I was recently preparing to go on a trip and the Travel Visa Card I have through All ACCESS says that you can transfer money into your Pay Pal account and then transfer the money to the Visa Travel Card.

So I followed their instructions and since I had never had any problems over the past year and have done hundreds of dollars in sales through Pay Pal I figured their would be no problem.

WRONG!

Once the money transferred from my bank account into my Pay Pal account everything was o.k. until I followed the instructions from All ACCESS Visa Travel Card. Once I did that, Pay Pal froze my account and limited my payments tying up the $500.00.

Not only that, they presented me with 5 ridiculous hoops to tie up the money.

1.) Verify your phone using their auto return call system.

2.) Fax them their bar code scan sheet with my Drivers License.

3.) Verify the Pay Pal deposits to the account. The problem is Pay Pal has blocked All ACCESS accounts preventing the All ACCESS accounts from receiving the small deposits Pay Pal makes to confirm your account. (According to All ACCESS, they have an agreement with Pay Pal that allows you to by-pass the confirmation and do an automatic deposit from funds in your Pay Pal account.)

4.) Make an internal confirmation by entering their resolution center online.

5.) Is mentioned below - Fax monthly bank statements from the account to Pay Pal.

So I did all of the above accept #5 which is impossible and then called them the following morning. The customer service person at Pay Pal seemed like she was going to help me and she said everything would be o.k. She also verified that I had I verified all their information other than meeting their confirmation requirements and #5 above which they e-mailed me later that night.

I asked the customer service person to remove the All ACCESS account completely in order to free up my Pay Pal account since I conduct a lot of business through Pay Pal at various times and was planning to have some business coming up as well as some purchases. She said it would not be a problem.

Later in the evening, I got a new e-mail message from Pay Pal wanting me to fax them a monthly bank account statement (#5 above).

Well, it is impossible! The All ACCESS account is for a Travel Visa Card and you do not receive a statement. Also, since I hadn't used the account for a year and was attempting to refill it, there were no recent transactions on it.

Upon calling ALL ACCESS and explaining the situation I was told that they could not find my account at that time and to call back sometime later.

Imagine my frustration since I was leaving the day after tomorrow to another state, but my money is frozen and tied up by Pay Pal.

To make things worse, I didn't realize that they had completely frozen my account so I was unable to send a payment through eBay for an item I had just purchased on eBay as a Pay Now item. I ended up having to run to a 24-hour Seven-11 Store for a money order to mail out before I left on my trip the following morning.

With my positive business reputation and my having a verified premier sales account with Pay Pal it is unfathomable that they have treated me this way.

I ended up having to call Pay Pal several times and their customer service told me that they could not fix it, delete out the ALL ACCESS Visa Card bank account number, nor could they release it so that I could delete off the account.

If this was a small amount of $100 or less, this would not be an issue. But when an institution like Pay Pal ties up my finances and is unwilling to cooperate with me for half of a grand. That is a big problem.

Seems like maybe it's time to start using the new Google Money system or BidPay which reopened recently.

Pay Pal is the worst experience I have ever had with any financial related service. All ACCESS Travel Visa Card is the second worst right below Pay Pal.

I have now had two similar problems with both of these companies within a year. Supposedly these two companies are working together, yet they are incapable of resolving their internal problems.

My advice is to avoid Pay Pal unless you’re only transferring the exact money from your bank to cover the cost of an item you’re buying on eBay or another service. Also, don't keep any money in your Pay Pal account and deposit to your bank as fast as possible.

As far as Travel Visa Debit Cards issued by All ACCESS, I recommend you try a different company. There are several other companies with the travel cards like American Express.

You'll be happier, longer if you follow this advice.



After Trip Follow-up: What it took to free my account

Fortunately, I had paid $2000 dollars into my normal credit card a few days before the trip, in case something like this happened, so my trip ended up being successful and despite having $500 tied up between Pay Pal and All Access Travel Visa, I had the best trip ever.

To clear up the situation with Pay Pal took the following:

1.) One phone call to their automated phone verification system which denied my business cell phone number and made me register my home number in order to process the verification.

2.) Log-in to Pay Pal and verify my account.

3.) Fax them their Case Number bar-coded sheet with my driver’s license.

4.) Three calls to Pay Pal to talk to useless customer service representatives. (The last customer representative left me on hold for 25 minutes and transferred me around to three other useless Pay Pal staff.)

5.) Two phone calls to ALL ACCESS VISA TRAVEL CARD company. The first call they were unable to locate my account and the second call the customer representative was unable to assist me and refered me to Pay Pals customer service.

6.) A fourth phone call in which I demanded to talk to a Pay Pal supervisor (who ended up making a snide remark as though the situation was funny) when I asked who I could talk to above her.

7.) Faxing another Pay Pal bar-coded sheet with an internet printout from my associated bank account and a transaction history from the online ALL ACCESS Visa Travel Card Account.

8.) Five days of waiting.

End Results

After returning from my trip, I logged into Pay Pal and saw that my account had been unfrozen and that the $500 I had deposited into Pay Pal had been transferred back to my associated bank account. They had also deleted out the account for ALL ACCESS VISA TRAVEL CARD that I was trying to register and transfer money into.

In response, I deleted out my two primary bank accounts associated with Pay Pal and removed Pay Pal from being a preferred payment option with my eBay account and replaced it with Bid Pay which recently reopened for business. I left one bank account that is not tied to my main source of funds in case I need to conduct transactions for customers with Pay Pal.

I told the Pay Pal supervisor who laughed about the situation and told me "Well, there are a lot of people higher than me as a supervisor, but that doesn't mean they will be able to help you", that I would use alternative payment forms in the future instead of Pay Pal - as they became available as an alternative in the future.


Final Conclusion

1.) Only use Pay Pal when you need a quick payment transaction or need to receive money for something you sold.

2.) If you can use Bid Pay or Google Check-in, money order or check, and time allows, use one of these options.

3.) If you’re buying something big and expensive that is covered by Pay Pals buying protection then use them if a credit card is not an option.

4.) Never use Pay Pal to store money in your account, they can lock up your money indefinitely, they are generally unhelpful and uncooperative, poor customer support, they are not a bank or financial institution and are unprotected. (Keep your money in your bank and only transfer in money needed)

5.) Pay Pal is a greedy company and so they are interested in the bottom line, "how much money you’re going to give them". For this reason, in order to force you to give them your money, they have blocked any Travel Deposit Credit Cards except for the one Pay Pal sells. So ignore any Travel Deposit Cards like ALL ACCESS, even if they say they have an agreement with Pay Pal that allows you to use Pay Pal. (You'll end up with a frozen account).

6.) From a consumer point of view, Pay Pal has its advantages since it is the most world wide money trafficking company which allows you to buy easily on the internet without giving out your credit card information. At the same time, they are not customer friendly and make it very difficult for those with low motivation or poor self esteem to combat. Be careful.

I hope this review has or will prevent you from the mistake and hassle that I went through. Following my trip I obtained a second credit card to use for my travels so I no longer have to deal with ALL ACCESS TRAVEL VISA or similar companies. If you already have a visa debit card associated with your bank accounts then you really don't need a card like that offered by ALL ACCESS. I originally purchased the card because I was staying and living in Mexico for a month and I wasn't sure if my regular ATM Card would work there (but it did). The key thing to do if you’re going to need money out of the country is two things. 1.) Call your credit card company a week before you leave the country and notify them where you are going and how long you will be gone. 2.) Call your bank and tell them where you are going and for how long you will be gone and ask them to note it in their computer system for your debit and/or ATM card. Both your credit card issuer and bank can note in their computer system so that their anti-fraud programs will not prevent you from using your cards outside of the country.


Recommended: No