This Is How I Changed My PayPal Account Legal Name

Step by step guide to editing your Full Name and removing your Account Limitation

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Have you ever been frustrated at PayPal for the limitation or partial restriction placed on your account? If your answer is yes, don’t worry. I was on the same page recently, but I was fortunate enough to get it resolved in no time.

At first, when you see this notification as shown below, PayPal is just asking us for the information to verify our identity. If you had set up your account with everything that matches your identity documents, then holla! Just give them those details. They will review it and let you know within a few days.

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However, if you had set up your name wrongly in the first place — random name or a nickname, then your name on your identification record and the name in the PayPal account wouldn’t match.

For that, you must contact PayPal customer service and provide legal documentation to change your name.

PayPal operates very similarly to a bank. They need valid and legal proof of identity to make changes to that information. They are required due to the nature of their business to operate within compliance of certain laws that require them to be able to identify you in a multitude of ways.

Likewise, if you open a PayPal account under a fake or silly name, it will likely be restricted fairly quickly — Brittney Mathews, worked at PayPal(2014–2018)

Find your best way to contact PayPal through the phone or an email to get it resolved. Here, I chose the latter option and followed these steps:

Step 1: Change Your Name Back to Your Original Name

The PayPal Name Change service offers three options:

1. Change your Legal Name
   Use a new name after marriage, divorce, etc.
2. Update your Name
   Use your full name instead of a nickname, for example
3. Make a minor Correction
   You can change the name on your account (up to 2 characters) if it’s misspelled, and only once after creating your PayPal account

If you choose either of the first two options, you’ll need to upload proof of your name.

• If you choose to change your legal name, you’ll need to upload a copy of a government-issued photo identification (ID) that shows your face and an ID number, as well as a copy of your marriage (or divorce) certificate, certificate of commitment, or a copy of the legal document showing your name change.
• If you choose to update your name, you’ll need to upload a copy of a government-issued photo identification (ID) that shows your face and an ID number, as well as a copy of a utility bill with your name and address, a bank statement for your linked bank account, or a recent credit card statement for the card linked to your PayPal account.
• If you choose to make a minor correction, you can only make one change to your name. Otherwise, you’ll need to contact support for help.

Some members within the PayPal community threads criticized PayPal for slower response time for the name change request process(options 1 and 2). In some cases, they mentioned not hearing back from them even after months of submitting the required certificates.

However, I found quite the opposite, and instead of 3–5 business days of review, as they mentioned in the email, they approved my request within 2 days.

Before they approved my Name Change request, I submitted all the required documents along with an email message explaining the reason behind my Name Change request to the Customer Service.
They immediately got back to me with this message:

The following day, I received this message:

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Step 2: Go to Resolution Center and Submit All the Required Documents

My account was still temporarily limited.

However, by changing my Legal Name back to the original one, I can now submit those documents again for their review.

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After submitting those documents, and following a day of review, I was finally able to receive this email, giving me a sigh of relief.

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This way, I was able to completely restore my PayPal account and the Name Change request within 3–4 days without any hassle.

Thanks to PayPal for their quick service!

For More Information:

Visit the PayPal Community Help Forum, which will assist you with a lot of answers concerning any inquiries and information associated with PayPal.

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