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This is just the most useless and stupidest trigger of all. I've got a PayPal account for my small side business. I did not receive any money on that so far, o

This is just the most useless and stupidest trigger of all. I've got a PayPal account for my small side business. I did not receive any money on that so far, only paid with that account for whatever I needed. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Euro over the last 3 years. Last week I received something like 12,30 € and PayPal locked the money and the account somewhat down, because of "unusual behaviour" that needed investigation. If we were talking 10k € I would understand that, but I'm not sure what kind of money laundering/terrorist operation will send 12,30 on PayPal...

newaccount74 4y ago
Even 10k doesn't mean you're a criminal, you might just get paid for a contract. I'm so happy I don't need to use Paypal. I hope I never run into issues like this with my bank.
- martin_a 4y ago
  PayPal is a good service I think. If it wasn't invented, somebody should do it. It's just that their way of doing things is just crazy and broken sometimes.
pavlov 4y ago
Well, I agree about PayPal. But their whole business is predicated on being extremely vigilant against scammers, to the detriment of ordinary customers. But regular American bank accounts are pretty different from PayPal or European bank accounts. (The original poster is talking about Chase so I assume the account in question was a regular checking account.) I lived in the US for a couple of years, and the oddities of banking were a bit of a shock to me. In Europe we're used to bank transfers just working and costing nothing, but there isn't really an equivalent in the American system at all! You can send a "wire" which usually costs $15-30 depending on the bank, and is meant for larger amounts and business transactions. Or, there's something called ACH which you can use to pay bills and businesses can use to send you money (e.g. paycheck deposits), but ordinary banking customers can't use ACH to send money to each other. To address this obvious deficiency, banks have cooked up their own system called Zelle which is like a weird proprietary hybrid of PayPal and a European-style bank transfer. (Apparently it's so confusing to US bank customers that Zelle is widely used by fraudsters.) So, when the OP wrote that they've been receiving deposits in the account that was closed, I'm curious to know what kind of deposits those were. Wires? ACH from businesses? Zelle? This could be a major factor in why the account triggered a red light at the compliance department.
- martin_a 4y ago
  That is some crazy mess people are dealing with over there. I'm just happy for free SEPA-transfers...
  - pavlov 4y ago
    People still use paper checks in the USA! I managed to live for 40 years without writing a check, but in America these 20th century relics remain unavoidable. For example, when leaving my NYC rental, the management company required I send them two paper checks: one to cover the move-out fee (use of the building elevator), another check as insurance which they’d only cash if my movers broke something. The first checks I wrote were lost in the mail, so then I made a trip downtown to deliver these pieces of paper in person… An absurdly retro payment experience.
- dkjaudyeqooe 4y ago
  > Or, there's something called ACH which you can use to pay bills and businesses can use to send you money (e.g. paycheck deposits), but ordinary banking customers can't use ACH to send money to each other. This is possible with some bill payment systems with some banks. You can send anyone money and it is either transferred via ACH or they send a physical check. The big banks generally don't support this. I agree that ACH is broken because you can't use it to transfer money to anyone.
  - wiredfool 4y ago
    It's not broken, _tons_ of money goes over it every day. It just has basically no internal security once you get past the gatekeeper (your bank), and optimistic concurrency, and it's reversible.
- cowsandmilk 4y ago
  > ordinary banking customers can't use ACH to send money to each other. This is just because you chose a crappy bank. My bank supports it via online banking, but I admit not all do. https://www.navyfederal.org/services/transfers/ach.html https://www.navyfederal.org/services/transfers/ach.html

newaccount74 4y ago

Even 10k doesn't mean you're a criminal, you might just get paid for a contract. I'm so happy I don't need to use Paypal. I hope I never run into issues like this with my bank.

martin_a 4y ago
PayPal is a good service I think. If it wasn't invented, somebody should do it. It's just that their way of doing things is just crazy and broken sometimes.

pavlov 4y ago

Well, I agree about PayPal. But their whole business is predicated on being extremely vigilant against scammers, to the detriment of ordinary customers. But regular American bank accounts are pretty different from PayPal or European bank accounts. (The original poster is talking about Chase so I assume the account in question was a regular checking account.) I lived in the US for a couple of years, and the oddities of banking were a bit of a shock to me. In Europe we're used to bank transfers just working and costing nothing, but there isn't really an equivalent in the American system at all! You can send a "wire" which usually costs $15-30 depending on the bank, and is meant for larger amounts and business transactions. Or, there's something called ACH which you can use to pay bills and businesses can use to send you money (e.g. paycheck deposits), but ordinary banking customers can't use ACH to send money to each other. To address this obvious deficiency, banks have cooked up their own system called Zelle which is like a weird proprietary hybrid of PayPal and a European-style bank transfer. (Apparently it's so confusing to US bank customers that Zelle is widely used by fraudsters.) So, when the OP wrote that they've been receiving deposits in the account that was closed, I'm curious to know what kind of deposits those were. Wires? ACH from businesses? Zelle? This could be a major factor in why the account triggered a red light at the compliance department.

martin_a 4y ago
That is some crazy mess people are dealing with over there. I'm just happy for free SEPA-transfers...
- pavlov 4y ago
  People still use paper checks in the USA! I managed to live for 40 years without writing a check, but in America these 20th century relics remain unavoidable. For example, when leaving my NYC rental, the management company required I send them two paper checks: one to cover the move-out fee (use of the building elevator), another check as insurance which they’d only cash if my movers broke something. The first checks I wrote were lost in the mail, so then I made a trip downtown to deliver these pieces of paper in person… An absurdly retro payment experience.
dkjaudyeqooe 4y ago
> Or, there's something called ACH which you can use to pay bills and businesses can use to send you money (e.g. paycheck deposits), but ordinary banking customers can't use ACH to send money to each other. This is possible with some bill payment systems with some banks. You can send anyone money and it is either transferred via ACH or they send a physical check. The big banks generally don't support this. I agree that ACH is broken because you can't use it to transfer money to anyone.
- wiredfool 4y ago
  It's not broken, _tons_ of money goes over it every day. It just has basically no internal security once you get past the gatekeeper (your bank), and optimistic concurrency, and it's reversible.
cowsandmilk 4y ago
> ordinary banking customers can't use ACH to send money to each other. This is just because you chose a crappy bank. My bank supports it via online banking, but I admit not all do. https://www.navyfederal.org/services/transfers/ach.html https://www.navyfederal.org/services/transfers/ach.html