Oh and I might add that I’d been receiving AirBnB payments since 2010…
1 Like
As I indicated above, PayPal has been under some scrutiny of the regulator in recent years and has changed some of its processes to ensure that it complies with legislation applicable to its Australian operations.
In relation to AirBnb, I understand that the ATO has recently also been looking at ‘cracking down’ on undeclared AirBnb income and has been implementing measures to enable it to track undeclared income. While I don’t know if this is the driver for PayPal requiring pre-approval for income from independent marketing platforms (like AirBnb), this requirement may be a relatively new requirement if it is in response to actions of the ATO.
As you have been receiving AirBnb payments since 2010, one would have thought that PayPal may have notified you of the any change to their terms and conditions/user agreements which require pre-approval. It is worth noting that we get generic emails from PayPal from time to time, and if you are like us, never really look at them as they can be wordy and also time consuming to understand.
Irrespective of this, one would expect that PayPal would provide information to why an account is ‘limited’ as it leaves a consumer in the dark to why it occurred and may result in the consumer doing the same thing with PayPal (or another payment gateway) in the future, again breaching their terms and conditions/user agreements.
It appears that the AFCA also agree that you have breached their T&Cs/user agreements somehow with the information/response provided by PayPal.
It could the not getting pre-approval to use PayPal for AirBnb approval or one of the other common reasons outlined in an earlier post. It appears you may have hit a brick wall and may need to look for another payment gateway for your future needs. It is important to understand and operate in accordance with any other payment gateway’s T&Cs/user agreements so that you don’t find yourself in the same situation as you find yourself with PayPal.
Edit: It is also worth making a comment that we have had to update information on a number of the accommodation marketing platforms we use for our business in the past year or so. Some of these have included proving we have local government development approval (or not), prove we own/operate the business/accommodation premises (suspect this to try and stop fraudulent/scam accommodation advertisements) and personal tax file information (possibly ensuring the business is linked to us personally which is already is through government records). Our accountant has indicated these changes have resulted from greater scrutiny of the regulators of the those providing services known as ‘digital disruption’ and through marketing or service delivery platforms.
PayPal has active accounts numbering in the hundreds of millions and many many billions in net income.
‘PayPal - Wikipedia
What ever has occurred, it must be puzzling to many reading that PayPal cannot or will not explain the breech if one has occurred, or how to remedy the situation.
2 Likes
Jogging near being OT it is problematic that Paypal (or any business of any type) can put restrictions on a customer or lock their account without having to reveal why. If one doesn’t know they can, as noted, ‘do it again’ to their detriment.
That our regulator wipes their hands citing the ‘agreed T&C’ without regard to the opaque nature and very unbalanced terms that cause the customer a problem is a testament to the ‘empty suit’ nature of many of our ‘consumer protection’ mechanisms. In this case AFCA seems to have ticked a box not considered there may be a problem to be addressed, and that could be their mission/scope.
2 Likes
Not to mention that we get scam emails (claiming to be) from PayPal from time to time - so that would be another reason not to look at an email from PayPal and instead just to delete it.
You mean like cash? 
2 Likes
Closing the account and removing your details may be the same to the customer, but I would hazard to guess that to PayPal and other businesses that they are two entirely separate transactions.
I would ask for both to be done, 1) close the account, 2) delete your data or give you a timeline when it will be deleted.
1 Like
It will be at least after 7 years. Under the AML/CTF Act, financial institutions must keep customer records for seven years after they have stopped providing any designated services to that particular customer.
1 Like
Well, AFCA only found that PayPal had the right to permanently limit my account and hold my funds for 6 months as per their T&As, not that I had done anything sinister. And perhaps it was due to my account being used for AirBnB income, but if so, why not tell me this, give me the chance to either stop using it for this purpose or provide more information if that’s what they needed? Why keep my funds for 180 days?
And naturally I immediately changed how I received my income so that it goes straight to my bank account. When I first joined AirBnB in 2010 this wasn’t an option.
3 Likes
… and that would never be a Data Breach problem. /s
1 Like
Thanks for the info. Have just logged on & closed my account 
3 Likes
