Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

Original poster

SD lied to get PayPal account

28 replies

Hairydogmummy · 04/04/2021 16:58

Just found out my SD made up a fake date of birth to get a PayPal account. She's only 16. Her mum agreed and DH doesn't seem bothered. I'm concerned that its basically fraud. Anyone know if she's likely to get found out and could there be consequences? Not that I can do much but I'm a terrible worrier!

OP posts:
MzHz · 04/04/2021 17:05

Leave it to them. Honestly

Pick your battles

TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams · 04/04/2021 17:18

Only an issue if she starts borrowing money from PayPal isn't it? It seems awfully easy to "pay later" now

BoobsOnTheMoon · 04/04/2021 17:19

What are you worrying about? You won't face any consequences, if that's what you mean. I'd just leave them to it tbh.

MadMadMadamMim · 04/04/2021 17:20

Not your circus, definitely not your monkey if her own parents are fine with it.

LawnFever · 04/04/2021 17:22

If she’s linked it to her own bank account what’s the worst that could happen? I don’t think the police are going to come knocking Hmm

rainbowthoughts · 04/04/2021 17:23

@TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams

Only an issue if she starts borrowing money from PayPal isn't it? It seems awfully easy to "pay later" now
She wouldn't be able to, they credit check.
Lassolarry1980 · 04/04/2021 17:24

If this is all you have had to worry about with a teenager - then you are doing well!!

ceilingsand · 04/04/2021 17:33

My own son did this when he was 14 so I told PayPal!

Original poster
Hairydogmummy · 04/04/2021 17:37

@ceilingsand ! Did you? What did they do? I googled it and it seems she would need to verify the account at some stage once she reaches the limit and hats what she couldn't do. She doesn't have bank account to link to it but apparently she wouldn't be able to draw down money anyway cos they would know if the bank account was in her correct date of birth. She wanted it cos for some reason she's never had a bank account. Anyway! I've told her now, it's up to them what they do now. Don't see why it's worth the hassle. She's never going to be able to correct it down the line. Just needs to get a bank account!

OP posts:
RedGoldAndGreene · 04/04/2021 17:37

My kids managed to get PayPal accounts before they were the right age.
Tbh I'm surprised that the bank does not tell PP that the account holder is a child when they register.

FlyingBurrito · 04/04/2021 17:38

What exactly concerns you? One of my children did this linked to Ebay and somehow paypal found out. All they did was suspend the account until he was 18 and could prove it with id

In the absence of any other info it wouldn't be (and wasn't) a serious issue for me.

margotleadbeter · 04/04/2021 17:56

I know of a female young person under 18 who managed to create a PayPal account and was selling sexual images and videos of themselves accruing high amounts in the account. Police investigated from a CSE point of view. Young person didn't see the risk. Criminal exploitation gangs also will use these types of accounts too. PayPal aren't as vigilant as you may think. Interesting that eBay are distancing themselves from them as a default payment broker

Soubriquet · 04/04/2021 18:07

Why does it matter if her parents agree to it?

mooonstone · 04/04/2021 18:16

Haha this was me! I am 23 and made a PayPal account when I was under their age limit. At the time, you didn’t have to give PayPal your date of birth so I didn’t lie or commit fraud.

Used it for years without issue. Then I had to provide ID to PayPal. I think it was in regard to being a seller and verifying my business as I made a lot in eBay sales.

I uploaded my passport where they noticed I broke the rules by being under their age limit at the time of account creation. It didn’t matter that I was over the age limit at the time of uploading it. I wasn’t banned from PayPal, they just closed my account and told me I can just make a new one using the same details. It didn’t negatively impact anything, looking back.

mooonstone · 04/04/2021 18:18

Why doesn’t she have a bank account at 16? Sorry but my parents got me a bank account when I was a child. It seems geriatric for a 16 year old in 2021 to not have a bank account.

AmberItsACertainty · 04/04/2021 18:21

Doesn't PayPal have to be linked to either a credit card or a bank account? That's how it used to be years ago. They set it up by taking a test payment of a few pence to check they've got the right account. So if SD doesn't have a bank account, whose is it linked to and do they mind? It's not fraud if she's not defrauding anyone surely? If she starts paying for things using PayPal and the money comes from someone else's account but she hasn't asked permission, that could be a problem. Even if she gave them cash in exchange if they'd a direct debit coming out and she uses PayPal the same day it could mean the direct debit doesn't go through for lack of funds. It still doesn't matter to you though unless it's your account she's linked to! I wouldn't worry about it, 16 is basically adult, if someone has given her permission to link to their bank account or credit card that's upto them.

mooonstone · 04/04/2021 18:48

@AmberItsACertainty That verification only occurs when you add a bank account, it has nothing to do with credit cards.

I’m pretty sure you can create a PayPal account with no payment method attached, as PayPal can be used to receive money eg from family and friends. Presumably she is then using the money or saving it vs withdrawing it, as she’s using it in lieu of having a bank account.

You need card details on file for certain features, but it can be a debit card rather than a credit card.

Original poster
Hairydogmummy · 04/04/2021 20:07

@Soubriquet it matters' like any issue involving a child I care about matters to me. I don't know @mooonstone it's a bit odd. I think she's wanted one for ages but her mum hasn't sorted it so she's taken matters in to her own hands so she can order stuff online. I guess if she ever clicked the PayPal credit thing they push these days they would credit check and then she'd be found out. We've talked about it anyway and she's going to close it for now. Apparently she can still open another when she's 18 with same email address, she just wouldn't have been able to change the date of birth on this one.

OP posts:
mooonstone · 04/04/2021 20:33

Yeah PayPal are honestly quite laid out about it. Surely at 16 she can open a bank account herself without her parents though? I think she’d be eligible for a higher education account (ie for 16-18 year olds)

mooonstone · 04/04/2021 20:33

*laid back

mooonstone · 04/04/2021 20:35

www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/current-accounts/youth-account.html

This is just one example, but 16 year olds don’t need parental authorisation. Barclays and Hsbc allow 16 year olds to open their own accounts too

Original poster
Hairydogmummy · 04/04/2021 21:17

That's really helpful thank you! Will pass that on. As I say she only did it as she had no way of receiving birthday money and buying stuff online in the pandemic.

OP posts:
JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows · 04/04/2021 22:25

Only consequence is the account would be shut down. It's not a bank account, it isn't fraud

rainbowthoughts · 05/04/2021 08:58

@Hairydogmummy

That's really helpful thank you! Will pass that on. As I say she only did it as she had no way of receiving birthday money and buying stuff online in the pandemic.

This is really weird. Why would her parents not help her here? Who was sending her money? Surely family could have paid it to her parents? If she wanted to buy online again, why didn't her parents use their cards?

ceilingsand · 05/04/2021 09:06

@Hairydogmummy they said they'd look into it and they deleted the account. I was concerned he might use it to accidentally mount up an Xbox/PlayStation debt.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.