Rambling Rose

Sorry folks I'm off on one of my rants

I transferred my PayPay and Ebay accounts to my spanish address with no problem when we moved here over 4 years ago.

The PayPal account had my UK M&S credit card and my Lloyds TSB debit card registered to it. I continued to operate the account in GDP as almost everything I buy on Ebay comes from the UK. I get a small income paid into my Lloyds account quarterly that is not worth transferring to euros. I use this when I visit the UK or for purchases on UK websites using the M&S card.

Earlier this year the M&S card expired and the new one arrived with a different number. I tried 3 times to register it with PayPal and then it got blocked. When I tried to get an explanation from them they just said the Spanish PayPal site won't accept cards from other countries. They said my debit card was still OK and when it expired in November I could just update the expiry date.

However my new debit card also has a new number so the site won't accept that now. It won't accept non spanish bank accounts either. This leaves me unable to use PayPal unless I first transfer my money to euros only to spend it in £ and lose on the exchange rate back again.

Whilst I can accept they don't want to link a UK bank account, I don't understand why cards which are acceptable on every other website in the world can't be used on PayPal. Surely this is discriminatory in some way?

Has anyone else had this problem? I've tried to take it up with PayPal and am now talking to EBay UK about it (as in I can't use you - PayPal won't let me).

Lionda

I had a paypal account before we moved to Spain and changed my address to my Spanish address without a problem. However from changing my address I got messages from paypal entirely in Spanish. Since returning to England I can't change it back to English and the cards I had registered with them have long since expired. Can't be bothered with it as I haven't needed to use it. I may look into it though since you have mentioned it.

lyric030250

Me too, cards just not accepted.
Has pay pal started to talk to you in Spanish too as that is where you live? my log in has and won't allow me to change the default language to English either

bxpuser24710519

I could join your rant no bother. I have had unbelievable hassles with them and got no where.I had both my UK and Spanish cards fail to be accepted. They cannot even delete my account as instructed. I really don't know why businesses use them, in fact 2 on line businesses I use have changed to other methods as they were having problems with them. It is a real pain as on e bay there are a lot of things I would love to buy but paypal is often the only method accepted. Like you I mostly buy in GBP.

My other soap box issue is the assumption that when they see you are in Spain they can communicate in spanish and mostly you have no way of changing language grrrrrrrrr

Fred James

My login page is Spanish but once logged on it's in English.

Go to Profile, More Options and you will see an option to set the preferred language.

snikpoh

I have both a UK PayPal account and a Spanish one. The UK one is linked to a UK card and the Spanish to a card in Spain.

However, for both accounts I use a Spanish billing address and a Spanish delivery address (although I sometimes get stuff sent to an address in UK).

It did take some time to get this all organised but it IS possible.

bxpuser24710519

Life is too short to waste time trying to figure some things out, if it is that complex then they are not customer friendly. I am sure they will not miss my business.

anonimouse

Yes I have had this problem many times, because I have properties in other countries, when I go there for a spell I have to close my Paypal account and open a new one in that country, they will not accept a card that was previously registered with them, fortunately I have about 7 cards so can get away with it, but I have to agree it is a real pain in the backside. I think it would be possible to revert back to a card I have used previously so long as it wasn't the last card.

P.s. The card must be registered at the address you live at and Paypal will not let you change address to another country without opening a new account

jo-ann

I have had the same problems, it was all OK until I had to update to the new expiry date and then it would not accept the card, there reply was that to use a UK credit card it had to be linked to a UK address. So now use very rarely on Ebay with my spanish credit card, or else get my sister to buy it for me and then repay her. It seems so strange when the same credit card can be used for any other site!!!!!!!!

jdr

Biggest load of crap ever, I opened an account in Spain using a UK card and used it a few times no problem.
Then I went to use it again but they had put a block on the UK card and told me to join again.
I said what is the point, I opened the original account in Spain and all the details will be the same and you just told me it`s not valid account, just close my account and I will spend my money elswhere.

scampicat

I kept my UK credit card linked to my UK address and used it with Paypal with no problem.

angiescarr

Paypal's choice of language can be really annoying for me too. It just chooses the language for my customers. If they don't have a paypal account it just bills them in Spanish. I lose customers this way though I really try to make it easy for them but when I'm trying, for example, to explain to a French customer, how to set her own language preferences it just confuses everybody. Plus they send all their update info etc to me in Spanish although I've told them not to and I bill in £s, my name is English... You'd think that they'd get it... But they don't try.

megmet

I've had the same kind of problems with them!
I used them for many years in England but when we moved here I was told I'd have to close my English account and join again on their Spanish site.

All worked well, I used the same English card but now with my Spanish billing address....then a few weeks ago the card expired....
Paypal just will not accept the new expiracy date even though it's backed with the same verified English bank account I've been using all along.

I just think they are not worth the bother.....
If sites I'm a member of will only take payment via them then I'm afraid my membership will just have to expire, I've no intention of putting up any longer with such an inefficient organisation as Paypal!

scampicat

We never told Paypal we had moved to Spain, never even thought about it as we still had an English address which was the address on the credit card.

I'm so glad we didn't, judging by what others have gone through!

Rambling Rose

Now this is interesting. I tried opening another UK PayPal account using my mothers address (I don't have a UK address myself). However as my credit cards are registered to my spanish address they weren't verified. Snikpoh - how did you manage it?

By the way, I notice that if you try to add a bank account you can add either a spanish or US one. Interesting they cater for american expats but no others.