PayPal Reviews, Complaints & Contacts

Contacts

PhoneEmailAddress

• Official websitepaypal.com/us/home ↗

Customer service & general contact

• Contact Us and help centerpaypal.com/us/cshelp/contact-us ↗
• Customer service and error resolution line(888) 221-1161 200 complaints mention this number
• PayPal Credit digital line customer service (Synchrony Bank)(844) 373-4961
• PayPal Credit Card customer service (Synchrony Bank)(844) 209-7457

Cancel, billing & returns

• PayPal feespaypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees ↗

Report abuse or suspicious activity

• Forward suspicious or phishing emails and texts[email protected]

Locations

• Headquarters2211 N 1st St San Jose CA 95131

Company Information

BBB, CFPB, Trustpilot

Legal name

PayPal, Inc.

Founded

1999

Business type

Online payments company (PayPal, Inc., operating subsidiary of PayPal Holdings, Inc.) headquartered in San Jose, California, offering digital wallets, buyer and seller payments, PayPal Credit and the Venmo, Xoom and Honey brands

Website

paypal.comSource: PayPal US website, checked 2026-10-27

Headquarters

San Jose, CASource: BBB business profile for PayPal, Inc., checked 2026-10-27

Owned by

PayPal Holdings, Inc.Source: PayPal User Agreement, which names PayPal Holdings, Inc. as the parent of PayPal, Inc., checked 2026-10-27

Independent Sources

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

Complaint Themes

Themes summarize what people write about most often. One complaint can touch several themes, and some complaints (a positive report, or one later retracted by its author) fit none, so themes are not a count of complaints.

Reviews & Complaints on USAComplaints

USAComplaints currently maintains 909 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 on this page.

• Six-Month Hold on $426.90 Customer Payment, Then Funds TakenPublished Aug 3, 2016 · Historical consumer allegation
• Guess Watch JR2905 Paid in September, Never Arrived or RefundedPublished Jan 15, 2014 · Historical consumer allegation
• Money Taken Back Months After Sale, No Buyer Help EitherPublished Dec 15, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Spanish-Only Website and No Way to Contact Them From SpainPublished Dec 12, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Bills Arriving for an Account I Never EstablishedPublished Oct 28, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation

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

BBB. PayPal, Inc. is BBB Accredited with an A rating. BBB shows 25,916 complaints filed in the last 3 years, 6,845 of them in the last 12 months, and an average of 1.08 out of 5 stars from 1,922 customer reviews.

CFPB. The CFPB Consumer Complaint Database lists 43,773 complaints about Paypal Holdings, Inc, 12,398 of them received in the last 12 months. Most fall under the product category money transfer, virtual currency or money service (31,233). The most common issues are managing, opening or closing a mobile wallet account (7,745), fraud (6,246), unauthorized transactions or other transaction problems (6,185) and trouble accessing funds in a mobile or digital wallet (4,055). PayPal closed 28,345 complaints with an explanation, 8,576 with non-monetary relief and 6,529 with monetary relief.

Trustpilot. The www.paypal.com page shows a TrustScore of 1.4 from 42,116 reviews, 6,871 of them in the last 12 months. PayPal claimed the page in May 2018, has replied to 0% of negative reviews and, according to Trustpilot, has not invited customers to review recently, so the reviews may not be representative.

These sources count in different ways and should not be added together. BBB and CFPB entries are consumers' own submissions, and they may also cover Venmo, Xoom and Honey.

This site's archive. 909 archived complaints, dated 2001 to 2016 and mostly 2005 to 2013, are about PayPal itself. Further related posts cover Bill Me Later before eBay, then PayPal's parent, bought it in November 2008, emails or websites impersonating PayPal, and complaints that name PayPal together with another company. Many older posts also name eBay, because PayPal processed most eBay payments in those years. All of them are consumers' own accounts.

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

Most complaints about PayPal concern a limited account, money on hold, a buyer or seller dispute, or a charge the account holder does not recognize. PayPal's own terms set the rules and deadlines on this page; act quickly, because several deadlines are short.

• Contact PayPal first. Start from the Contact Us page (paypal.com/us/cshelp/contact-us) or the Resolution Center in your account. PayPal's User Agreement gives the phone number (888) 221-1161 and a mailing address for errors and unauthorized transactions: PayPal, Attn: Error Resolution Department, P.O. Box 45950, Omaha, NE 68145-0950. Write down every case number and keep screenshots of emails and transaction IDs.
• PayPal Credit and the PayPal Credit Card. PayPal says these accounts are serviced by Synchrony Bank: call (844) 373-4961 about a PayPal Credit digital line and (844) 209-7457 about a PayPal Credit Card.
• Suspicious emails and texts. PayPal asks customers to forward the entire suspicious email or text to [email protected] and then delete it.
• What the User Agreement says about holds and limitations. The PayPal User Agreement has a section titled 'Holds, Limitations, and Reserves'. It says PayPal 'may take account-level or transaction-level actions' to protect PayPal and the network of buyers and sellers, that unless otherwise noted it will 'provide you with notice of our actions, but we retain the sole discretion to take these actions'. It adds that 'Risk-based holds generally remain in place for up to 21 days from the date the payment was received' and that PayPal may release a hold earlier, for example once shipment tracking is uploaded.
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  On limitations it says that, unless a permanent limitation is placed, 'you will need to resolve any issues with your account before a limitation can be removed', which is normally done '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. Under the User Agreement, 'PayPal determines, in its sole discretion, whether your claim is eligible' for Purchase Protection. PayPal's Purchase Protection Program page sets these deadlines: an Item Not Received dispute 'must be opened within 180 days of the date you sent the payment to the seller'; a Significantly Not as Described dispute must be opened within 30 days of delivery or fulfillment of the order or within 180 days of the payment, whichever is sooner; and if you and the seller cannot agree, you must escalate the dispute to a claim for reimbursement within 20 days after opening it, 'or we will automatically close the dispute'. Disputes and escalations are handled in the Resolution Center. Eligibility rules and excluded items are listed on that page.
• Card-funded payments: PayPal or your card issuer, not both. If a debit or credit card funded the payment, the same page says you may dispute it with the card issuer instead, and that card chargeback rights may be broader than Purchase Protection. You must choose one route: if you open a card dispute for the same transaction PayPal closes its own dispute or claim, and after a card dispute you cannot open one with PayPal. For a credit card, the federal Fair Credit Billing Act generally requires a written billing-error notice to the card issuer within 60 days after the issuer sent the first statement showing the charge.
• Unauthorized transfers and errors. The User Agreement tells you to report a lost or stolen login or a transfer you did not make at once. If you do not report an unauthorized transfer shown on your statement within 60 days after PayPal provided that statement, you may not get back money lost after those 60 days if PayPal can prove it could have stopped the loss had you told it in time. For a suspected error, PayPal says it 'will determine whether an error occurred within 10 Business Days after we hear from you', or may take up to 45 days to investigate, in which case it will provisionally credit your account within 10 Business Days. If you report by phone, PayPal may require the complaint in writing within 10 Business Days.
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  Report by phone at (888) 221-1161, through the Resolution Center or by mail to the Error Resolution Department address on this page.

• 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'.
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  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)'. Disputes go to individual arbitration, with jury trials and class actions waived, but either side may instead take a dispute to small claims court if it stays an individual case. Before either step you must send PayPal a completed Notice of Dispute form by certified mail to PayPal, Inc., Attn: Legal Specialists, Re: Notice of Dispute, P.O. Box 45950, Omaha, NE 68145-0950; both sides then have 60 days after a complete notice is received to try to settle in good faith. Opting out of arbitration is possible only 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, Re: PayPal Opt-Out Notice, 2211 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95131, so for most existing users that window has closed.
• Your bank. For an unauthorized charge you can also contact the bank that funded the payment.
• Regulators. The CFPB takes complaints about PayPal accounts, money transfers, digital wallets and PayPal Credit at consumerfinance.gov/complaint and forwards them to the company for a response. PayPal, Inc. is also a state-licensed money transmitter, and its licenses page lists each state regulator that accepts complaints, for example the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (1-866-275-2677) and the New York State Department of Financial Services Consumer Assistance Unit (800-342-3736); Texas residents are told to contact PayPal first and then the Texas Department of Banking.
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  Your state attorney general's consumer-protection office also takes complaints. Report fraud involving a PayPal payment to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

• BBB. BBB accepts complaints through the PayPal, Inc. profile and asks that the complaint name the brand concerned: PayPal, Venmo, Honey or Xoom.

PayPal is a different business from the eBay, Etsy or other seller you paid, and from the 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 disclosed 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. It also alleged that PayPal charged deferred interest that consumers could not avoid because they could not get help applying payments to promotional balances. PayPal's quarterly report for the third quarter of 2015 says that in May 2015 it entered into a stipulated final judgment and consent order with the CFPB requiring $15 million in redress for affected consumers, a $10 million civil money penalty and changes to PayPal Credit disclosures and practices. An amended stipulated final judgment dated January 10, 2019 keeps the $15 million redress and $10 million penalty; it states that the defendants neither admit nor deny the allegations and that it was entered without adjudication of any issue of fact or law.

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 and improved its cybersecurity practices'.

Court cases

Court records

Two consumer-protection cases are listed on this page. The CFPB's 2015 lawsuit over PayPal Credit in federal court in Maryland was settled in May 2015 by a stipulated final judgment and consent order, which was amended in January 2019. The State of Hawai'i's 2022 lawsuit over PayPal and Venmo marketing ended in a $6 million settlement in December 2025, with PayPal denying the claims.

Court & Public Records

Who operates PayPal

U.S. PayPal accounts are provided by PayPal, Inc., a corporation headquartered at 2211 North First Street, San Jose, California; BBB gives its business start as 1999. PayPal's User Agreement names PayPal Holdings, Inc. as the parent of PayPal, Inc. PayPal Holdings is a Nasdaq-listed company that has been independent since July 17, 2015, when eBay, which had owned PayPal since 2002, distributed its PayPal shares to eBay shareholders. In its Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 the company reports 439 million active accounts in about 200 markets at December 31, 2025.

PayPal, Inc. is licensed as a money transmitter in U.S. states (NMLS ID 910457), including by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation and the New York State Department of Financial Services. PayPal Credit, formerly Bill Me Later, is a consumer credit line whose accounts PayPal says are serviced by Synchrony Bank; the product began at Bill Me Later, Inc., which PayPal acquired. Venmo, Xoom and Honey are separate PayPal brands; BBB lists Honey among the profile's alternate names and asks complainants to name the brand concerned.

A business that accepts PayPal is not PayPal. Many complaints about PayPal are really disputes with the seller or marketplace that was paid through it.

Company Relationships

• Owned byPayPal Holdings, Inc.
• Affiliated withBill Me Later, Inc.

Frequently Asked Questions