Your PayPal account is permanently limited: what to do now

A permanent limitation means PayPal has decided to stop working with you: the account will not be restored, and the balance stays on hold for up to 180 days before you can withdraw it. What is still in your hands is getting that money out, not opening a new account that would be limited too, and moving customers to another way to pay: crypto payments, a different card processor or a bank transfer.

First, make sure the limitation really is permanent

PayPal uses the word "limited" for two different situations, and each calls for different moves:

• A temporary limitation comes with steps. PayPal asks you to do something, such as upload proof of identity or other documents. Once the steps are done, the review usually takes about three business days, according to PayPal's help pages as of October 2026.
• A permanent limitation comes without steps. PayPal says it can no longer offer you its services and gives you nothing to complete. This is the end of the relationship, not a request for paperwork.

To see which one you have, log in to PayPal yourself rather than through a link in an email, and look in two places:

• The bell icon on your Dashboard. The notification there explains what has happened to your account.
• The Resolution Center. This is the part of PayPal where disputes and limitations live, and any steps you are asked to complete are listed here.

If an email says your account is limited but the Resolution Center shows nothing, the email may be fake. PayPal asks you to forward such emails to its anti-phishing team, delete them, and change your password if you clicked anything inside.

Why PayPal permanently limits an account

PayPal's help page on permanent limitations is short. It says PayPal regularly reviews accounts and payments against its Acceptable Use Policy, the list of what may and may not be sold through PayPal, and may end the relationship as its User Agreement allows. Local laws and the policies of PayPal's partners can also put an account out of reach.

PayPal's general page on limitations shows what those reviews catch:

• Selling something PayPal doesn't support. PayPal's own examples are prescription drugs and firearms; the full list is in the Acceptable Use Policy.
• High-risk activity. Many claims or chargebacks, a new type of product, or a sudden jump in sales unlike your usual pattern.
• Unauthorized use. PayPal limits an account when it suspects someone else got into it, or when a bank reports transfers the owner didn't make.
• Regulatory requirements. PayPal can limit an account while it meets its legal obligations.

PayPal emails the reason when it limits an account, so the notice is the first thing to reread. Even when it does not go into detail, the reason it gives points to one of these groups.

If claims and chargebacks were behind it, that matters beyond PayPal. A chargeback is a buyer asking their bank to reverse a card payment, and whichever card provider you move to will look at how often that happens to you. Before you open a new account anywhere, it is worth understanding what a chargeback costs a merchant and how to get fewer of them.

Can you appeal a permanent limitation?

PayPal's help pages explain, step by step, how to lift a temporary limitation. For a permanent one they describe no appeal procedure, and they note that customer service usually can't lift a limitation over the phone.

That leaves two situations where writing back to PayPal makes sense:

• Someone else used your account. If the limitation followed logins or payments you didn't make, say so and attach what you have: dates, the payments you don't recognise, the password reset. PayPal lists unauthorized use as a reason it limits accounts to protect their owners, so here a review has something to correct.
• The decision rests on a misunderstanding about what you sell. If PayPal took your product for something it isn't, reply once, in writing, with what proves it: supplier invoices, product pages, licences.

Whatever you do, keep the notice, every email and every case number. You will need them to collect your balance and, if it comes to that, to complain outside PayPal.

Beyond these two situations, plan as if the decision is final. Your effort pays off on the two things you can still move: the money on hold and your customers.

How to get your money out of a permanently limited PayPal account

A permanent limitation does not mean PayPal keeps your money. PayPal's User Agreement (US version, October 2026) lets it hold the balance of a limited or closed account for up to 180 days if that is reasonably needed to protect against liability, or if you broke the agreement or the Acceptable Use Policy. A court order or a regulator's requirement can keep the hold in place longer.

The 180 days match the buyer's window. Under PayPal's Purchase Protection program in the US, a buyer can open an "item not received" dispute within 180 days of paying. Disputes and chargebacks that land during the hold are paid out of the balance you are waiting for.

Here is an example. You had $3,000 on hold, and two buyers win disputes of $150 each over the next months. About $2,700 is left for you to withdraw.

While the clock runs, three things are worth doing:

• Put the end date in your calendar. PayPal holds the money for 180 days starting from the date your account was limited, so count from that day and write down when the money should become available.
• Answer every dispute. Send tracking numbers, proof of delivery and your correspondence with the buyer: a lost dispute is paid from your held money.
• Wait for PayPal to get in touch, then withdraw. After the 180 days, PayPal contacts you to explain how to withdraw what is left. You can transfer the balance to your bank account or ask PayPal to send you a check.

Can you open a new PayPal account?

Not to get around the limitation. PayPal's User Agreement (US version, October 2026) lists circumventing PayPal's decisions about holds, limitations and restrictions among restricted activities. One of its examples is attempting to open a new or additional account when an account has been restricted.

A new account in your name, with your bank account or your business details, is exactly what that rule is about. Once PayPal links it to the limited one, the new account can be limited as well, and the money in it can end up on hold too.

For a business, that means sending customers to an account that may stop working with their payments inside it. It is safer to build the next way to get paid on a service that has nothing to do with the old account.

What to take payments with instead of PayPal

The pressing question for a business is not the old account but how customers will pay you tomorrow. Three routes are worth comparing:

• Crypto payments through a payment gateway. The customer pays from their own crypto wallet, and the gateway, a service between the buyer and you, creates the invoice, sees the payment arrive and credits it to you. A crypto payment can't be pulled back by the buyer's bank, so there are no chargebacks. The limit: the customer needs a crypto wallet with coins in it.
• Another card processor. Customers pay by card as before. The limit: the processor reviews your business before approving it, has its own holds and reserves, and if chargebacks got you limited at PayPal, it will watch the same numbers.
• Bank transfer against an invoice. It suits regular business clients and large orders. The limit: there is no checkout, transfers between countries take days and cost the payer fees, and for a $20 order it is more effort than a shopper wants to make.

Crypto stands first here for a reason that matters right after PayPal. Once a crypto payment is confirmed by the network, it is final: there is no buyer dispute window hanging over the money for the next six months.

If your customers live in other countries, the choice narrows further. Card processors don't operate everywhere, and international transfers lose days and fees on the way, while a crypto invoice does not depend on the customer's bank at all. The full set of routes is laid out in how to accept payments from customers abroad when the usual ones fail.

How taking crypto payments works with CryptumPay

CryptumPay is a crypto payment gateway. Here is what it offers a seller who needs a new way to get paid:

• Payment link. You create an invoice in the CryptumPay console and send the link through any channel: a messenger, email or social media. The customer needs no account: they open the link and pay from their own crypto wallet.
• Button on your site. A customer clicks it on your website, and the CryptumPay checkout window opens.
• API. It lets a developer build payments into your store or app.
• Price. CryptumPay charges 1% per successful payment, down to 0.5% at higher volumes, and you can pass the fee on to the customer. Connecting is free; the fee is taken only from completed payments.
• What you receive. Whatever coin the customer pays in, CryptumPay converts the payment to USDT, a coin pegged to the US dollar, as soon as it arrives.
• Withdrawal. CryptumPay pays out any time, 24/7, with no minimum amount, to the crypto wallet you specify.
• Verification. CryptumPay requires identity verification from every merchant, and without it no withdrawal is possible.
• First invoice. You can issue one right after sign-up: the payment is accepted and credited to your balance after the project review, usually within one business day. Your website does not have to be integrated, but you show it during the review.

So a seller who signs up on Monday can send the first invoice the same day. To begin, create an account on the CryptumPay site.

Moving your customers over this week

Customers don't need the story of what happened with PayPal. They need to know how to pay you now, and the switch takes four steps:

• Take the PayPal button off your site and invoices. A customer who clicks it now can't pay you.
• Re-send unpaid invoices with the new way to pay. Everyone who hasn't paid yet gets a fresh payment link or your bank details.
• Tell regular customers once, plainly. One short message is enough: PayPal is no longer available, and here is how to pay from now on.
• Keep the PayPal records together. Store the notice, the emails, the case numbers and the dispute history until the held balance is in your bank; your accountant will want them too.

If you have no developer, a payment link is the quickest replacement for a PayPal button. You create an invoice, paste the link into the chat or email where you already talk to the customer, and they pay from their phone. The setup, including QR codes for invoices, is covered in how to accept USDT with payment links and QR invoices.

The short version

A permanently limited PayPal account will not come back, but the money in it can still reach you once the hold ends and disputes are settled. Spend the waiting time answering disputes and moving customers to a new way to pay, not on a second PayPal account that would be limited too.

Questions people ask next

Can customers still pay me through the limited account?

Don't send them there. PayPal has decided to stop serving the account, and a limited account can't send or withdraw money. Even if a payment gets through, it only joins the balance you can't touch for months, so point every customer to your new way to pay.

What if 180 days pass and PayPal still hasn't released my money?

Write to PayPal through the Message Center, give the date of the notice and your case number, and keep the reply. If no answer comes or it doesn't resolve anything, the next step is a complaint to the financial ombudsman or regulator in your country. In the UK, the Financial Ombudsman Service takes complaints against PayPal and has ruled on permanently limited accounts (as of October 2026).

Can I keep selling through a friend's or partner's PayPal account?

It is not a safe workaround. PayPal's User Agreement (US version, October 2026) treats using someone else's account to get around a limitation as a restricted activity. If PayPal connects the two, the other person's account can be limited as well, with their money on hold.

This article is not legal advice.