Is it safe to leave money in Paypal?

sanfora Level 1

June 10, 2016, 2:37 pm

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Is it safe to leave money in Paypal?

Is it safe to leave my earnings in Paypal on long term or will they take the money after awhile?

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hitmeasap

hitmeasap

Hey sanfora,
I've never had "the same" money on my Paypal account for a long period of time. I usually withdraw the funds to my bank accounts and meanwhile I make these withdrawals there's new incoming funds to Paypal, so I can't say for sure. However, I did find an answer from a Paypal employee. Here's the answer.

Question: "How long can I leave money in my PayPal account-is there a cost or fee??"

Leave it as long as you like. If it sits dormant for a few years, we may legally have to send the funds to your state as abandoned property, so just don't go three years or more without logging in at all and you'll be good here.

Nope, no fees to leave the balance there. Leave as much as you'd like!

With that being said, that answer is from 2011 so they might have made some changes since then, but I don't think they have.

Best Regards,
hitmeasap

9 years ago

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MasterA

MasterA

Generally, it should be fine. However, it depends how long you plan to keep your money in there for. As hitmeasap has said, there are no fees so you don’t have to worry about that. However, PayPal may freeze your money if you don’t use it for a long time. Personally, I have had some money in my PayPal account that I haven’t touch for months but it has never been a problem. The key is to always have some activity going on in your PayPal account. So either buy something using PayPal or withdraw some money once in a while so PayPal won’t think it is abandoned property.

9 years ago

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TommyCarey

TommyCarey

Wow, really?

Now we have to pay taxes on anything that is still in paypal. Basically we're claiming the funds inside the account and that is why we're paying fees on it. If they send it to the state after 3 years then wouldn't that be some sort of theft on a government level?

I would assume if you make less than $600 a year then you will have to withdraw within 3 years because I know at least in the United States you don't have to pay taxes on less than $600 income for that year. But anything over $600 can be taken away from us even if we've paid taxes on it? I think it's just paypal not wanting to be a type of escrow system and also not wanting to hold your money in your account longer than needed.

I always have my money going into my business account if it's been there too long. Normally I have all my subscriptions get pulled out of my paypal account so the money is always moving because of that as well. I don't think I'll ever have the problem of my money sitting there for 3 years since I log in to paypal at least three times a week to check my balances and update my digital calendar of when my payments are being sent out. But I do think it's kind of shady to just send your money to the state after 3 years of inactivity. What if I were in a coma or I forgot about my paypal account because I won the lottery? It's hypothetical, I know, but it's possible lol

9 years ago

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robertman11

robertman11

I believe sending the funds to the state is customary even for brokerage accounts and banks. It is considered an abandoned account. I had it happen once with a mutual fund company. They should attempt to contact you several times prior to doing this via email, physical mail and even by phone.

Regarding the taxes, it is money and you do have to pay taxes on that money.

9 years ago

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EliteWriter

EliteWriter

I think it should be quite safe as long as you log into the account on a regular basis and show that this is not a case of being inactive. However I would suggest not leaving them for too long, such as not more than 6 months. Since there is the withdrawal option I would prefer to withdraw them. The withdraw to your card option comes with a fee, but at least I would know that the money is sort of in my hands. Besides it also depends on the amount of money you intend to leave there, and on the amount of online purchases you make as these would reduce the sum.

9 years ago

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ajlancer

ajlancer

I think there has not issue if your account full verified like by card and address and phone verified too. It may problem to use PayPal for long, if you verified your account by virtual credit card (VCC ) it may phone or address anything. You know some of countries user yet not permitted for using PayPal. Despite of they are using PayPal by other way like get verify by VCC And this way after using some days PayPal may ask to verify TAX id. In this case, if you do not verify your account by TAX, you should restricted for further transitions. And some are try to use unverified PayPal too and here you will get limit for further access anytime. Either you can transitions any of amount as you can. And complete safely.

Thanks by Ajlancer

9 years ago

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robertman11

robertman11

I've had a PayPal account since it's early inception. The same one and I've never had an issue with PayPal. They have limited my account before and added restrictions but this is a security measure on their part which is understandable. They limited my account once when I started reciving a lot of funds into it because they needed to verify the business credentials. It was resolved in a day or two. One other time, when I upgraded my PayPal account to accept credit cards using PayPal, they limited it on accident but that was resolved as well (this particular time, I could still receive payments, I just couldn't send money).

If you do not violate their TOS or do anything shady/illegal, you'll have no issues with PayPal. In the US, they are not considered a bank though so they do not have to follow the same banking regulations. However, they do have money transmissions licenses in all states that require it.

9 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

Having money stored on Paypal is very safe, However, if you are selling and use paypal as payment option, your account can be blocked if the buyer files a dispute. If you are selling illegally, your account might also get blocked. If you account is unverified, your acount might also be limited. If you afre using paypal, verifying the account is not very difficult. paypal is the safest payment option.

7 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

My account in Paypal is already 3 years, if I remember correctly, and I have no issues with Paypal. The minimum amount of withdrawal to the bank with no service charge is 7k Pesos which is about $150. In order to have that amount, it takes me 3 months sometimes before I could withdraw. With my experience, I can say that Paypal can be trusted and it is a legitimate depository and remittance center.

6 years ago

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