Update and Warning: the purpose of this post was to show what the new PPMCCs looked like and show how the PPMCC loading website has changed. I did not mention the danger of using PPMCCs as a way to MS and I wanted to make it very clear that PPMCCs are very dangerous, if you value your PayPal account. If you withdraw funds from your PayPal account or transfer funds to another PayPal account, you will receive a warning email from PayPal. If you continue, they may freeze your account and hold the funds in your account for up to 6 months. For most people, it is better to stay far, far away from PPMCCs. You have been warned.
Good evening everyone, I stopped by my local CVS and noticed a new gift card on the gift card rack. The traditional white PayPal My Cash Card (PPMCC) has changed and is now mostly light blue. The loading process is almost identical to before, but has a better user interface now. Just like the Vanilla Reload Cards back in the day (RIP old friend), these cards have a date stamp (0215v1) which means February 2015, version 1. I was able to purchase this card with my credit card at CVS without any problems. The card says reusable on the front, so I wonder how that would work.
To load the PayPal My Cash Card to your PayPal account, go to https://www.paypal-cash.com/ and enter the 10 digit PIN on the back of the PayPal My Cash Card. Then click the Log In With PayPal button to sign into your PayPal account.
Verify the amount on the PayPal My Cash Card and then click the Load It Up button. Confirm your load amount and then click the Yes, Load It Up button. The confirmation screen shows details of your transaction. You can load up to $500 per day and up to $4,000 per month.
According to the PayPal My Cash Card website, you can load your PayPal account directly at 3 merchants (Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Freds) as of April 21, 2015.
In contrast, you can purchase PayPal My Cash Cards at the following merchants. The list looks pretty similar to the list from before. I don’t recognize any additions or subtractions from the list. If you see any, please let me know.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
How are you able to do this without getting shut down? I seem to read new horror stories daily of people getting their accounts limited or closed because they’d loaded funds via these cards many months earlier. I did this on a very limited basis for a few months before I realized it was an extremely dangerous process. I have no desire for an account I’ve had for 15+ years (with 1.5% cashback) to be suddenly and permanently closed.
I totally agree, Carl. I do not intend to load more PPMCCs to my PayPal account, I just wanted to test out the loading process. I have been an Ebay seller for 10+ years and need my PayPal account to be safe.
How do you liquidate the balance from your PayPal account?
Transfer directly to your checking.
Don’t do this, this is a great way to get your account locked or shut down.
It depends how much you value your PayPal account. This is not a very good MS option. I would only buy PPMCCs if you plan on shopping on Ebay and paying with PayPal.
I’m new to this, and am not really familiar with this part of the Paypal system. I read some of the previous posts, but I’m not sure I understand the strategy that got people shutdown. If I had a limited time offer at drugstores selling these PPMCCs (but a maxed out Redbird), could I load them into my Paypal, and months later, when my Redbird is available, (and my limited offer at drugstores is over), use a Paypal debit card in person at Target? I’m aware that I shouldn’t use the Paypal debit card online, but wasn’t sure if in person was fine. I’m aware that there is a $4k monthly limit, but could I go over that during a few months? I think I’d prefer to have my money in this, rather than risk having my money in VGCs.
PS, you’re in my top 3 favorite MS blogs! Thanks!
You can load funds to your PayPal account and then use your PayPal Business Debit Card (PPBDC) to pay for various items. There is no way to override the $500/day and $4,000/month limits. You can keep the funds in your PayPal account as long as you want.
Grant, my local CVS stores stopped selling paypal mycash cards via credit cards about 3 months ago. Has your CVS stores been allowing purchases all along or did they and then start selling them again via cc?
As far as I know, they have always allowed credit cards to be used to pay for gift cards and PPMCCs.
For minimum sign up bonus spending (or later spending), Citi bank allows you to charge loaded gift cards ($500 maximum each card) and then to call up Citi to pay your bill by phone using the gift cards. No PIN needed. Fastest possible turn around. Please ask your readers if any other banks will do the same.
Can you give more details on this?
Yes, I have done that a few times. I think Capital One is another bank that allows you to pay this way.
Not available any more. Citi stopped that.
Good luck with trying not to get banned doing this. It’s truly a product you can’t use unless you’re going to buy things on ebay.
Very true, buying and paying for things on Ebay seems to be the only 100% safe way to use PPMCCs.
So this gives you 0 cost of the front end to create MS. How are you going to unload the Paypal account Grant? What are the costs?
$3.95 per card…transfer directly to your checking.
The cost per PPMCC is $3.95. I don’t recommend buying PPMCCs if you value your PayPal account. The safest way to use these cards is to buy and pay for Ebay items.
My CVS has a limit of $2000 per day. This can be reloaded for the same fee as the purchase fee ($3.95), but my CVS states I can’t use a credit card to reload–usr be cash only. On a n Earth Day note, these are made of paper instead of the old plastic!
So where’s the shutdown risk? The Paypal account; the CC used to purchase the paypal mycash; or both?
The risk is solely with PayPal. If they don’t like how you are using the funds loaded from your PPMCC, they will send you a warning email. The safest approach is to purchase and pay for Ebay items.
Do this a few times and after a warning they will shut your Paypal account down and the money is not accessible for 2 months (they limit your paypal account with no recourse). Happened to me on my wife’s and my own paypal accounts…A pain if you get stuck with a lot of money in your account or need paypal for regular purchases/payments as you can not reopen a new one.
Yes, I know a few people who have had similar experiences with PayPal. This is not a recommended MS method if you value your PayPal account.
I’d go as far as saying this should have never been posted. Not because it’s a secret, but for the fact that people get their accounts shut down very quickly IF you plan to pull the money out and not spend it using your Paypal debit card or through ebay etc..
ANY form of you withdrawing the money from your account will be flagged and shutdown quick. Considering a high % of people read blogs like this to MS and have no intention of actually using the money for regular spend, I find this post more hurtful than helpful.
I’ve yet to hear a single person move $4k through a paypal account, without spending all of it, and not getting their account shut down.
my 2c.
P.S Grants blog is one of my favorites and I would recommend his blog over many others any day.
Thank you Joe. My intention of posting this was just to show the new PPMCC and show the new PPMCC website. I will add a warning to the top of this post that this is a very dangerous method of MS and most should stay away.
Also, many get shut down for spending the funds via a PP debit card at a retail store. The company maintains that these cards are solely for those without a credit card who wish to spend money at PP merchants. It would help if they would add that disclaimer to the cards and the website.
That is a good point. There are many indirect ways of getting funds out of your PayPal account that PayPal does not like either.
I’ve been unloading my PayPal funds through the debit card at the local WM Kate without incident for the last few months thus far. Is this a method that most people have used to get shut down or is it primarily the direct withdrawal? Have accounts been shutdown right at the issue of a warning or after ignoring the warning and doing an additional transaction?
If you continue doing the same thing after receiving the warning email, you risk having your PayPal account shutdown.
What volume?
Can anyone advise me i purchased a card and now 21 days later im beong told someone reported it stolen. When i call number it says it was loaded up to account
You have an uphill battle in front of you. You need to prove that the funds were not loaded to your PayPal account.
I’ve been reading about these warnings since last year and yet decided to go ahead and MS with my PP account starting in January or so. I’ve done $4k per month with my Amex Business Gold at gas stations (x3 for me). I don’t know how much I really value my PP account. I’ve had it for 10-15 years, but I rarely actually use it for anything. I don’t know how much I’ll ever really need it. I’ve bought one or two items on ebay in the last few months, but the majority of the money has gone right back to my checking. I’ve decided to see how long I can go before I get a warning. Once I do, I’ll pull my cash and let it go at that. Thoughts? Am I missing anything?
As long as you know the risks and have an exit strategy, you should be good.
I got the dreaded ‘we’re watching you’ email this past weekend. I ran from July 2014 to April 2015, loading $4k per month and buying MO’s at the post office. Sprinkled in a few other purchases too.
I’ll use the debit card for some odd buys for a few but leave it alone now.
You had a good streak going!
So the monthly $1k debit load (broken up 5 x $200) from the Paypal debit mastercard to a bluebird account is a bad idea?
I think if you only did $1000/month, you should be fine (for a while).
Interesting. I’ve been MS-sing anywhere between $1-2K/month, which is not much, but suits me just fine and I’ve never received any warning. I do make small purchases (adding up to about $30/month) from a bunch of different stores w/my PayPal accout and intersperse withdrawals to my bank account with those purchases. Not sure whether that “distracts” their attention from the withdrawals, but so far, so good. I’ll keep going as long as I can.
I’m sure they are looking at people who load $4,000/month. Keep doing what you’re doing and you should be fine.
Forgot to add that I’ve been doing this for about 2 years.
Thanks for the data point.
Great information Grant. Thanks for the update.
You’re welcome. Have a good night.
I do the same. When I have Stubhub or eBay sales I’ll sprinkle in a MyCash or two during the month and unload it. It is not something I do frequently, primarily when one of my cards is giving rewards for gas or drug stores.
That sounds like a safe approach.
Is it deemed “bad behavior” to pay bills using your PayPal Business debit card? I dont work the PayPal angle but I did get a Business Debit a while back and I dont use it. But if they frown upon cash withdrawals and transfers to checking, I can live with that! My question though, do they frown upon paying bills using a PayPal Business Debit? If not, PayPal may be worth my time and looking into! Thanks in advance!
I’ve paid my Citi bills a few times with my PPBDC and it worked fine. I am not sure if that is frowned up, but I would guess so. Their ideal customer would use the entire PPMCC to pay for an Ebay item and nothing else.
I only do the $1k/month to BB via the PP debit card and I also use the debit card to pay rent on Rad Pad. Def not reaching $4k monthly limit or doing more than the rare transfer to checking. Also use the debit card for random small in person purchases. Hoping this remains a safe strategy,
That sounds like a good approach. Keep doing that and you should be fine.
Any data points on how many $500 PayPal My Cash Cards you can buy per visit @CVS?
Depends on the store, but I think you can buy at least $2,000 per visit, maybe up to $5,000 even.
I wonder if charging such large amounts at CVS raises a flag with the CC company?
It depends what your normal credit card charges look like. If all you is make large purchases, the credit card company will learn your purchase behavior/patten.
So, has anyone reloaded these new blue cards? Can you reload with a Credit Card as well, just like purchasing new card?
I assume you can just bring it back, have them scan the same card, charge you the $3.95 fee and reload your PayPal account again. With that said, I wonder if it would be possible to load the same card more than once at the same time in store. That might cause a problem though.
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Why not just buy eBay gift cards at Staples with an Ink card for 5x points and just use them in eBay with no additional cost?
I’ve done that plenty of times too. CVS is walking distance away while Staples is a 10 minute drive for me.
I’ve been having success with MS buying PayPal MyCash cards at CVS with my Delta Reserve card, loading them up on PayPal, and then using the linked PayPal Debit Card to load up a Bluebird card at Walmart.
Unfortunately, they’ve just frozen the PayPal account, even though there’s nothing in this process that’s a violation of the TOS.
From what I’ve read on the net, fighting this will be a losing battle, so can you point me to an article that will provide some alternatives to replace the MyCash-to-PayPal Account-to PayPal Debit Card steps in this process?
Thanks!
I feel your pain and know what you’re going through. There is no beating PayPal, hopefully you didn’t have much money tied up in your PayPal account. I converted my Bluebird/Serve to Redbird, so I just load with VGCs now.
i get error code 16 when trying to load please help!!
Call PayPal and see if they can figure out the problem. Have you loaded more than $4,000 this month?
No not at all and I asked a friend to check on his computer for me on paypal my cash and the same thing error code 16 :'(
Hmm, I am clueless at this point. I haven’t loaded PPMCCs in several months, so I can’t offer any other suggestions.
Thank you :) have a nice night
Hi adriana what happen with the error code 16? I have the same problem, what did u did?
Okay i have a question o want to get ppmc card but i only need to put 50 on it . can u give me any details .
Sure, just go to CVS/Walgreens/Rite Aid and buy a $50 PPMCC. The $3.95 activation fee will also apply. You can then add the funds to your PayPal account.
Hey Grant! Big fan of the blog… quick question… I’m trying to MS $3k to hit a spending requirement. If I use these to load my PayPal account and then send funds to my wife’s PayPal account, will that set off any flags? Thanks!
Hi Ed, that would probably flag your PayPal account and you’re wife’s PayPal account. I wouldn’t recommend doing that.
Thank you very much
love this blog! Just a quick question: how long does it take for pp to shut down your account after it emails you the warning?
I believe you get 1 warning and if you continue to do what you were doing, then you might have 2-3 days. It really depends.
Thanks, Grant! I guess I would have 2-3 days to pull out my cash before it freezes my account
Yes, you should be ok, but no guarantee
Thanks again! A related question: once cash is frozen in the account, how to get it out and how long it takes?
PayPal will hold the funds for 6 months and then send you a check afterwards.
Well, that sucks!
Yes, PayPal is like playing with fire.
Maybe I am not getting the whole “they will shut your card down” thing. If I use this pre-paid card online on a site that accepts PayPal payments to buy a T-shirt, music, or, ahem…adult material, they will try and shut my account down?
No, you will be fine. If you load funds to your PayPal account and then transfer funds to a friend or bank account, they will freeze your account.
If I were to add funds via the ppmmc and then withdraw with my ppbdc, will this flag my account?
It depends how you use your PPBDC. If you withdraw the funds via an ATM, that will probably flag your account.
Hi Grant. Nice reading here. I have a question, Back on Abril 22 2015 @7:02 am you said: ” Yes, i have done that a few times. I think Capital One is another bank that allows you to pay this way”, so can you please elaborate ?, can i buy a gift credit card using a credit card and call Capital one and pay my bill using the same card?, please can you let me know, Thanks.
I don’t have any Cap One credit cards, so I can’t try myself. Try using your normal debit card to make a small payment and see what happens.
my paypal account must be linked to a credit card or bank account before i load with ppmc card?
I’m not sure, I haven’t loaded a PPMCC to my account in a long time.
if i load ppmcc on my account around 1k$ and make paypal send me a check is that gonna raise flag
Yes, that would raise a red flag with PayPal.
even 500 a month or less
and is the same thing with prepaid debit card
My wife’s son is incarcerated at a state pen and wants her to get a PPMCC so he can buy items at the commissary. Says all he has to do is enter card number and pin. Will he be able to do that? Will PP flag her account?
I think you would be fine to buy a PPMCC for your wife’s son. Can he use PayPal to buy items?
i’m the victim of fraud via these. my full story here: http://www.igobyplane.com/2015/12/08/are-you-a-victim-of-paypal-my-cash-fraud-or-incomm-fraud/
i would not recommend them for any usage now whatsoever. i don’t know how the money was stolen – it was, other people have similar situations (different states, similar timelines) and the company that handles these (incomm) has no interest in resolving the problem.
Hi Mike, thanks for the link to your story. As long as someone has the PIN (either by having the PPMCC or guessing the PIN), they can load the money to their PayPal account. I’m sorry Incomm was unable to help you :(
it looks like one of the guys (a disabled vet who was relying on the funds for use in buying food) got a hold of some of the executives and was able to get his money back threatening to go to the news. i don’t have that kind of leverage but hopefully can get a bit of luck and help from him, chatting now.
It’s worth a shot. Good luck :)
My sister sent me a 300.00 my cash reloadable card but I can’t load it to my PayPal account it’s saying error. Why is they selling cards that you can’t load.
I think there is a technical issue loading PPMCCs. This has been going on for a few days. Hold on to the PPMCC and try again in a few days.
Is that the only thing you can think of to do with $300?
i am having issue with paypal card loading… it keep coming up with this message
Load Funds
Sorry, the redemption of your My Cash card could not be completed at this time.
Please try again, and if the problem isn’t resolved, then call My Cash card customer service at 855-721-5035.
My Cash Error Code = 203
I think that is a common issue right now. There is a bug loading PPMCCs. Hopefully it gets fixed soon.
Will it work today because i just got the card today and i need it
I doubt it. I think the PPMCC server has been down for 1-2 weeks.
Why are selling then
That’s a very good question. Call PayPal customer service and see if they can help. Good luck.
I have a PayPal account and a prepaid card and I’m having problems loading the ten digit mycash card’s online if they are over $100 what should I do
Call the number on the back of your PPMCC and PayPal should help.
I am an exchange student and I bought a my cash card and put 120dollars in it. But later I found out I don’t have a social security number to verify my identity. So I tried to let my guardian to put the money into his account. But he failed and cannot log in. Maybe the pin has been locked. I don’t want to waste my money. Are there any ways to get my money back? Thanks!
Do you have any friends that have a PayPal account? Ask them to load the funds and send it to your PayPal account.
thanks. It works. I got my money back.
Good work!
Hello. My name is Will Duncan. I have a big problem.
I made a mistake and bought $100 dollars with a PPMCC (I thought if I spend 100 dollars on the card, by using the code I put $100 dollars to my Paypal account, but I was horribly wrong) and I’ve already enter the code in, but I did not us ANY funds yet. I want a refund, but I don’t think CVS would let me even if I gave them the receipt. What should I do!? I haven’t added any funds so I don’t think I’m in danger. Please reply. Thank you.
Can you load the $100 funds to your PayPal account and then withdraw the funds to your bank account?
I have been using the paypal my cash card for about a year. I purchase anywhere from $300 to $500 every three to four weeks. The very first time I used the card I had a problem getting my funds to load using the 10 digit code. I phoned paypal and they helped me with that. Every time since then My funds were loaded staright into my paypal account at the exact time that the cash register finished the transaction. When I checked my email when I get home there was always an email advising me of the deposit into my paypal account. Am I missing something here or do all of you get online after the purchase at the store and use that 10 digit code to transfer the money into your paypal account?
Also, the cash register was giving an Error that read something like this ” No P2Pe data with FDMS prepaid / Gift” After a couple of phone calls to paypal I am being told that they have a new card that we
need to use. I can not find it for sale anywhere here yet. They said Family Dollar, Dollar General and Fred’s stores will be selling the cards. I am interested in any comments about this.
I haven’t purchased a PPMCC in a long time so I’m not sue how the current version of the cards work. Can anyone answer Nan’s question?
grant, you can see my post above about my first blog post on this topic, looking for other victims (i found $3500 in fellow victims from my slow unbusy blog and lost $1500 myself.) fast forward to today, i am now able to speak freely after a settlement for my funds, after retaining lawyers to sue in federal court for a potential class action. incomm denies all responsibility or wrongdoing. i have no NDA, they did zero in response to what i found (totally ignored it and kept victim blaming me.) what did i find?
1. they have employees embezzling
2. how they were embezzling
3. which employee embezzled from me
pics, video, etc here – http://www.igobyplane.com/2016/05/16/billion-dollar-paypal-my-cash-scam-partner-incomm-scam-got-busy-victim-blaming-me-while-i-got-busy-finding-their-fatal-security-flaw-and-embezzlers/
I wonder what will happen if the fund(say $4000 to $6000) just sits in my Paypal account for a few months and then start transferring it to my checking account..maybe $2000 in one month.
I have been a Paypal user for years and didn’t start this Paypal cash loading until very recently. I opened Paypal initially to buy and sell products on ebay(which I no longer do) and pay for activity fees at my kids’ school.
I have recently deposited about $4,000 into my Paypal cash account and I am getting freaked out reading all these comments saying their accounts have been closed.
You will receive a warning from PayPal if they don’t like what you are doing, but you should be fine for a few more withdrawals.
Some don’t receive a single warning and go immediately into shutdown. Others will get a final warning while somehow never getting earlier ones. My Cash seems to be a very dangerous path if one values using PayPal.
That’s a good reminder, thanks Carl. It’s not worth the MS if you are remotely worried about getting your PayPal account shutdown.
Nice blog Grant. Just became aware of it.
Have any of your readers had any luck reloading one of the newer cards? The site says it can only be done at Fred’s, Family Dollar, or Dollar General, and I’ve had both Family Dollar and Dollar General tell me that they can’t reload it without a barcode. At first I figured they didn’t know what they were talking about. But then the Manager at Family Dollar calls up some executive help line right as I’m standing there at the counter and they tell her the same thing. Worst part is customer service for the PPMCC has over the course of three phonecalls gone from telling me that no barcode is needed to the cards being reloadable at Walmart, CVS, Rite-aid, and other stores.
The combined run around I’m getting concerning trying to load a “reusable” card is certainly discouraging.
I would stay away from these PayPal MyCash Cards. They are bad news.
i have confirmed that as of today, the secure PINs are still stored as plaintext in the database and are still accessible to database users.
http://www.skeet-rolling-incomm.com/skeet-rolling-and-incomm-complacent-with-paypal-scam-my-cash-fraud/