Guys, thanks for hearing my warning, do let me know if any of you have had a successful resolution to this, should it have happened to one of you in the past.

My credit card expired five days ago and PayPal removed it from my account - kindly sending me an email notice that this was the case. Okay, I'll have to put the new one in I thought to myself.

Well, I made a transaction yesterday to a PKF member to make matters worse and the he emailed me today saying he's not worried but the payment still hasn't cleared. Odd, I thought. I logged into PayPal to see what's going on and see FOUR transactions marked "Uncleared"?! I thought maybe it was the credit card so I put in the card number with the new expiry date and got an error message back saying that credit card number has been disabled for use through PayPal.

You bet I called PayPal.

I was told that since it had been removed from the system I could no longer use that card number and would have to call my bank and have them issue a new card number to me.

Pardon me? Why cant they just update the expiry date?

Really though, imagine what they are expecting me to do. If I call and change my credit card number (happens to be the WIFE'S credit card to complicate the issue) just to get instant payments setup again through PayPal I then have to phone our utility company, change the number they have on file. I have to call EVERYONE I have web based subscriptions to and give them the new number. I have to call my insurance company, my health club, my life insurance and savings plan companies, I have to call the doggie daycare, the cell phone provider.....

See where I'm going here?

Can you HONESTLY tell me that what I hope and trust to be the most robust money handling service out there would build in such an "end of the line" issue in their system? Seriously?

My issue has been escalated but I was not given any indication that I should be expecting the credit card to be back up. To me this means a few things, first and foremost that I cannot / will not use eBay again. Most auctions require payment within 3 days of the auction end and my now non-secured PayPal account needs at least four BUSINESS days to process a transaction. So no, can't use eBay. I can't use PayPal to send payment either because why on earth would I? It's quicker for me to send a hand written cheque via regular mail!

Please tell me someone else has had this issue and was able to get the old credit card number back into the system. Please......

I really hate the way paypal does things it's a nightmare to deal with them sometimes...
when i moved to america i changed my billing address to my new USA address, soon after this paypal told me my card is no longer valid and needed updating, i try to enter a new address but i can't have an address outside of england, they tell me to set up a new paypal account for use in america but then i'm not able to have an english account number with an american address... it was a real pain when i initially got here...

I dunno what you can do unfortunately do you not have any debit or other credit cards you can use for direct payments?

Paypal has hoarded the market, no one else can get a wink in. When google brought out their checkout system, ebay swiftly banned ebay users from being able to use it as a payment method so they could keep the millions they're making off paypal... It sucks....

Hope you can figure something out

I have not had this issue , but I have had plenty others with paypal. Their customer service is horrible. How long did it take you when you called to actually talk to someone? It usually takes me a minimum of 30 minutes. Then when they do answer the phone there is never anything they can do for you. Its like they are reading automated responces off the computer screen. I have called a number of times and not once have they helped me. As you said though they have the corner on the market and they can get away with all this crap. You can send postal money orders ... they are good as gold. You are able to cash those right at the post office. I hope you can get something worked out.

Have you considered attaching your bank account to PayPal rather than a credit card? CC's may come and go, but your bank account rarely changes.

yeah, if you use a confirmed bank account you can transfer paypal money back into the account if you sell something. I was leery for a couple years but finally held my nose and did it. No problems yet at all.

On the other hand,you could open a credit card account just for Paypal. If you run into the same problem, cancel the account and open a new one. Since it is paypal only, there is no upheaval.

That's the biggest bugger of all. I've always had the funds pulled from my bank account, the credit card was just there to "guarantee" the transfers allowing them to be instant. Without the CC backing it takes four business days for the funds to process.

Speaking of PayPal's overuse of "form mailers" - received today:

As part of PayPal's commitment to excellence, I want to make sure I met your needs during our conversation. Would you please take a minute to answer a few questions to let me know how I did?