For those of us who add cash to Paypal directly, because we do not use bank accounts, life has been trying, to say the least: finding the Paypal My Cash cards that we’ve had to use to do this has been a ridiculously difficult quest, at least in my neck of the woods. (los Angeles) and the clerks at the stores where they are sold confirm that they sell out rougly 20 minutes after they are added to the display. (Okay, might be a slight exaggeration. But not by much.) And none of the stores I purchase them from are set up to do reloads of these cards, so it always required a brand new card every time.
Well, HALLELUJAH! Paypal has recently updated their iOS app (I don’t know if they did the same for Android or not) so that now, all ya do is press the “add money” button, it walks you through a few screens, you are presented with a barcode that you show to the cashier (CVS and Rite Aid only that I know of), who scans it, takes your money, and within 15 minutes it’s in your paypal account! Now THAT is an excellent thing! Not just for the users, but the planet, because no need to generate the tons of plastic cards!
Bravo, Paypal!!!
Now we just need to find a way to turn all the other plastic cards proliferating everywhere into barcodes, and we’re all set. Or at least stop making them plastic! Stiff paper or other biodegradable substance, please! One would hop that in 2016 we would have a moratorium on NEW ways to use plastic!
I use bank accounts, but never with PayPal. They’re not regulated as a bank, so they can - and do - whatever they like, including “limiting” (freezing) my account and reversing charges on their end, but not releasing their claim to it from my bank account for two weeks. That was real special while traveling with suddenly no access to money from either Paypal or my bank, lemme tell ya…
Paypal has to walk a tightrope, between providing meaningful convenience for legitimate transactions, and falling victim to draconian measures aimed at ad-hoc wars on drugs, terrorism, and other bogeymen.
These kinds of things are classic examples of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Banks have had to stop issuing pre-paid cards, because they can be used by a tiny number of money launderers and other ill-motived users. That seems to be such an overwhelming crisis in our economy, that those of us who would like to legitimately make transactions using modern technology are constrained from doing so according to fear-mongered edicts.
Banking and financial institutions around the world have been terrorized into complying with US witch hunts for petty tax evaders, with a paltry $10,000 in retirement saving targeted for enforcement reporting, investigations and confiscations.
FinCENs regulations are essentially a presmption of guilt until proved innocent.