To all kind-hearted people around the world, I regret to inform you that you should refrain from donating funds to accounts under Paypal as they have the tendency to freeze the accounts and keep the money for themselves to cover any “disputes that may be filed against the account”.
I think I understand their concern probably they are worried about the account being used for money laundering purposes. I understand that banks have to be careful with the transactions going on their company but what they did with TextPower was disappointing.
To give you a brief background after Typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines, its citizens, being known as the texting capital of the world, started a campaign via text to raise funds to help victims from the calamity-stricken areas. However Paypal must have seen the recent activity of said account and felt they had to intervene by freezing the account and asked for more proof from the said charitable organization. The group complied but Paypal did not grant request to access the remaining funds which is over Php400,000 and told the group that Paypal will keep the money for legal purposes or that they should refund the funds to the donors/buyers.
“But unknown to many, Paypal intervened last week, froze the account we used for accepting donations, and ruined our fundraising campaignas well as that of another group, PhilippineAid.com. In fact, the following interventions are the key reasons why TXTPower formally stopped its campaign late last week despite the continuing pleas for relief aid.”
“We did this project with one simple cause in mind: Provide people across the world a way to safely and securely make a donation for typhoon victims in our country. And we are glad and heartened by the trust given by nearly 1,000 donors from 37 countries who pitched in a total of P1,678,437.63 in donations already in the hands of the Red Cross.”
You can read the entire post here.
So I suggest that instead of coursing donations via Paypal, which is the easiest and convenient way, I suggest donors should send their donations via direct deposits to bank accounts that are allowed to accept funds from overseas.
4 Comments
Thank you for the heads up. im going to my BANK in the morning to set up my charity there instead. again Thanx
@ Nikki yeah this is really sad.
@ BK yeah it’s the fastest way to get the money to those who need and someone like them would do this.
This is most disturbing to read; not of what you have written but of what Paypal did. In situation like this, time is a critical factor in sending in the aid to help people affected by Ondoy. Much as I am concern about the abuse of Paypal for money laundering and other illegal usages, I am even more concern about the donations not reaching the people in time to be of any help to them.
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oh no..that’s so sad to read!!!! I felt bad that they deduct amount from the funds given by people in other parts of the world..and they freeze funds??? What the???? 🙁
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