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Why is my PayPal account limited?

If we’ve limited your account, we'll send you an email with the reason for the limitation.

Before you begin

A limited account means that you won’t be able to do certain things with your PayPal account. For example, you might not be able to send or withdraw money. Usually, we ask you to complete some steps to remove your account limitation.

Go to your Resolution Center or click the bell icon at the top of your Dashboard for more info.

Reasons for Account Limitations

We may limit an account for several reasons, such as:

Regulatory requirements

We may limit your account to comply with regulatory requirements. For example, requesting certain products, like a debit card, can trigger governmental laws. We may limit your account while we work together to satisfy those requirements.

Acceptable Use Policy

If you're not in compliance with our Acceptable Use Policy, we can limit your account. Violations of the Acceptable Use Policy include selling banned items such as prescription drugs or guns.

Unauthorized use

We may limit your account to protect you from potential losses and review any fraudulent activity. This can happen if your:

  • Account was accessed without your authorization
  • Bank informs us there have been unauthorized transfers between your PayPal account and your bank account
  • Debit or credit card issuer alerts us that someone may have used your card without your permission

Higher risk activity

We may limit your account if your seller performance indicates high risk activity. This can happen if you:

  • Receive an unusually high number of claims and chargebacks from your buyers, which are an indication of poor seller performance
  • Start selling an entirely new type of product, such as a higher-cost item like jewelry
  • Experience rapidly increasing sales volume, which is out of nature with your usual sales patterns

In these cases, we may limit your account while we do a review.

Inactive account

We may limit your account if you haven't used it much since you signed up.

To restore full access to your account, log in and upload your Proof of Identity (such as a copy of your driver's license or state ID). You can upload this document in your Notifications center.

In most cases, our customer service team can't remove your limitation over the phone. Please wait for us to contact you.

If you received an email stating your account is limited, but don't see a limitation in the Resolution Center, you may have received a fake email. Forward it to phishing@paypal.com and we'll investigate it for you.

After you forward us the email, delete it from your inbox. If you clicked any links or downloaded any attachments, log in to your account and view your payments. It's also a good idea to change your password.

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