients demand that, as part of security testing, IP addresses from certain foreign countries be rejected. (We don’t do PayPal, so this might not apply to them, but then maybe it does.)
The reason for it is that most card fraud and abuse occurs from users in foreign countries. Some are more suspect than others. For example, practically every gateway user rejects cards from Nigeria and a couple other places. No matter if they are legitimate US cards issued by US banks. The assumption is that they are stolen.
And so, whether this is helpful, I don’t know. But I tried, dammit. I tried.
(Obscure reference to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
I’ll echo what Liberal has said – I’ve had problems using valid US credit cards outside the US. Some of them (like my Citibank card) ask that I phone them before leaving the US, to let them know where I’m travelling and when, so that they’ll accept charges.
I am awaiting a reply from the SDMB or from Pay Pal. At some level it is their problem, not mine. I do not have to apologize for where I live.
If they want my money, they will work it out.
Kind of a shame to end a long relationship because someone can’t grasp the concept of “not in the US.”
Kind of a shame to end a relationship because someone didn’t think to try and extend it, oh, say, a week ago? :dubious:
I was able to re-up using a credit card here in Canada, with the oddity that PayPal recognized I was in Canada at the start, but on the drop-down menu for my address, only gave the US states. Nor would it let me leave that field blank, so I picked one at random. According to their records, I now live in Regina, South Carolina.
Howdy, neighbor!
Paul, you’re covered.
I have renewed, but with a bit of difficulty. I had a PayPal account, and I tried to pay with it. PayPal ran me in circles, with a lot of “we never heard of that password” messages, but I thought I finally got through. Days later, nothing showed up. So, I renewed with a credit card. The next day, the PayPal renewal showed up. If it turns out I paid twice, just give me two years.
I’ll make a note of this. Oh dear.
Make sure Regina is upstate. You don’t want to live downstate here. 
Regina is in northern South Carolina.
Um, here in South Carolina, we don’t use that “N” word in polite company.
Of course, no one makes polite reference to that state that is up from us on the map. 
When my sister first moved to North Carolina, a family friend refused to refer to her by name any more, instead calling her my mother’s “Yankee daughter.”
Folks like that refer to the Civil War as “The Great Unpleasantness.”
When I moved to New York someone asked my mother “You’re not going to allow her to go live among heathens and Yankees, are you?”
(EZ sent me a snail mail address in Chicago. We will do this The Old Fashioned Way.)