Wat?
I mean, I use PayPal fairly frequently, so this doesn't apply to me - but I'd be incredibly pissed off to note a random £20 (whatever) charge on my account from a service I didn't use!
How is this even legal?
So most users of PayPal who use the service to purchase things won’t ever see a charge as in the UK because a refund will go back to the payment source not your PayPal account balance.
If you receive payments via PayPal and let it sit in the account for a year without making a balance transfer or using the balance to purchase anything, then they will charge kicks in, if you have less than £20 in the account then they will charge what is in the account.
I’m not saying I agree with this policy, I think it’s BS too, but it’s not like they will bill your debit/ credit card or bank £20 because you stopped using them (eBay while still supporting PayPal tries their hardest to get you to use their own payment processor over PayPal, so it’s pretty easy to not even notice you are not using PayPal for purchases).
As for “how is this legal”, it’s in the terms we agree to when using their service. They can add inactive account charges, as they could argued that they make their profits from purchases and payments from those interconnect fees. Having a dormant account isn’t making them money (I’ve seen credit cards have similar terms, use it or get charged).
Again I don’t agree with the policy, just answering.
While I'm at it, minimum balances on plain old checking and savings accounts are also bullshit. All of these things are just excuses to take money away from people, primarily those on the poorer end of the wealth/income spectrum, who are the least able to afford it.
The least cynical take is that they're a charge because you're not letting them make money from you in other ways, and even that's totally indefensible. They don't have a divine right to make extra fees on your account.
Something is really wrong with a company charging you for inactivity. Maybe it would help them more trying to find out why their customers don't bother using paypal anymore rather than some short term gains in inactivity fees.
