from Hacker News

PayPal to add $20 inactivity fee in Canada

by woranl on 8/25/21, 3:43 AM with 9 comments

• by actually_a_dog on 8/25/21, 8:43 AM

  Inactivity fees are bullshit. The marginal cost of generating a periodic (edit: electronic) statement for an inactive account is essentially zero anymore, as is the cost of storage.

  While I'm at it, minimum balances on plain old checking and savings accounts are also bullshit. All of these things are just excuses to take money away from people, primarily those on the poorer end of the wealth/income spectrum, who are the least able to afford it.

• by ulfw on 8/25/21, 8:21 AM

  I have cancelled my account years ago. Paypal doesn't offer anything in the market and I don't use a single website that requires paypal exclusively for payment.

  Something is really wrong with a company charging you for inactivity. Maybe it would help them more trying to find out why their customers don't bother using paypal anymore rather than some short term gains in inactivity fees.

• by karmakaze on 8/25/21, 2:42 PM

  Well, I'm glad I never deleted that recurring subscription to bill myself $0.02 every month. I thought it would be a good indicator in case ever stopped working and a real person tried to make a payment. Now it's a 0.02/mo 'service' to keep my paypal awake.

• by detritus on 8/25/21, 9:04 AM

  > This fee was also introduced in the U.K. back in December 2020

  Wat?

  I mean, I use PayPal fairly frequently, so this doesn't apply to me - but I'd be incredibly pissed off to note a random £20 (whatever) charge on my account from a service I didn't use!

  How is this even legal?

• by m-p-3 on 8/25/21, 11:29 AM

  I rarely use it anyway, so I'll terminate my account and only use it in "guest" mode if that's the only payment option.

• by MihikaBasu on 8/25/21, 4:29 AM

  Businesses are getting desperate to levy fees and penalties. But guessing PayPal's intelligence has a solid reason to ask for it.