PayPal

Complaints & Reviews on USAComplaints

USAComplaints currently maintains 870 historical complaints about PayPal, published between 2001 and 2016. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources below.

• Held $426.90 for six months, then took the fundsPublished Aug 3, 2016 · Historical consumer allegation
• Watch Never Arrived and No Refund After Four MonthsPublished Jan 15, 2014 · Historical consumer allegation
• No Security for Seller or Buyer! Shocking!Published Dec 15, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• You are left with No Choice!Published Dec 12, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Sep 1, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Jul 10, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Bad bad bad service and websitePublished Jul 3, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Did You Know PayPal Offers a Debit Card? - Debit CardPublished Jun 29, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Jun 23, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Jun 21, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Jun 12, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished May 31, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished May 29, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Non-payment of refund - trans. Id. 8fh03112v5281094yPublished May 7, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Apr 29, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Apr 27, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Apr 23, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Paypal is run by insensitive computersPublished Apr 22, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Apr 18, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Cell phone battPublished Apr 4, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation

Complaint Themes

Each tag reflects a complaint's single primary theme (not every angle it raised), and complaints outside any problem theme — a positive report, or one later retracted by its author — aren't tagged. Counts may total less than the full complaint count above.

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

Contacts

• Official website: https://www.paypal.com/us/home
• Contact Us and help center: https://www.paypal.com/us/cshelp/contact-us
• Customer service / error resolution (User Agreement): (888) 221-1161 205 complaints mention this number

Locations

PayPal complaints: holds, limits, disputes and where to take a problem

This page was checked on 2026-10-20. Most complaints about PayPal concern an account limitation, a hold on funds, a payment dispute or an unrecognised charge. The steps below use PayPal's own pages and the public complaint routes.

• PayPal's own channels. The Contact Us page (paypal.com/us/cshelp/contact-us) offers chat, a 'Call us' option and topic areas including 'Disputes and account limitations' (payment disputes, chargeback, limitation), 'Payments' (holds, declines, refunds, withdrawals/transfers) and 'PayPal Credit' (applications, payments, billing). On the Contact Us page the phone number is shown only after a 'Call Customer Service' step that we did not complete. PayPal's User Agreement, however, publishes (888) 221-1161: it says 'please contact PayPal customer service immediately or call: (888) 221-1161 or write: PayPal, Attn: Error Resolution Department, P.O. Box 45950, Omaha, NE 68145-0950'. BBB also lists this number.
• What the User Agreement says about holds and limitations. The PayPal User Agreement (last updated September 14, 2026) has a section 'Holds, Limitations, and Reserves'. It says PayPal 'may take account-level or transaction-level actions' to protect PayPal and the network, that it will 'provide you with notice of our actions' unless otherwise noted, and that 'Risk-based holds generally remain in place for up to 21 days from the date the payment was received', which may be longer if the payment is challenged. On limitations it says 'you will need to resolve any issues with your account before a limitation can be removed', normally 'after you provide us with the information we request'. For business accounts it says PayPal 'may place a reserve on your business account at any time' where it sees high risk.
• Disputes about a purchase. The agreement describes a Purchase Protection program under which 'PayPal determines, in its sole discretion' whether a claim is eligible. PayPal's Purchase Protection page (last updated January 26, 2026, opened 2026-10-20) says: 'Item Not Received' dispute 'must be opened within 180 days of the date you sent the payment to the seller'; 'Significantly Not as Described' dispute 'must be opened (i) within 30 days of the date of delivery or fulfillment (as applicable) of an order or (ii) within 180 days of the date you sent the payment to the seller, whichever is sooner'; and the buyer must 'Escalate the dispute to a claim for reimbursement within 20 days after opening the dispute' or PayPal will 'automatically close the dispute'. For unauthorized transactions the page says 'Refer to the user agreement for applicable timeframes.' Eligibility rules and exclusions are on that page.
• Errors and unauthorized transfers. The User Agreement says: 'If you do not tell us within 60 days after we provided the statement to you, you may not get back any money you lost' in the circumstances it describes, and that PayPal 'will determine whether an error occurred within 10 Business Days after we hear from you' or, if it needs more time, 'may take up to 45 days to investigate'. Reports can be made by phone, through the Resolution Center or by mail to the Error Resolution Department address above.
• Longer holds and how to ask about them. The User Agreement says PayPal may hold a balance 'for up to 180 days if reasonably needed to protect against the risk of liability or if you have violated our Acceptable Use Policy', and that 'The hold may remain in place longer than 180 days according to Court Orders, Regulatory Requirements, or Other Legal Processes'. To request information about an account limitation, hold or reserve it says 'you should visit the Resolution Center or follow the instructions in our email notice'.
• Arbitration and class-action waiver. The User Agreement has a section titled 'Dispute Resolution (Including Arbitration Agreement, Class Action Waiver, and Jury Trial Waiver)'. It allows an opt-out by written notice 'postmarked no later than 30 days after the date you accept the user agreement for the first time', mailed to PayPal, Inc., Attn: Litigation Department (address in the agreement). Read the section itself before relying on this summary.
• Your card issuer or bank. For an unauthorised charge you can also contact the bank or card issuer that funded the payment; keep screenshots, transaction IDs and PayPal case numbers.
• Regulators. Complaints about financial products, including PayPal Credit and money-transfer or wallet accounts, can be submitted to the CFPB (consumerfinance.gov/complaint). The CFPB database lists PayPal Holdings, Inc; see the complaint-record section for the counts as displayed. State attorneys general and state financial regulators also take complaints.
• BBB. BBB accepts complaints through the PayPal, Inc. profile and asks that the complaint name the entity concerned (Venmo, Honey, PayPal or Xoom).

PayPal is a different business from the eBay, Etsy or other seller you paid, and from a buyer or seller on the other side of a transaction. Complaints on this site were written by consumers and are their accounts, not findings.

Regulator actions: CFPB, New York DFS, FTC and open investigations

CFPB, PayPal Credit (2015). On May 19, 2015 the CFPB filed a complaint and a proposed consent order in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland (case 1:15-cv-01426) against PayPal, Inc. about PayPal Credit, formerly Bill Me Later. The CFPB alleged, among other things, that PayPal enrolled consumers in PayPal Credit without their knowledge or consent, preselected PayPal Credit as the default payment method, failed to honor advertised promotions and mishandled billing disputes. Under the proposed order PayPal would pay $15 million in consumer redress and a $10 million civil penalty. The CFPB press release says 'The proposed consent order is not a finding or ruling that the company has actually violated the law.' The CFPB's case page lists an 'Amended Stipulated Final Judgment and Order' among its documents and the status 'Post Order/Post Judgment'; we did not read the court-entered order itself, so the final terms are as published by the CFPB, not independently confirmed here.

New York DFS, cybersecurity (January 23, 2025). The New York State Department of Financial Services announced that PayPal, Inc. 'will pay a $2 million penalty' for violations of its Cybersecurity Regulation. The press release says the investigation found PayPal failed to use qualified personnel for key cybersecurity functions and to provide adequate training, which led to customer information including Social Security numbers being left unredacted and accessible when IRS Form 1099-K data flows were changed, and that cybercriminals used compromised credentials to access Form 1099-Ks. It adds that PayPal 'has since remediated these issues'. We did not read the consent order text, so its admission language is not stated here.

FTC, Venmo (2018). The FTC's matter 'In the Matter of PayPal, Inc.' (file 162 3102) concerns PayPal's Venmo service: the FTC announced a proposed settlement on February 27, 2018 over allegations that Venmo failed to disclose information to consumers about the ability to transfer funds and privacy settings and violated the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and its legal library page lists a final Decision and Order dated May 24, 2018. We did not read the order text.

State of Hawai'i, consumer protection (filed 2022). PayPal Holdings' Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (Note 13) says that on December 20, 2022 a civil lawsuit captioned State of Hawai'i, by its Office of Consumer Protection, v. PayPal, Inc., and PayPal Holdings, Inc., Case No. 1CCV-22-0001610, was filed in the Circuit Court of the First Circuit of the State of Hawai'i. The 10-K describes the claims as unfair and deceptive acts and practices under Hawai'i Revised Statutes Sections 480-2(a) and 481A-3(a), which are allegations, and says the plaintiff seeks injunctive relief and unspecified penalties and other monetary relief. It adds that the court denied the defendants' motion to dismiss on July 14, 2023 and: 'We executed a final settlement in this matter on December 17, 2025.' The settlement terms were not in the sources checked, so no amount or admission is stated here, and the case does not appear in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026.

Disclosed investigations (not findings). PayPal Holdings' Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (filed 2026-02-03, Note 13) and its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (filed 2026-07-28) says the company received FTC Civil Investigative Demands in February 2022 (practices relating to commercial customers that submit charges on behalf of other merchants or sellers) and August 2025 (whether schemes by merchants on PayPal's platform were facilitated by its onboarding and due-diligence practices), CFPB CIDs about Regulation E error-resolution obligations and the presentment of transactions to linked bank accounts, and an August 2024 CFPB CID about PayPal Credit and backup payment options in a digital wallet. It says PayPal is cooperating. A CID is a request for information, not a finding. The 10-K also describes a German Federal Cartel Office proceeding about merchant contract terms in Germany. The 10-Q adds that in March 2026 PayPal received notices of investigations and requests for information from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority under the Competition Act 1998 regarding certain provisions in PayPal's agreements with Visa and Mastercard relating to funding and use of the PayPal digital wallet, and says PayPal is cooperating. These are the company's disclosures as of the 10-Q; developments after July 28, 2026 were not checked in a primary source.

Who operates PayPal

BBB lists PayPal, Inc. as a corporation headquartered at 2211 N 1st St, San Jose, California, with a business start of 1999 in BBB's page data. The CFPB complaint database lists the company as 'Paypal Holdings, Inc', and the Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 is filed by PayPal Holdings, Inc., which says it operates a platform with 439 million active accounts across approximately 200 markets as of December 31, 2025 (the company's figure). The 10-K refers to agreements with eBay 'governing our separation from eBay'. The CFPB's 2015 press release says PayPal Credit was formerly Bill Me Later, offered by Bill Me Later, Inc., which PayPal acquired. BBB lists Honey Science Corporation and Honey among the profile's alternate names, and its note names Venmo and Xoom; those are separate brands and complaints about them are not separated in the figures here.

Not every business that accepts PayPal is PayPal: many archive complaints are about sellers or marketplaces that took payment through it.

Complaint record: BBB, CFPB, Trustpilot and this site's archive

As displayed on 2026-10-20. BBB shows PayPal, Inc. as BBB Accredited with a BBB rating of A, 25,952 complaints in the last 3 years, 6,871 complaints in the last 12 months and, on its reviews tab, 1.08 out of 5 stars from an average of 1,918 customer reviews. Trustpilot (page 'Paypal', www.paypal.com) shows 1.4 from 41,990 reviews, with 6,740 reviews in the last 12 months, a claimed profile since May 2018, 'Replied to 0% of negative reviews' and a notice that the company hasn't invited customers recently so reviews may not be representative. The CFPB Consumer Complaint Database lists 43,401 complaints for 'Paypal Holdings, Inc' since April 2013 (12,189 received in the 12 months to 2026-10-20); the largest product category is 'Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service' (30,936), and the largest issue categories in CFPB's own labels are 'Managing, opening, or closing your mobile wallet account' (7,717), 'Fraud or scam' (6,191), 'Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem' (6,099) and 'Trouble accessing funds in your mobile or digital wallet' (3,986). Of the responses, 28,118 were 'Closed with explanation', 8,479 'Closed with non-monetary relief' and 6,449 'Closed with monetary relief'. These sources use different scopes and are not added together; BBB and CFPB figures include unverified consumer submissions and may include other PayPal brands.

This site's archive. 870 archived complaints, dated 2001 to 2016 and mostly 2005 to 2013, name PayPal as the offender; another 9 are reports of emails or websites impersonating PayPal and are linked as brand mentions only. They are consumers' own accounts and were not verified by us. Keyword counts on the linked complaints (one post can fall in several groups): account limitation, freeze or held funds 357; seller disputes, chargebacks or payment reversals 226; buyer disputes about items not received or not as described 133; unauthorized charges, hacked accounts or identity theft 112; PayPal Buyer Credit, Bill Me Later or credit-card billing 19. Many older posts also name eBay, because PayPal handled eBay payments for much of that period.

Court cases

Two court proceedings are listed below: the 2015 CFPB civil action (published documents described in the regulator section) and the State of Hawai'i consumer-protection suit that PayPal's Form 10-K says ended in a final settlement. PayPal Holdings' Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (Note 13) and its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (filed 2026-07-28) also describe securities and shareholder matters. These are investor claims, not consumer-complaint cases, and the claims are allegations. As disclosed in the 10-Q: in the securities class action In re PayPal Holdings, Inc. Securities Litigation, the court dismissed the claims without prejudice on January 29, 2025, the lead plaintiff filed an amended complaint on March 17, 2025, the court dismissed all claims with prejudice on March 31, 2026, and the plaintiffs filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on April 30, 2026. Separately, a putative securities class action filed February 24, 2026 (Darcy v. PayPal Holdings, Inc. et al., 3:26-cv-01589-JSC, N.D. Cal.) alleges that company statements were misleading because of a failure to disclose impediments to its branded checkout growth strategy; per the 10-Q it was consolidated under the caption In re PayPal Branded Checkout Securities Litigation and is pending. Consumer class actions and settlements against PayPal were not searched in dockets for this page; no inference should be drawn from their absence here.

Is PayPal Legitimate?

PayPal, Inc. is listed by BBB as a BBB Accredited Business with a rating of A and accreditation since 2001 (BBB page data), headquartered in San Jose, California. Its parent PayPal Holdings, Inc. files annual reports with the SEC, and the CFPB database lists the company. The same sources record a large volume of consumer complaints (see the complaint-record section) and public matters including a CFPB action over PayPal Credit (2015), a $2 million New York DFS cybersecurity penalty (January 2025), an FTC order concerning Venmo (2018) and a State of Hawai'i consumer-protection suit that the company's 10-K says ended in a final settlement (December 2025), described above with their own wording. Complaints and reviews on BBB, CFPB, Trustpilot and this site are consumers' statements; figures are as displayed on 2026-10-20.

Court & Public Records

Related Complaints

Names this company in a role other than the primary subject — not necessarily current or complete.

• Named as a brand of this company: Consumer Report
• Named as a brand of this company: "[email protected]" Do NOT click any links if you get an email from "[email protected]" it is not paypal
• Named as a brand of this company: Purportedly Trying to get personal information moodswingstudio.com/pix/paypals
• Named as a brand of this company: Paypal Phishing Email
• Named as a brand of this company: Fake PayPal warning email
• Named as a brand of this company: Scam update information email
• Named as a brand of this company: Fake Paypal Email looked 100% as though from Paypal but it wasn't.instructions to CANCEL lead to fraudulent website ripoff
• Named as a brand of this company: Fake Site? Ripoff This company is sending me emails saying to pay my fees and they have taken money out of my bank account and I don't even do business with PayPal
• Named as a brand of this company: Class Action Settlement? Ripoff

Company Relationships

• Owned by: PayPal Holdings, Inc.
• Formerly known as: Bill Me Later, Inc.

Frequently Asked Questions