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So I lost my phone number and now can't log in to my paypal.
I do have all the names/ID's/passwords/emails whatever you neeed. But I can't access my paypal because it only and only asks for my phone number. I can't even say that I don't have this phone number anymore. there's not any other options.
There's a page for "What should I do if I lose my phone number?" in paypal help center which states that if you lost your phone number, you should login to your paypal using phone number and remove the phone number using sms verification and add a new one. yeah... that helps quite a lot.
And I can't find any options to e mail paypal for support as well. How do I recover my account now?
A European user said this worked:
"Guys I just solved this with the help of a fellow member on here!!! The secret is to change your password! For the verification, I selected entering my credit card number and voila I got into the account and then changed the number successfully!"
Another one of our Redditors provided the following helpful write-up:
(the author of this was in the United States, instructions may not apply in your country)
Last week I was planning to switch phone numbers as I had moved states and wanted a local area code. Before doing this, I made sure to change the number on my PayPal account to a different number that I would still be able to receive texts on after changing my main number. Well, despite doing this, logging into PayPal a couple days later, it tried to send SMS one-time login codes to my old number that I had removed from my account and no longer had access to.
I contacted their online support. You can contact their online support without logging in like this:
Visit https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/contact-us
Click "Password and account access"
Click "Login problems"
Scroll down and click "Message us - it's like texting, send us a note!"
Click "Chat with us about your password issue" and the chat messaging will open.
The online messaging support agents were not helpful. They did verify that my new number was on the account and verified, so I should wait an unknown amount of time for the system to update my number, which never happened. They would also try sending me "one-time password links" via email which literally just allowed me to change my password, but did nothing to help the issue of bypassing the login codes. Their final suggestion was always to call support. Well, their call centers have been closed for months due to the pandemic (at least in the United States). If you call, you eventually get an automated message telling you they're closed due to COVID-19 and the line disconnects.
Since the first day of this issue, I'd been communicating with their support on Twitter, https://twitter.com/AskPayPal through DMs. They had been giving canned responses and referring me to the online messaging support which was not helping. However eventually, over a week later, I was able to connect with a support agent via DMs with the @AskPayPal Twitter account who actually knew that the call centers were closed (which is how the request would normally be resolved) and they asked me to email [email protected] informing me to request that the "security key" be disabled on my account.
Just under an hour later, I receive an automated email that the old phone number was removed from my account for the "security key" feature! Success! I was finally able to login without any one-time SMS login code hassle.
In all cases, I verified my identity by providing the following. Provide this when speaking with a new agent via the online messaging, or when emailing them. Note that they cannot verify your identity over social media DMs however due to security concerns.
Your country. They will be able to guess this based on your Internet network, but provide it anyways as their rules and services are different per country. Name on the PayPal account. Make sure it's the exact one on the account -- I'd signed up with a shortened version of my first name and was only able to verify myself by providing that.
PayPal account email address. The one you use to login.
Last 4 digits of one of these that is connected to your PayPal account: credit/debit card or bank account
I hope this helps someone! I do think 2-step/2-factor authentication is a good thing and have re-enabled it WITH the backup option of an Authenticator app in case something like this happens again.
Also, if you can't get into your account but need to make PayPal Credit payments, you can do so via this automated phone number: (844) 373-4961, which even allows debit card payments which you cannot do via the normal website.
If you have not done so, Read our FAQ! which answers most questions.
Please note that with the current CoVid-19 crisis that support is very limited at PayPal. No one here can fix that or offer solutions. The most common answer is to telephone PayPal support. However at this time such a call may be frutile, though you can keep trying.
Try contacting PayPal support using social media such as Facebook or Twitter as this works more often than telephoning.
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