I had similar problems with paypal in the beginning, but that was all sorted when I followed the steps where they put a small deposit in your bank account and you let them know how much for - just so they can 'prove' you're who you say you are.

When I looked into it in more detail I discovered it was due to anti-money laundering legislation in the UK and the US - this was the primary reason for the split of paypal.com and paypal.co.uk - the new steps where put in place as a direct result of that legislation.

As I understand it, they can 'prove' who you are a couple of different ways - before I had a CC it was the bank deposit thing - now I have a CC it appears to be much easier - they're 'allowed' to trust the CC providors information.

I'm just looking back through my paypal statment now and realised how much I use it - I live in Australia at the moment and moving money from there to the UK is free via paypal or £22 via Abby, or $30 via Commonwealth Bank of Australia, I also use it to pay for my monthly subscriptions to blip.tv, fund skype, purchase from ebay, buy a magazine subscription, oh and most importantly, pay for my Horizons DVD - all within the last couple of weeks...

Meh, I think they've got a shit load of legislation they have to abide by and they're caught in the middle in terms of 'having' to freeze accounts that don't meet the rules that are put in place. That doesn't excuse bad customer service though.

Whilst we're talking Credit Cards - it's increasinly difficult to live in todays society without one - which I think is just plane wrong - however, if you can't get a cc - as I couldn't for a while - then there are a few options that can make your life easier...

1 - Try Capital One - well known for issuing CCs with small limits to people who otherwise can't get one - it's also a full 'Credit Card' so can be used to authorise things like PayPal (£200 is the normal limit)
2 - Try a pre-paid card - but it has to be one registered to your name and address rather than an 'annomous' one bought from the post office - your bank probably already does one, if not try your local building society. This got me out of a hole when I was traveling for business and HAD to leave a copy of my CC at a hotel reception.

Hope that helps.


m

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