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Bugsy
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Can anyone help with this before I throw my computer through the window.

I have recently had to close my UK Paypal account due to my debit card expiring and the inability to get UK Paypal to accept a UK card registered to a french address.

I have opened a new French Paypal Account using the same debit card but it shows the currency in €'s not pounds. The 1.5€ charge to verify my account cost, with the € to £ fee, £2.46, yet Paypal have only reimbursed me 1.5€.

I can find no way of changing this and their telephone helpline is just total b*ll*cks.

I could switch to using my french account but as most of the purchases we make are from the UK, it seems rather pointless.

As anyone done this ?

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When PayPal went truly worldwide initially you could change your address which we did to another country. However that option was only available for a specific time and has now stopped.

What you have done is normal, they charge your bank card 1.5 Euros to validate your card to the account the give it back. You may have to do something similar to link your bank account should you wish to transfer money to it via your PayPal account. If memory serves it works the same way, they debit the account and when you get your statement you take the code and enter it into your PayPal account. The other thing they do is validate your address by sending you a letter with a code and you do the same thing although I think this is mainly for merchants.

You can attach a UK card (providing its the same French address as the French card) to an existing account just in the same way you can add more than one email address. That said you need a 'base' account set up first which in France needs to be a French card with a French bank account. You can also set your language option to English if you prefer but it will always show the login page in French. All this is something to do with money laundering I believe. Personally I prefer a 20 min quick wash in the machine. [;-)]

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I have had several blood pressure bursting sessions with them on other issues, the hardest bloomin thing is to actually get to talk to someone.

Recently I found by accident that they have configured their voice recognition software to recognise swear words, next time you get caught in an endless robotic loop just shout "oh for ****s sake" "you bunch of *****" etc and you will instantly be connected to a customer (not) service advisor. I kid you not.

To their credit they had more sensible procedures this time round and I was able to resolve something that they would not allow last year allowing me to ditch my second unwanted PP account and another e-mail address that I was forced to create to service it.

Sorry I cant help with your French PP problem but I do sympathise.

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When I finally was able to register my current card to my original PP account they sent me an e-mail saying that they would be making two £2 test payments into it which I could keep, when they were received I was to enter the payment advice number onto their website to complete the process, they never did send the money [:(]

So you paid €1.50 which was refunded but it cost £2.46 with the conversion? sounds like a pretty sh***y rate of exchange.

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  • 3 months later...

I am curious the OP has managed to add a UK card to his french Paypal account. 

I joined PayPal (from France) in May 2005 using a Spanish credit card, and later added a UK card, both with my french address. Both were verified by the usual procedure, in the appropriate currencies. 

In December 2007, I assume some time after  PP became “International”, I tried to update the expiry date for the UK card, but the update failed several times. 

I contacted Paypal in english via My Account (which I view in english), and received a reply that they could only correspond in french. I had previously always used english, but I wrote again in french and got a reply that I could only use a french card, as I am resident here, and they removed my UK card. My Spanish card is still registered, however. 

Recently I have been buying items from UK, and became annoyed that I am using Sterling to buy Euros which are changed back to Sterling to pay for them. I tried to add my UK card again, but got a message that it is blocked. 

If I click “Contact Us” or “Help” on my english Paypal page I get a message saying Help is not available in english, but I just found that if I go to Help from Paypal without logging in I can both write and get a reply in english., so I wrote to complain about the situation. 

I received the following reply :- 

Thank you for contacting PayPal regarding credit card issues.
Mr *****, I do understand your frustration but must repeat my colleagues
as that is the only response we get for your situation.
PayPal must comply with different financial regulations specific to
individual countries. To ensure compliance with the laws of each country,
PayPal does not allow members to add credit/debit cards that are issued
outside of the country from which their PayPal account is registered.
If you add your British credit card, your account may be frozen in relation
to our User Agreement.
Regarding the response you got recently in French. This email was sent in
French because your setting on the PayPal account was in French.
I will advise you each time you are awaiting a response from our service to
check that your settings are correctly updated in English to make sure that
you will receive a communication in English.
THIS IS NOT TRUE (see above)
I do apologize for the inconvenience regarding this issue; unfortunately
you have to be aware that our French help centre website is now fully
localized. If you want to get assistance in English you will have to
contact us by email or by phone.
 

I now pay for items from UK by cheque or by credit card directly from the vendor, but in view of what the OP has said, perhaps only that specific card is blocked.

Maybe I’ll try a different UK card.[:D]

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That sounds about right. I set up my PayPal account some time before I came to France, long before it was 'aquired' by Ebay, my account is now totally French although I have changed the language inside PayPal to be English.

I do have several UK credit cards one of which is linked to PayPal. I have had no trouble updating it when it runs out but that may be because billing address is here in France. In truth I have never tried to add another card,

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I understand your situation re double exchange,,,,,,,

But, you dont have to register a card with paypal to actually use it ?

We use a registered french card, and an unregistered uk card !

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[quote user="Quillan"]

That sounds about right. I set up my PayPal account some time before I came to France, long before it was 'aquired' by Ebay, my account is now totally French although I have changed the language inside PayPal to be English.

I do have several UK credit cards one of which is linked to PayPal. I have had no trouble updating it when it runs out but that may be because billing address is here in France. In truth I have never tried to add another card,

[/quote]

About right up to a point.

My (English) Paypal account was also set up before Ebay acquired Paypal, and I use English on both Paypal and Ebay.

BUT, as I said, my UK credit card IS billed to my French address, and I had no problem with until I tried to update it.

Paypal's regulations seem to applied somewhat arbitraily.

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[quote user="tj"]I understand your situation re double exchange,,,,,,, But, you dont have to register a card with paypal to actually use it ? We use a registered french card, and an unregistered uk card ![/quote]

How do you use an unregistered card, please?

If I choose eBay payment option via Paypal, I have to log in to PP, and I can then only choose to pay direct from my French bank, or via either of my French or Spanish cards.

If I choose payment via credit card I am told to contact the vendor. I assumed this meant I would subsequently have to give the vendor my card details.

Are you saying he can invoice me to pay him via PP with my UK card, without my logging in to PP?

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[quote user="nomoss"]

Are you saying he can invoice me to pay him via PP with my UK card, without my logging in to PP?

[/quote]

Yes, you can invoice anyone to pay you money via PayPal and they don't have to have a PayPal account to pay you. Thats how we collect our deposits for our B&B.

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Can you give some more detail Q?

At the moment I dont have too many problems as I still have a UK account, credit card and address.  I have had a couple of my bids on E-bay;fr blocked where the seller refuses to accept bids from overseas, trouble was there was no nothing to indicate this and I put my bid in during the last few seconds.

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Thank you Quillan.

I did pay for a couple of things via PayPal before I signed up to it, and before it became "international", but I thought they had changed the rules.

I assume one still qualifies for their famous "Buyer Protection" plan? This does only specify that items are paid for via PP, not specifically via one's PP account.

Re. this buyer protection, I recently had a problem with an eBay purchase. After a long delay in receiving the item, it was unsuitable and a refund was agreed. There was a further delay in return postage and before the vendor acknowledged receiving it, partly due to the his saying he was on holiday. Then the refund he said had been sent didn't reach me, despite his saying twice more that he had sent it.

During all this I maintained a continuous dialogue with the vendor, as recommended by both eBay and PayPal, before opening a "dispute" but finally I got fed up.

But then I couldn't open a dispute, as more than 45 days had passed since the purchase, so I contacted PayPal "Help".

Their only suggestion was that I contacted the Seller, claimed from my Credit card company, or went to the Police. Fortunately the refund
eventually reached my bank without any help from eBay or PayPal.

 

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[quote user="Chancer"]

Can you give some more detail Q?

At the moment I dont have too many problems as I still have a UK account, credit card and address.  I have had a couple of my bids on E-bay;fr blocked where the seller refuses to accept bids from overseas, trouble was there was no nothing to indicate this and I put my bid in during the last few seconds.

[/quote]

Chancer, I have had a similar problem, and found that almost every time it was unintentional, as the seller had "ticked the wrong boxes", I think in the postage options, when he made his listing.

I now usually ask the seller early on if he ships outside his own country if I am in any doubt, and find he often doesn't know he has restricted buyers in this way.

I think you will find the information on this aspect in the advert, under "Other item info" > "Post to"

 

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Three things.

Firstly Chancer I am not talking about EBay when I said about people sending me money via PayPal but them not having a PayPal account. This is part of the 'Merchants' account which unless you run a business you won't have. This system won't work with EBay directly.

'Buyer Protection' is with EBay BUT if somebody sends me money for their holiday deposit and have an existing PayPal account they get some form of protection. People without a PayPal account don't get any.

With EBay the seller has to have 'International Postage' ticked with a postage rate before anyone can bid from outside the country in which they are selling the item. So if they only have UK Postage you can't bid if your EBay account and/or the address of your account is in France. One way to check is to make a silly, low,  bid early on and see if its accepted.

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Thanks Quillan.

Its actually the other way around for me at the moment, I try to bid on something just down the road from me in France, the seller like many wont accept Paypal and wants cash, fine by me but when I bid I get blocked!

I understand about the initial small bid and I do indeed now do this but if the bid is blocked what can I actually do to change the situation with the seller?

I am trying to gather info as I am sure that it is only a temporary respite from grief that I am currently enjoying, what with E-bay, Paypal and the French government all moving the goalposts its only a matter of time, I may even end up with a French account.

Another real pain for me is that many items that I search for on E-bay UK and even other countries get blocked from my viewing here in France due to French counterfeit laws, so they seem to want it both ways, because I am using a computer in France I cannot view many things in the UK, because my account is in the UK I cannot bid on some things just down the road from me in France.

An example of the blocking of marque items: - heads for my Phillips rasor, only the Phillips agents sell them on e-bay.fr, there are hundreds of resellers on E-bay UK selling them for much less but I dont have a computer or phone line there to buy them, one is even a French seller doing a roaring trade with the UK and the rest of Europe but not his home country.

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I understand about the initial small bid and I do indeed now do this

but if the bid is blocked what can I actually do to change the

situation with the seller?

Can you contact the seller via the 'ask seller a question facility' and request they alter their settings and explain your situation

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Well yes I can do that but am unsure that they can actually change their settings, whenever I have tried to edit a listing "computer says no!" [:(]

Plus its one thing communicating in French but another to try and convince possibly another computer illiterate person to make the change and describe how to do so in my second tongue.

I would at least like to be sure that it can be done first.

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The first thing is you can, with the aid of having more than one email address, have two accounts, one for and in the UK and the same for France.

The second issue is an 'old onion' to do with how your browser is set, you might find the following link helpful but you may have to modify the proceedure a little to fit your needs yet the principle is the same.

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1375073/ShowPost.aspx

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Hi

I know nothing about the present discussion but felt I should just warn everyone that I recently had 40 USD taken through my pay pal account illegally by someone I had never heard of and not for anything I had purchased,  Pay Pal reimbursed me but it certainly caused me some stress as I was concerned that there might be further payments and/or someone had hacked into my computer.

I had thought that Pay Pal was totally secure but now am very wary.  Just be careful.  The password I used for Pay Pal was not a general password so how someone managed to get into it I do not know.  I have of course changed all my passwords.

Best wishes\\\

WendyG 

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[quote user="Chancer"]

Thanks Quillan.

Its actually the other way around for me at the moment, I try to bid on something just down the road from me in France, the seller like many wont accept Paypal and wants cash, fine by me but when I bid I get blocked!

I understand about the initial small bid and I do indeed now do this but if the bid is blocked what can I actually do to change the situation with the seller?

You can contact seller and ask him to modify "lieu de livraison" for his item if he wishes to sell it to you.

I am trying to gather info as I am sure that it is only a temporary respite from grief that I am currently enjoying, what with E-bay, Paypal and the French government all moving the goalposts its only a matter of time, I may even end up with a French account.

Another real pain for me is that many items that I search for on E-bay UK and even other countries get blocked from my viewing here in France due to French counterfeit laws, so they seem to want it both ways, because I am using a computer in France I cannot view many things in the UK, because my account is in the UK I cannot bid on some things just down the road from me in France.

I find if I search via eBay UK site, whether logged in or not, I can see and bid on items which don't appear if I do the same from eBay France site, even if I include options for EU or Worldwide in my search. I can also "Watch" items found this way, and they are then listed on both UK and French "My eBay"s

An example of the blocking of marque items: - heads for my Phillips rasor, only the Phillips agents sell them on e-bay.fr, there are hundreds of resellers on E-bay UK selling them for much less but I dont have a computer or phone line there to buy them, one is even a French seller doing a roaring trade with the UK and the rest of Europe but not his home country.

e.g. http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1313&_nkw=phillips+razor+head&_sacat=See-All-Categories

[/quote]
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[quote user="Chancer"]

Well yes I can do that but am unsure that they can actually change their settings, whenever I have tried to edit a listing "computer says no!" [:(]

Once there are bids on an item, the original description and some other parameters cannot be changed, although additional information can be added to the description. Additional postage options are certainly possible. It's all buried in their Rs&Rs [:D]

Plus its one thing communicating in French but another to try and convince possibly another computer illiterate person to make the change and describe how to do so in my second tongue.

It's worth a try, they may not be computer illiterate - even if they are French [:)] - they managed to list the item in the first place.

I would at least like to be sure that it can be done first.

[/quote]

The restrictions and errors on eBay France are amazing, though. Some time back I listed an apartment for sale in Spain on eBay France, using Turbo Lister in English. It appeared on eBay France, but was removed the next day, as being in breach of their policies. If listing directly on eBay France, it is (or was) obligatory to choose a French Province, with no options outside France, but not so via Turbo Lister.

I (eventually) got a refund on the basis that their system allowed me to list the item

 

 

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Thanks for your comments Nomoss - I love your user name!

[quote user="nomoss"][quote user="Chancer"]

I find if I search via eBay UK site, whether logged in or not, I can see and bid on items which don't appear if I do the same from eBay France site, even if I include options for EU or Worldwide in my search. I can also "Watch" items found this way, and they are then listed on both UK and French "My eBay"s

I agree that I can and do access some items this way but the majority of marque items like the Phillips are not simply blocked from my view it is as if they dont exist, I only know that they are there if I borrow a computer in the UK, a good example of this is your link below, I am using my computer here in France and it just comes up as a search with zero items found!

e.g. http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1313&_nkw=phillips+razor+head&_sacat=See-All-Categories

how many items can you see and can any other people using their computers in France see them? - Is it just me?

[/quote][/quote]

 

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I am not too sure if I understand this or not.

I have just used your link and it displays 14 items located in the UK and a further 9 items located worldwide. If I click on them I can read the details and if I wanted to buy them I am pretty sure I could but I haven't tried because I don't need any. All of them ship to France at an average postage price of £3.99. I am using my French account by the way. So whats the problem?

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[quote user="Chancer"]

I agree that I can and do access some items this way but the majority of marque items like the Phillips are not simply blocked from my view it is as if they dont exist, I only know that they are there if I borrow a computer in the UK, a good example of this is your link below, I am using my computer here in France and it just comes up as a search with zero items found!

e.g. http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1313&_nkw=phillips+razor+head&_sacat=See-All-Categories

how many items can you see and can any other people using their computers in France see them? - Is it just me?

 

 

[/quote]

 

Fourteen items    Edit: (Plus 9 more worldwide)

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