Thanks for your testimonials, very instructive.

In my experience, it is indeed very important to have both the sending and receiving Paypal accounts linked to bank accounts in respective countries. Note that the Paypal accounts should also be in “Verified” status to avoid fees and issues- perhaps that is what is missing and why you are having issues on the French side. The verification process is different from country to country. In Belgium, linking the Paypal account to bank account and sending a proof of identity will do it.

Since I wrote the post, I have done several more transfers successfully, exactly as described.

Hope you will get it working as well,
Kosta

- I then called the US Paypal customer service to find a solution with them. The lady on the phone transferred my call to a senior folk which offered a FULL REFUND to my US Paypal account including all fees processed up to date. His words ” As if it never took place”. Within 15 minutes my US Paypal balance was credited back $1060.62 which is exactly the amount that had been charged on US checking account in the first place.
- Having a $500 monthly withdrawal limit from my US Paypal account, it will take about a month to get most of my money back onto my checking account for a $1.5 fee per $500 check sent.
- The US customer service has proven helpful resolving my issue but the service offered by Paypal is not up to the task according to my experience (complete failure to transfer money, 3 weeks wasted, tons of hours trying to work it out, $4.5 total cost for checks sent by US Paypal (wire transfer would cost me more on my bank’s side).

Are you still confident enough to give it a try?

FYI, USForex is not licensed in my state which makes it a no go as well.

- on my french Paypal account, you have to register a bank account where to send the money, if it is not already done,
- then I initiated a wire transfer between my french Paypal account and my french bank account, at no fee,

Here starts the trouble
- at this point, Paypal France flagged my account as “unsafe” for two reasons : exceptional account activity (well, I am not using Paypal very often) and access from abroad (sure I live in the US)
- the fact that only your name shows up on any involved accounts is not enough to make it a safe transaction, as it seems.
- So, my french Paypal account has been frozen before the wire transfer went through. The money is currently frozen onto my french Paypal account until I submit sufficient proofs of my identity.
- the initial security question to restore access to my account was giving details about an old credit card I had in France and don’t have anymore. I emailed Paypal France a couple times but they are not answering (it has been a week). I can not reach them on the phone either because it is a special phone number.
- So, I tried the US Paypal customer service, which is a pain is the ass as it makes it extremely difficult to get a real person on the phone, you must NOT answer any of the prerecorded questions for about 2-3 minutes and then you will eventually be transfered to a real human being.
- at first, he tried to say, I have to resolve the issue with Paypal France (remember I couldn’t). I told him so and he transfered my call to a colleague who was able to access my french Paypal account and remove the credit card security question.
- Instead, I have been asked to submit a scan of an ID with a picture (i.e. my passport), which I did.
- Not enough, no they want a scan of my french bank statement (I don’t have one with me but can get one through my family, hopefully). If no one can access this type of document for you, beware!
- I have no idea what they will ask next nor how long it will take to go through this mess,
- On top of that, I have been charge 3Eur for my french wire transfer being cancelled (by them…)

SO, in my opinion, Paypal is definitely NOT the company you want to deal with for transferring YOUR money between YOUR accounts, even though they offer interesting rates…

(800Eur on the destination account costs me $1060, that is $1030 money + $30 fees)
It also costs me hours of my time for a very simple transaction…and takes weeks…