That's a bad mixture there. PayPal is not a bank, it's not regulated as a bank. If they choose to do something, it is out of the generosity of their heart, and not because the law says they must. And there are plenty of horror stories on the Internet where they are not very generous. I refuse to do any business with PayPal. Allowing them direct access to your bank/credit union account is just asking for trouble.

 

Did someone's misguided compass lead them astray??? Must've replaced the dash console recently and the direction is now stuck on S/SE???

Mark, you never cease to remind me of Uncle Iroh (The Last Airbender) with your witty sayings

Couldn't you convert it now? I'm not well informed on the whole IRA thing at this point, but didn't know if that's a possibility for you now or if that is something that should've been done back then?

When it rains, it pours! Sorry your Christmas this year has been rough. Hope the family's feeling better from the flu. How did your Debit Card # get stolen though? I didn't think Paypal has a Debit Card - they have a Credit Card; and otherwise, your bank information (routing number and checking account number) is what they keep on file? Or maybe I'm missing something . Either way, I hope things get resolved for you and you and your family are able to look forward to a better 2011.

I just had a customer come sit at my desk and we got to talking about the mods on my Jeep and he looked at me with the most serious look on his face (this guy is in his late 60s) - why're you putting your money into that Jeep? And I gave him the most serious face I could and said - "I'm preparing for 2012 " and he had the most dreaded look I've ever seen before we both started laughing

 

More credit/debit card numbers are stolen when you have to hand the card to someone like at a drive through take out place or at retail outlets than those happening online. That said I'm glad it's being handled professionally and that things are going to turn out alright. That's always a huge relief.

 

Oh, sure, I can convert it now. But, back then the taxes due were about $1500. Which is why I didn't convert it: Couldn't afford to pay the taxes without making a withdrawal from my IRA and the "expert" advice was to not do it. The experts were wrong. Now if I were to convert my taxes would be -- well, enough to buy a couple of brand new Rubis, fully loaded, cash on the barrel head.

 

Dang Johnny ..sorry to hear the run of bad luck. I do know that some retailers where you use your card..Their machine records each and every number used. I remember when JcPenny's had someone hack their system and the thieves got everyones credit card numbers for the past 6-8 months and went buck wild on the internet and country wide purchases.

 

 

Johnny,

I hate to hear about the card number / PayPal issue. But, I am glad to hear that PayPal is working to put things right.

I'd place my money that your card number was probably lifted by a waiter or waitress at a restaurant. I hate the fact that you just hand your card to a stranger, and they walk off out of sight with it for several minutes. As far as anyone knows they could be writing the card number and CVV number on a post-it

Unfortunately, that is all too true.

The PCI DSS forbids merchants from doing this. They can even lose their license to process Visa & MasterCard if it is discovered that they are storing CC numbers, CVV codes and/or track data.

However, most merchants are either oblivious to these standards, or could care less.

 

I have vowed to never use Walmart.com ever again.

A few months ago, I purchased over $2000 worth of computer equipment for our new computer system at the office and 3 days later, I got a call from American Express and someone tried to use my walmart.com account (I didn't have an account, I bought it as a guest) which automatically pulled up my american express card and they tried to make a $3000 purchase on it.

The only thing that saved me was that Am Express called me to make sure I had made the purchase because something looked funny because the shipping address was somewhere in California.

 

That is precisely what I was leading to - had that happen to me last month when Barclays called me about a $17 purchase that was charged to my card but shipped to NC. And the funny thing is, I hadn't used that card in over 6 months and had just used it at an Olive Garden the night before, and another restaurant where we had lunch 2 days prior.

Most CC companies are starting to realize that this is becoming a bigger issue than they ever anticipated. Anymore, ATM machine's aren't much safe either