Paypal problem:

Paypal wants me to link a bank account. I’ve given Paypal a credit card number to work with, but they still want a bank account.

OK. I have a bank account. I gave it to Paypal. Paypal says, “That account is already in use.” Why yes, it is. It is my joint checking account with my wife. Paypal seems to think that I’ll have another bank account somewhere, but I’m old fashioned and I have only a joint account. Paypal won’t let my wife and me give it the same checking account.

OK. I’ll just skip this step and use Paypal without a bank account. Except that after I charged $5000 over the years, Paypal says that I’ve reached the limit that I can charge without a bank number, and it demands a bank number. But it won’t accept my bank number…

OK. To heck with that account. I’ll just create a new Paypal account. It will be good for another $5000. Done.

eBay problem:

I changed my Paypal info to the new account at eBay. I’ve been happily buying things and that account has been getting charged. Then I sold an old MacBook. eBay sent the funds to the OLD Paypal account. That’s not good. I’m not charging anything to that account. Paypal almost got a free $450.

I just need to change the Paypal account that eBay uses for my selling. Oops. eBay tells me I have only one Paypal account. The new account. I called them. They say I can’t possibly have two Paypal accounts tied to my eBay account. But I have an email from them that shows that they credited my old Paypal account.

Here’s what I’m going to try:

Login to the OLD Paypal account.

Delete all of the authorized billers. (Including an old eBay link.)

Go to the eBay Account screen and delete the NEW Paypal account. (It is the only account they’ll show me.)

Via the eBay Account screen, re-add the new Paypal account.

I don’t sell on eBay often, so I may have to wait a year before I see if this works. If it doesn’t, they’ll credit my old Paypal account. If I can’t fix it, I’ll either have to keep the old Paypal account around, and REMEMBER to send the funds to my new account, or I can try deleting the old Paypal account, and see if eBay will say, “We can’t send you the money. Would you like us to fix that?”

If I do delete the old Paypal account, I need to try selling something CHEAP on eBay, to test out the fix.

UPDATE: Maybe this will work.

  1. Login to the OLD Paypal account.
    1. Choose Summary » Selling Tools » Seller Preferences.
    2. Aha! There is a connection to my eBay account here.
    3. Click the Update link, on the line with my eBay account name.
    4. Select the eBay account and press the Remove button
  2. Login to the NEW Paypal account.
    1. Choose Summary » Selling Tools » Seller Preferences.
    2. On the line where it says “Link my eBay ID to my PayPal account”, click Update.
    3. Press the Add button, and follow the process to add my eBay account.