Paypal now does not work with Republic Wireless phones

[heatherh.u7yam0]

I’ve long been aware of the issue where Republic Wireless phone numbers are not accepted as verification methods for certain services–most notably, Venmo.

Today, unfortunately, Paypal joined that list for me. I’ve been a Paypal member since it came out, probably in the early 2000s. When trying to login to Paypal on my PC to send money to a family member, Paypal prompted me to enter a phone number to prevent fraud. It won’t accept the number, and there is no other option on that page.

I moved to my phone, and fortunately, the PayPal app still worked, so I sent the money. Then, I went to the app settings to see if I could contact PayPal support while I was still logged in. Unfortunately, it required me to login again, and again, provided me with the mobile phone prompt and did not allow me to use my Republic Wireless.

In other words: I am now completely locked out of my PayPal account.

Just posting my experience here in case this happened to you too–you’re not alone.

I haven’t yet tried contacting Paypal, but I’m not super hopeful there, given how long this has been a known issue at Venmo and because Paypal now owns Venmo.

UPDATE 1/12 10:14CST:
I followed the instructions here and used my phone’s secondary number on the Paypal verification screen, then selecting the option to call (secondary numbers can’t get texts). This worked!

However, I then made the mistake of switching my real Republic number to my primary phone number in my Paypal profile, then logging out. Now, when attempting to log back in to Paypal, it prompts me for a number again, and will not allow me to use it anymore (probably because it’s already linked to an account). Paypal is closed, so I can’t contact them for support. What a hassle!

[pauls.j4bfis]

I have had the same problem just today with PayPal and was able to resolve it using the secondary number like you did. I’m not clear on why you got subsequently blocked out though. What number did you change?

[selfruler]

I was able to open a PayPal account today using my Republic Wireless number as the primary number associated with the account. I did not try to send money to anyone so I do not know whether or not the number would be accepted as validation “to prevent fraud” in a transfer.

[heatherh.u7yam0]

@pauls.j4bfis - I think where I got messed up is that I subsequently logged into Paypal and then put my real number back as my “Primary” mobile number.

[heatherh.u7yam0]

Update: After fruitless calls to Paypal (they won’t handle login issues over the phone and thus won’t even connect you to a person), and even more fruitless chats (they can’t handle login issues on chat and tell you to call the helpdesk, even though I told them that helpdesk won’t answer), I gave up yesterday. I attempted to login today, and everything was working fine.

I’m not sure if something I did yesterday fixed it, or if maybe they rolled back the update requiring a non-VOIP mobile number.

[pauls.j4bfis]

Thanks, Heather, PayPal didn’t ask my number in a subsequent login either. My guess is that they will only ask for the phone verification now when logging on from a new device or when you haven’t logged on in a while. Regarding the new account, selfruler, I would guess that that part of the website has yet to adapt to their new policy, but I imagine you’ll run into problems with it sooner or later.

[raymonm]

I have had a working PayPal account on my RW Moto g6 for quite some time.