Image this scenario: Suppose a blogger you know had been buying PayPal My Cash cards at a certain three letter drug store and paying with a card that offers 5% cash back at drug stores, and through a series of events he ended up with loads of My Cash cards and no way to load them…
Account warnings
In this imaginary scenario, this blogger may have received a warning from PayPal saying not to deposit MyCash cards and then withdraw the cash (details here). Specifically, PayPal may have warned: “If we continue to see this activity of using the MyCash with your PayPal account for cash withdrawals, we may have to limit or close your PayPal account.”
So, hypothetically, imagine that this blogger continued to load PayPal My Cash cards, but stopped withdrawing the cash to his bank account as he had been doing before. Instead, he loaded the My Cash cards to two different accounts, transferred the money to his account, then used his PayPal debit card to pay bills.
Account frozen
Now, imagine that this blogger then received an email from PayPal with the subject line “Your account has been limited.” And, in the body of the email it said (among other things that made less sense): “…your account has been permanently limited…. You’ll be able to withdraw money from your account within 180 days.”
Imagine too that this blogger received the same email on the same day for each of the three PayPal accounts he was managing. And imagine that many phone calls to PayPal and email pleas led nowhere.
Finally, consider the possibility that this hypothetical blogger still had $2,500 worth of My Cash cards in-hand. What should he do? Here’s the answer…
How to cash out My Cash cards
If you’re stuck with My Cash cards and no viable way to load them to PayPal, then here’s an option:
1. Log into PayPal.com/cash
Even if your PayPal account is frozen, you should still be able to log in with that account.
2. Go to the FAQ/Contact US page
Find and click on “Why couldnt PayPal verify my personal information?”
If you haven’t logged in yet, you should see this:
If you have logged in, you’ll see this:
Note that there is now a link that says “Click here to request a refund”. Click it.
3. Request a refund
You should now see a screen like this:
After entering in your card’s PIN and the CAPTCHA characters, you’ll be brought to a screen asking for your name and address. On this page they’ll promise a check in up to 14 days:
Warning: do not do this to manufacture spend
It may be tempting to buy My Cash cards and ask for a refund over and over, but I promise it won’t be long before they cut you off. This technique should be used only if you’re really stuck with no reasonable way to load these cards.
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I have 3 of these cards given as gifts. I tried the link above and you can’t get there. Is there any other way to get the money from these cards?
Sorry that this isn’t working anymore. Have you tried calling paypal support?
Sara: Have you tried calling the number on the back? If they can’t help, maybe they can give you the number of someone else who can?
Kenley: I don’t know if they’ll automatically send you a notification. If you don’t get the check in a few weeks, it’s definitely worth calling
I called them they said they sent it since I got a confirmation number.
I had a card with 478 bucks and asked for a refund, will paypal send me a notification about the check or should I try calling them. I just want to make sure my money didnt go to waste on this
PLEASE HELP. I do not have a. PP account but I did send a PPcash card to an account holder and they cannot accesse t.hr money. I have not been able ro talk to cust service rep and can’t get where on computer since I do not have an act. The only phone no. I have is one printed on back of card. Can anyone tell me how to contact PP to request a refund? Thanks for any help. I agree with others who never use PP for anything.
I wasn’t able to get to that refund page even after logging in and requesting a refund from that FAQ/Contact Us page and under that heading. It just takes me back to the http://www.paypal.com/cash website… Please help me resolve this problem…
Maybe this isn’t working anymore? I don’t have an account to test with. You may have to call to ask for the refund.
Sad part about this is that many use Mycash cards for different reasons. Having PayPal limit your PayPal account makes it nearly impossible to cash them again if you decide to open up a new account.
[…] Here, for example, is one recent reader report: […]
Just a warning from my hard learned lesson.
Don’t use Paypal My Cash cards for your account EVER.
I had two warnings that the CSR explained were due to moving funds from My Cash cards to PP to my bank.
Fast-forward 6 months and I bought about 3K more to use for real purchases on eBay. All was fine until 4 months later PP permanently limited my account.
CSR said it was for my use of the cards 8 months back.
Appeal denied.
When it says login as my cash which login is it. I try to login as my paypal account and get jSOn error. How do I request a refund?
That should work. Have you tried a different browser?
Thanks, Yes I tired IE, chrome Safari.. basically my paypal acct is limited, and when I login from paypal.com/cash with PIN number which I want to get refund, it says login using paypal account and when I use my paypal account it says JSON_Obj not found. Can you please help me if there is a work around..
I have the same jSon error
were you able to get refund then? How did you apply
Thanks
I never got that error when I did this. I guess you’ll have to call.
were you guys able to solve or get past this JSONObject[“ID_Token”] not found error? I’ve been getting it all week since my PP got limited.
I’d appreciate some help and insight if you guys found some kinda breakthrough, thanks!
I did a refund request on Apri 21st and am still getting the run around it was 6x$500 they keep saying they have sent emails to the refund dept i need to wait on a response from them and this comes from a supervisor that i wait on hold for an hour each time i call any suggestions
Hi, How did you request a refund…. is your paypal acct limited? when you login using paypal acct does it not give you JSOn_obj error
Thanks for your help
Hello, I just got a second email warning, but have 5 PPMCCs to load. Is it an issue to request a refund for all of these…or should I do 2/week? Thanks,
Personally I’d do all 5 at once and get it over with
I see you requested these (5 X $500) back around mid-December. Did the check indeed come in around 2 weeks?
I assume from reading the post you had to make five separate requests – did they put them together and send just one check?
I’m still waiting. I called them a week ago and found out that the refund was “on hold” without any further explanation. The CSR told me that she released the hold and I would get paid in a couple of weeks. Still waiting…
I have just received mine yesterday, a total of 2 weeks process.
Looks like they’ve combined all 4 of my cash cards to a single check. Now just waiting on 170 more days of releasing my funds.
I was able to get my 460.00 out of PayPal early and to do it I had to tell a little lie and I had to link a bank through a representative on the phone . I have a 500.dollar PayPal my cash now that I can’t get to load for some reason and I don’t have the card no more to get the serial number off it .Anybody who needs my assistance in getting there money unstuck . 4 months early I will help if you can help me redeem this 500 I have on the automated system it tells you that 500 is on it and has not been added to account and they told me if it does that that there is no problem with it but I’m unable to get it loaded .
So help me help you .
Did you ever get your refund? I waited 10 days, and then was told that it was not approved? CSR emailed to release the hold…
Yes, I finally got the refund. They called and left a message for me to call back. That was a huge fiasco in itself, but I eventually talked to the person who called. She had to ask questions about why I needed a refund and she made a point of lecturing me that I would not be eligible for refunds in the future. About a week or so after the call the check arrived.
hmm any reason why you aren’t elgible for refund in the future then ? I got all 5 ppmc back , but realized 2 more was in my wife’s purse..will that be a problem if i submit it again after the account closure?
I don’t know. It probably depends on the person who reviews it.
I submitted 5 requests between 2/7-2/10, and still haven’t received a check. I received a call from a “supervisor” on 3/27, but am surprised that this did not do the trick. Any thoughts as to who I complain to about this, PayPal or Incomm? Thanks.
I would start with Paypal
Thanks for this write up. How long after applying for the refund did it take for them to contact you? I submitted my refund request 10 days ago. I had assumed they’d just send the check but from what people are saying here…I see that’s not very likely.
For me, the whole process took ~2 months to get a check for 5 cards. I called almost daily after 2 weeks…it needs to get kicked up to a supervisor who then calls you. It is very difficult to call a supervisor yourself.
Maybe it’s just because I only had one 500 dollar card to be refunded, but I received my check exactly 10 business days after the refund request.
Just figured i’d update for anyone reading this in the future. Thanks again for your original post.
Can you request a refund by calling and giving them the card #? Tried following steps in the article, but get an odd error upon login (most likely due to PayPal limitation). Only have one unused card, but concerned that they won’t ever mail the check, being it wasn’t purchased around where I live.
[…] I’m far from immune to shut downs, I do try to practice moderation. I manufacture spend in order to meet goals, not as open ended […]
[…] points and miles. PayPal has simply been too aggressive in shutting down accounts (see “How to cash in your PayPal My Cash cards when PayPal freezes your account”). On the other hand, I believe that the movement away from physical reload cards is a good […]
Paypal is convenient for receiving payments from cashback sites and in particular Kiva. Will this certain anonymous blogger be able to open a new Paypal account or is he now stuck getting checks mailed to him (kiva) or where allowed withdrawing to his bank account?
Hypothetically, this blogger may have opened a new PayPal account and is now hoping it doesn’t get shut down again.
so my account was shortly lived after 2 months with ppmc/mo/serve debit load…now with money inside with account frozen. they asked for 180 days to release the fund…is there no way to get around that ?
i do have another account still around, what’s best method w/o violating their sensitive risk scan ?
I don’t know of anyway around the 180 days.
Jung don’t you think if there was a way around the shutdowns Frequentmiler would have never had his accounts closed in the first place? You’ve just been told by Paypal your money is tied up for 180 days and now you want to try again with another account? Are you really that dense?