AMEX and PAYPAL.com
 

I just tried to send payment to another paypal member for a laptop purcahsed on ebay. Payment was denied. Amex told me that paypal will only allow me to send 1000/month off the amex. Has anyone else had this issue? It was never a problem with my green card, but now with the SPG card, it wont let me!

see
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum69/HTML/000967.html

no limit on normal Platinum Cards for paypal...right?

WHITEamex,
wrong, sadly.

Limits as recently as 3/19 are like this:
Corporate cards (green, gold, plat, and centurion, purple, orange) - $ 0, yes, that's ZERO per month.

OPTIMA-type cards, whether co-branded or not (ie Delta, Starwood, etc) - $1000/mo

As far as I can tell, now you cannot even get a manual pre-authorization to exceed this $1000/mo.

My wife spends more than this at walmart a month. Well, almost as much. Its a farce and a token IMO. just so they can claim affiliation with paypal (and it *is* an AMEX issue, not a paypal issue).

A real slap in the face to corporate cardholders.

Ticks me off as I used paypal for a lot!!

And for normal Platinum cards also (non corporate) is there a limit?

Speaking of which, have you noticed that Walmart now asks for your billing ZIP code when using an Amex, instead of the previous practice of asking for photo ID? They enter it into the register, and the transaction is approved in about 3 seconds. That is, if the ZIP code is correct - unlike a lot of other stores that use ZIP code only for demographic purposes, Walmart appears to be validating the billing ZIP code with Amex.

I doubt it's part of some grand scheme on Amex's part to tick off their customers. I wonder if they've found there to be an unusually large amount of fraud on large monthly PayPal transactions?

I suspect that it costs them quite a bit to process the PayPal transactions, especially with the number of questions and chargebacks.

Steve M: So What happens at Walmart when the Amex being used is not U.S. issued? How is the transaction approved/ verified? Only U.S. cities/ towns have zip codes.

I almost included this question in my original post. I have no idea. Perhaps they go back to their previous practice of asking for photo ID. I would imagine that their register system could differentiate between a US and non-US Amex card by the first few digits of the card number (assuming of course that they are assigned in this manner), or lacking that, perhaps the cashier will just accept photo ID if the cardholder says they are not from the US. I have no non-US card and know nobody that does, so I have no way to try it out. Maybe I'll ask the next time I'm there.

In regard to the PayPal $1000 limit, I understand the American Express Co.'s stance on the issue: since one might use PayPal to essentially withdraw cash even though it posts as a purchase, it becomes a higher risk for AmEx. And sending cash in large amount over a system that is supposed to be used for micropayments should definitely raise some red flags for a transaction. In the case of paying for a laptop bought on eBay (something I would never do, since it might be defective, stolen, etc.), you could always send $900 from your Amex card, and the remainder of your balance from a different mileage- or points-earning credit card.

WhiteAMEX (and others).

ssshhhh...it's a secret I just stumbled into, but I'll share...paypal and amex appear to have kissed and made up.

I am burning up my OPTIMA/Starwood AMEX at paypal in the last 5 days or so. Wanted to give it a few days' trial to see if it was a fluke or what.

Can't speak of the AMEX/GOLD/PLAT series (ie "corporate" cards)...which uniquely were being blocked BY AMEX (not by paypal), while the OPTIMA had a measley $1000/mo paypal limit up until mid last week...then...surprise.

All of a sudden, appears AMEX woke up and realized "this electronic payment thing" ain't goin away. Still appears AMEX has a $1000 PER TRANSACTION limit, as I've had more than one $1000+ transaction that didn't go thru...but when broken into two sub-$1000 transactions...no problems.

So - three cheers for AMEX and paypal for shakin hands and bein friends.

Better late than never.

YMMV.

ILUVCITIBANK, I have sent you an email at your aol address.

Do you have some exciting secrets about AmEx / PayPal?

d

no surprises or secrets other than the paypal/amex "door" appears to be back open again.

Sorry for the confusion.