Paypal Digital Gifts seems to have removed the limit of 4 gift cards per 10 days. Conversely, their system is now buggy as ever, and it’s difficult to check out at all.
Paypal Digital Gifts (PPDG) used to have a limit of $1,000 per rolling 30-days for most people. In the past month or so, this limit was apparently removed, and they were limiting us to purchasing 4 discounted gift cards per rolling 10-days, with no limit on full-price gift cards.
In the past couple days, most people are having trouble checking on PPDG purchases at all; the system puts us in a verification loop which never ends, or it errors out and brings you back to the login page or back to eBay without completing the purchase.
However, some persistent consumers got lucky and were able to buy some of the currently discounted gift cards (myself included), and the system wasn’t enforcing any limits on the purchases. You can now buy an unlimited number of e-gift cards from PPDG…if only the system lets you check out at all.
It’s unclear at the moment if the new unlimited purchase threshold is a temporary thing, as part of the buggy system, or if it’s the new rule. I’m inclined to believe that this is a new rule since the limit-4 was enforced early on in the checkout system, when the item was added to the cart, and the limit is not showing there anymore.
As far as the glitches go, I had some success staggering the item or amount. Yesterday, I pushed through two orders with one $200 Sears gift card in each. And today, I managed to get in three orders with one $100 Sears gift card in each, and one order with a $50 Kmart gift card. That’s as much as it let me do without glitching out. Others were able to buy many more, and some couldn’t buy any at all; see reader’s experiences in the comments on the previous posts here and here.
It’s likely that they are in the middle of making a change, and that’s creating the buggy nature of the system.
Note that all these issues, both the purchase limits and the buggy nature of the Paypal system, are only for PPDG purchases. Other purchases, including discounted gift cards from other sellers, seems to be working fine without any limits or glitches. Full-price gift cards from PPDG do appear to have the glitch issues.
View Comments (46)
I am not able to buy PPDG with my paypal and ebay account. I spoke to paypal customer service for hours but no luck.
Same issue for my wife's paypal account.
So created new paypal account for me and tried buying the PPDG but still no luck.
As of now I didnt buy a single PPDG cards from my account and my wife's account.
But I am able to buy anything from ebay and also from outside and able to make payment from paypal. Only issue is buying gift cards from PPDG seller.
Is there any solution for my situation.I will be really greatful for you guys if you can suggest or provide solution for my issue.
Thanks,
Only trick I know is to try low-dollar purchases. Also see this post https://www.doctorofcredit.com/the-various-levels-of-paypal-accounts/
Chuck,
There still seems to be some sort of limit. I placed an order for 1000 worth of GCs through PPDG on May 9th, another one on May 10th. On May 12th I was not able to place another 300-1000 worth of order. I tried again on the 14th and same issue. If I place an order of 200 it would go through. I don't know about multiple 200 in the same day though, have not tried that
Yeah, I'm limited usually to 4-5 gift cards per day (?). Not sure if it's just a certain amount of gift cards or if it's a dollar amount limit too.
I haven't bought anything from PPDG in 3 days, but I cannot purchase a single gift card from them. I have called and they "reset' , called again, added a bank account, called AGAIN and answered a bunch of public record questions to verify my identity. At the end of all this ""I'm very sorry M'am but Paypal is trying to make sure it's really you and I've done all I can" nevertheless I cannot purchase an $85 digital gift card. I can use Paypal to purchase many physical cards, but nada with PPDG.
sigh
I offered to give blood but that was not helpful. UGH
So, I have a theory that the ebay block happens after I buy 4 cards from PPDG in a single day. After that 4th purchase I can't buy anything from anyone on ebay until the following day.
Yep, yesterday bought 4 cards from PPDG, in two separate transactions. Total cost of $120 and my ebay account was temporarily limited for the rest of the day.
Tried to buy GameStop today but would not let me. Gives ambiguous error "Something went wrong. Please try to check out again." . Seems restrictions are in place
Welp, it seems the restriction was lifted this morning and now it's back. Bought a whopping $200 worth of gift cards from PPDG and now I'm blocked again. Error code 70226. This is the worst.
I got $300 through, and now stuck in verification loop.
I can't buy anything on eBay now. Happened sometime today. Doesn't matter who I try to buy from.
You’ve reached a temporary buying restriction. Please contact us if you need more information
Yeah, that happened to me last week. I gave it a couple days and then worked again. Hope the same for you.
Oh man. Ugh. My business revolves around buying on eBay. This will put a big dent in my numbers.
Thanks for the heads up.
It's the buggers at PayPal HQ. There was a recent biography on PayPal, it was quite informative, and gives you a lot of insight as to how these hooligans try to micromanage. Today and yesterday was quite a disaster, some of us got part of the way through what we intended to do, many of us failed completely.
I made a $600 purchase from GCM, then tried to make a $300 purchase from PPDG and it put me into the loop of verifying my identity with text messages three times, then it completely limited my PayPal account. I had to change my password, verify my full bank account number, and do another text verification. It says my limitation is lifted and my account is restored, but now I get "Unknown Error" and "Something went wrong. Please try to check out again." when trying to checkout on eBay. However, I just removed an old debit card from my PayPal account, so it's definitely not limited. Spent an hour on the phone with PayPal tonight about not being able to make any eBay purchases on my wife's account tonight with no resolution -- they said the account is not limited in any way and there are no flags on it. It's enough to drive you insane.
Yeah, I'm going to give it a few days and hope it gets sorted out on its own.
Anyone else get this text?
"Sorry, we can't move forward
We couldn't verify your account.
If you need help, you can send us an email or call."
Verification works for me a few times earlier today but not any more.