Online payment platform PayPal will soon be charging 12 euros to consumers who have not used its services for a year. “However, as a user you have to read the fine print of the terms of use that were renewed at the end of September”, warns consumer organization Test-Achats.
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The payment platform will charge 12 euros – or the remaining balance in your account, whichever is less – if you “have not logged in to your account for at least 12 consecutive months” or “have not used PayPal in that period to collect money. or to transfer ”.
This can be read in the new terms of use that the payment platform published at the end of September and which will take effect from 4 January. “Only that change went unnoticed by most users,” says Jens Van Herp, spokesman for Test-Achats.
Barely 4 lines on page 59 (of 85)
And perhaps that is not the fault of the users in question. Because you have to show a lot of perseverance to find the passage in question – barely 4 lines long -: on page 59 of it all together 85 page document.
“As a customer you are of course expected to read the general terms and conditions. PayPal also explicitly asks for this to be done. Unfortunately, we all know how that goes … ”, says Test-Achats.
In addition, the user does not even have to actually approve them: “You do not need to take any further action because these changes are automatically implemented,” PayPal reports.
If you have an inactive account, you better close it as soon as possible if you want to avoid those costs, Test-Achats advises. By the way, that’s what PayPal itself proposes if you do not agree with the changes to the terms of use.
PayPal claims to have more than 277 million users worldwide. It is not known how many of them will have to cough up the ‘fine’ of 12 euros – “That’s soon a month of Netflix,” says Jens Van Herp. The payment company was not immediately available for comment.
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