Paypal has been one of the frontrunners in the industry for sending and receiving money online. I still remember back then when it was launching the Paypal wishlist during my college days.
Wherein if you recruited a friend to create a wishlist you will earn $1.00 per successful entry automatically with a limit of 100 friends per account. KYC or Know Your customer is not that an issue as they will just accept whatever info that the client will just provide in their Facebook account.
Fast forward to 2022 we have multiple online wallets that are available and still, Paypal can be considered as one of the biggest companies to speak. To avoid issues like money laundering and other possible crimes that may happen KYC has been strictly implemented on the said site. Not only Paypal but I think the majority of the centralized wallets.
Earlier, my younger brother sent me a message asking if I can access my own Paypal as his main account got restricted, and told him that I still can and everything looks perfectly fine. He was asked to provide additional details like identification cards for the company to review. Btw, my younger bro have his account for more than 10 years already and it is used when he gets his commission at work.
Now here's the problem acquiring an ID is hard in the Philippines. For you to get one, you will need to have one and it will take weeks for you to get one plus the long lines that you need to endure to secure a possible slot.
As his Paypal account got restricted this time, he tried to send some money to my personal account as he needs to withdraw his hard-earned cash for his expenses. The sad part is he cannot do anything as of now.
He cannot transfer or even send money to everyone while his account is restricted. However, HE CAN STILL RECEIVE MONEY.
It was a bit frustrating on his side as he is not allowed to take out some $$ but he can still receive one. I mean what is the point of getting paid when he cannot withdraw the funds.
This works with other wallets, such as of myself my Coins.ph account got restricted too because of address issues. Since I am an NPA / no permanent address guy it triggered their system and I need to provide more supporting docs relating to my identity which I don't want to comply with anymore. It is frustrating, but I had to let it go.
As for my younger bro, I just asked him to use my account in the meantime and update his invoice and change the email to mine since I am not using it. I also informed him that once he has the money, immediately withdraw the money and do not let it stay there as we will never know what will happen if my own account got restricted too.
At the end of the day... I still don't put trust in centralized wallets as they can freeze your accounts anytime and you can bid goodbye to your money afterward. Or if they will release your money after restriction you need to wait for a minimum of 6months.
The irony is my work is related to banks and few years ago when Paypal launched it's new site in Muntinlupa I am one of the excited folks that are itching to apply to their company as the pay and the benefits are way better than the competition within the area. I just didn't push through with the process as the only opening back then is a phone representative which I am trying to stay away as I am so sick of taking in phone calls.