Besides the somewhat obvious benefit of increasing the limits for the amount of money you can withdraw or send, verifying your PayPal account also improves your overall security.
While there is the initial verification process which takes place during sign up, linking your credit card or bank account is also part of verifying your PayPal account and creates trust between you and other users of the service when sending or receiving money.
Linking your bank account or credit card, however depends on your jurisdiction. In Kenya for example, it is more common to link bank accounts to PayPal than credit cards as a result of the latter not being so popular here currently.
Verify Your PayPal Account Via a Bank Account
Banks in Kenya such as Equity Bank have joined the not so long list of financial institutions who have partnered with the payment service.
Once you have created a PayPal account and have an Equity ATM card that is linked to a bank account with at least 300 Kenyan Shillings, simply:
- Log in to your PayPal account and click on ‘Get Verified’.
- Next, you enter your credit card or debit card details. They will be linked to your PayPal account.
- Once done, PayPal will proceed to deduct a small refundable amount of $1.95 (202.41 Kenyan Shillings) from your account.
- Attached to the statement reference for the refundable transaction, will be a four digit security code which you will need to enter on your PayPal account in order to complete the verification process.
- After you receive the code, log onto your PayPal account and type in the code it when prompted to verify your account.
It is important to note that the code can however take up to 5 days sometimes, before reflecting. If that occurs, you can contact your bank’s card division to get the code.
If your Equity bank account is also linked to your Equitel line, you will receive an SMS with the confirmation code you need to verify the PayPal account.
The code will be in the format of: PP*1355 for example.
Verify Your PayPal Account Via Credit Card
Another method for verification, is to just add your credit card or prepaid card to your PayPal account. Simply:
- Log into your PayPal Account. On the right side, select ‘Add a Bank Account or Card’.
- Once the page loads, enter your Card details in the Credit Cards section. This will deduct the refundable $1.95 (202.41 Kenyan Shillings) from your Card and you will receive the code in your bank statement.
Once your verification has been completed and your identity confirmed, PayPal will then lift the transaction limit on your account.
