Emptybottle.org: Now Isn't That Special

Thanks to your generosity, friends and neighbours, the tip jar I put up last week filled up quickly, and the grand total came to enough to pay for year of hosting plus a few bucks extra.

That made me very happy. Thanks again to everyone who helped out.

But Paypal arbitrarily and inexplicably restricts me from transferring any more than US$100 total out (even if the balance is higher than that), unless I add a credit card number, a restriction of which I can't recall being notified when I created the account.

Problem is : I don't have a valid credit card. I know that this marks me as a freak and a sport, to be warded off with a crucifix and hounded out of the village by torch-brandishing consumers, and I accept that. Korean banks will not give me one because I'm a dirty foreigner and I do not hold one with a Canadian bank, as I have not lived there for more than a decade and do not plan to again in the forseeable future.

So there's money just sitting there, and I have no idea how to get at it. Paypal won't allow me to add my wife's credit card, for example, because her surname (in the way of Korea) is different from mine, and the surname field on the You Must Give Us Your Credit Card, Little Man page is not editable.

Which leaves me up sh-t creek without a sh-tpaddle, as Jim Leahy would say, because I still need to transfer $50 to my new hosting reseller before he sends Frankie and Rocco around to bust my kneecaps.

Anyone got any ideas how to get around this?

About This Post

What is this? Why am I here? What does it mean? Where should I go now?

Well, this is a post to the personal website Emptybottle.org. It was posted by your genial host stavrosthewonderchicken on May 31, 2004, and is titled Now Isn't That Special. It was published to the categories: Metablogging. In any of those places you might well find other similar things that will bring you Super Double Happiness.

Note: Super Double Happiness is not guaranteed. Void where prohibited by local regulation.

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Comments: You got fingers, right?

17 Comments |

1
dda said

Crikey! Now that's a good one! I know that LG Card (yeah... I know, not the best) has an arrangement with the EU Chamber of Commerce in Korea to provide members of said Chamber (or rather, employees of these members) with an EUCCK-LG Card. There could be other similar deals around. Or you could pretend to be an employee of one of the companies that bless the EUCCK with their patronage, and get one like that.

May 31, 2004 5:26 PM
2
andrew said

Do you know of a Korean resident with a functional Pay Pal account to whom you might transfer the funds and then have him/her transfer the funds out and thence across to your bank account?

May 31, 2004 8:12 PM
3
stavrosthewonderchicken said

The problem is still that I can't xfer any funds, according to Paypal, until I input a card #. I haven't tried adding a bank account number here in Korea and moving the money to it, but all indications are that it wouldn't let me do that either!

May 31, 2004 9:03 PM
4
Doug Alder said

PayPal also allows you to tie your PayPal account to a bank account if you don't have a credit card - don't know if you can do that with Korean banks or not. With North American banks it takes about 7 days to set up and payments are not instantaneous.

June 1, 2004 11:27 AM
5
dv said

Bank account transfers sometimes take a few days. Sounds wack. Especially after this is posted in the most recent edition of their policy updates:
Bank Account Withdrawal for Korea and Taiwan

Notice Date: January 8, 2004 Effective Date: February 13, 2004 Starting February 13, 2004, PayPal will enable members in Korea and Taiwan to withdraw funds from their PayPal account to a local bank account.
Seemed to me when I signed up (eons ago) they were only worried about you have a balid bank account... Also, even though it won't help for the immediate situation, but PayPal issues debit cards and credit cards -- I tend to not transfer funds from PayPal but use their debit card to access the money. FWIW Hey -- will they let you do a paypal-to-paypal payment?

June 1, 2004 1:04 PM
6
andrew said

> Hey -- will they let you do a paypal-to-paypal payment? that's what I had in mind with my suggestion...

June 1, 2004 4:23 PM
7
stavrosthewonderchicken said

Nope - no more outbound payments of any kind without a CC#. I'll try adding my bank account (if I can find that info anywhere -- I'm not, as you might be starting to understand, what could be graciously called a whiz with the ol' instruments of finance) here in Korea to see if it'll let me xfer funds to that, I guess, then try and open another paypal account under a different email and use that to fwd the money to my host.... I'll keep y'all updated!

June 1, 2004 9:32 PM
8
tizzie said

I put money into my paypall account via a debit card. It's basically an automatic teller card, but has a Visa (tm) logo on it, and is generally accepted at stores, etc. Will your Korean bank issue you a debit card to get it out?

June 1, 2004 10:09 PM
9
ARJ said

From the PayPal user agreement: "In order to send payments through our Service we require you to provide PayPal with a number of forms of identification as further described and protected in our Privacy Policy. We require this information to authenticate your identity and to determine how much you may send with your account. We may require additional information from you depending on your location and other factors. Based on the information you provide, we will determine your Sending Limit. Generally, accounts that have a confirmed email address and credit card on file may send up to $2000. Accounts that are Verified by adding and confirming a bank account or by otherwise being verified by PayPal will receive a higher Sending Limit or no limit at all." It looks as if you can only send amounts up to a certain amount. Perhaps you can just make multiple small payments to said ISP? It also looks as if adding your bank account will solve the problem. According to the FAQ they allow xfer of funds from PayPal -> bank account for S. Korea. I've had to do all kinds of funky stuff with international $$ with PayPal to pay of student loans in the US, since it costs me AU$25 a pop to do a bank wire transfer. Blech. I find PayPal a reasonable alternative to banks, at least, but I guess that's not saying much.

June 2, 2004 11:12 AM
10
ARJ said

P.S. Sorry for the double post, but you can check your Sending Limit when you log into PayPal. There's a link for it next to your balance amount. That should tell you how much you're currently allowed to send/receive with PayPal.

June 2, 2004 11:15 AM
11
bingo said

I have a paypal debit card, and I just take that to the ATM. Can't remember if I needed another credit card to get it. Surely you can get some large multinational bank to issue you a "secure credit card," wherein you just send them the money, and that money becomes your "credit limit." It's like having a debit card, except it's a credit card. Or maybe you can use the money in your account to purchase something from a "friend" who is "selling" something on ebay?

June 2, 2004 11:48 PM
12
bingo said

I have a paypal debit card, and I just take that to the ATM. Can't remember if I needed another credit card to get it. Surely you can get some large multinational bank to issue you a "secure credit card," wherein you just send them the money, and that money becomes your "credit limit." It's like having a debit card, except it's a credit card. Or maybe you can use the money in your account to purchase something from a "friend" who is "selling" something on ebay?

June 2, 2004 11:49 PM
13
bingo said

I apologize for the double post on behalf of your crappy comment system.

June 2, 2004 11:50 PM
14
dv said

I do not have a credit card of file with them. I do have a (non-current!) bank acocunt on file with them. They gave me a debit card. Limit is $3,000/day (funds permitting)... Should be possilbe yo!

June 3, 2004 7:14 AM
15
Saltation said

Ah now, this is a very common problem and you'll be relieved to know some smart people have solved it. What you do is you email the situation to millions of people all over the world, explaining that you have money trapped in a foreign bank and offering them a percentage of the amount if you can transfer the money into their account. According to my inbox, it's quite a common problem, so you should have lots of lots of people offering to assist.

June 3, 2004 8:07 PM
16
dg said

I used to have a bank account, rather than a credit card, attached to my paypal account. Is there any reason why yuo can't give them your bank account details (assuming you trust them that far)?

June 4, 2004 2:16 PM
17
stavrosthewonderchicken said

Ah, hell, I'm gonna get drunk and worry about it later. Thanks for all the ideas, though, folks! You is fine peoples.

June 4, 2004 9:41 PM