Newbie with Paypal verification question

Hello!
I decided i was gonna buy me some L$ so i didn't have to run around and try out millions of freebies that aren't what i want and just end up filling my inventory to the brim anymore.

I went to the www.secondlife.com/account/billing.php and put in the paypal details.

It says the account isn't verified? How could this be? We use it for Ebay and any other Paypal matters. When I say we I mean me and my husband (it's his paypal account, i don't own any credit or debit cards myself. It might sound strange in this day and age but i've never had any and i don't want any cos i see people get in trouble with them all the time.).

Anyone know what's going on?

I'm sorry if this question has been posted elsewhere but i end up spending hours everyday searching for SL information about things I want to know and ending up with completely irrelevant pages no matter how i put my keywords. There's so much information but never the specific one i'm after. Sigh!
So, very sorry to trouble you but I don't wanna give up second life before I've hardly even started (i'm about 10 days old now )

I'm the only one i know that play SL so unfortunately I have noone to ask apart from you guys and I realise that it must be tedious but please help me if you can!

As I understand it the PayPal account has to be "verified". I don't use PayPal on SL but a friend down the street does. If you have a verified PayPal account then I'd contact billing if I were you.

For a PayPal account to be verified it usually needs to be linked to a bank account, or you need to have a PayPal Plus card. See here for info:

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/acc/seal-CA-unconfirmed-outside

That's weird. You didn't used to be able to have a paypal account without having it linked to a bank account or credit card.

It means bank verified.

For Second Life they demand your paypal account be bank verified. There is no freaking way I'm doing that for anyone so I don't use paypal here.

a few years ago verification required paypal to deduct a random number of pennies from your bank account, then you had to tell them later how many pennies were deducted.
i recommend verifying. it makes paypal a lot more useful!

Depends if you use or need to use paypal. I don't.

I'm going to hook up my bank # to something that has debit abilities online? Huh-uh.

Each to their own, however.

I have a separate account at my credit union just for paypal.

Not a bad idea, Argent. Thanks. A bit of trouble, but it could work.

If I ever need to use paypal, (become an Ebay merchant for inste), I will give that some thought.

The credit union was convenient because it only needed $100 in the account to avoid a monthly service charge.

That's good too. Numbers make me nervous.

(only partly kidding)

This is how I did it, but it is actually at the same credit union as my regular checking account, so it makes online transfers of money into it very easy. I simply transfer money to it any time I want to use paypal to pay for something.

Cheers everybody!
It all seems very odd to me and from reading the link Skell Dagger provided (thank you!) I don't feel an ounce more clued up to why I have to do this or why our paypal works fine on other sites without it....

I checked our paypal status and yes there it was: not verified.

Clarissa Lowell: Why do you not trust Paypal? I was given the advise & under the impression it'd be safer to be pay in SL through a paypal account than straight up bank details. I wouldn't be comfortable having my bank details held by SL...

Maybe i'm just paranoid...or not enough

Anyhou...Thanks everyone! At least I know the verification is paypal related not SL.
I hope I manage to make it work somehow.

Ebay will work fine with an unverified Paypal account, though some sellers will require the account to be verified before they will accept a payment using paypal. I have encountered a few other cases where the seller wanted the account verified, but it is not often. Those are LL's rules for using Paypal though.

you must remember that dealing with ll is not as simple as a one off ebay purchace. they require you have an ongoing billing agreement with them, essentially giving them the ability to deduct $ from your paypal account at will. this is what being paypal PIOF in sl requires.
you do have the option of setting a cap on the amount ll can withdraw in your billing agreement. it can be found and altered at:
my account > profile > pay list
eta: you can also dictate primary and secondary payments sources for ll there.

this is a perfect time to again note that your ll paypal billing has a big chance of failing if you do not have a current paypal balance, even if it is a dollar. in fact, it is my experience that i need to initiate a full transfer into my paypal before ll even try to bill it, else it fails on the ll end.

usd. your balance has to show up as usd as well.

I make sure I have enough in US$ credit *before* my payment comes due.

I never ever actually maintain a balance IN Paypal - the do an immediate transaction from my bank account or my credit card each time. The few times I have had a paypal balance because of a refund or someone sending me money, I immediately have it sent to my checking account.

If I would buy something on line, especially from say eBay I would want the added assurance that if fraud was involved I'd have my CC company to intercede on my behalf. Yes I know eBay has guarantees but I can't walk into eBay and pitch a fit.