PayPal sees light over second charity account
A SECOND Guernsey charity which had access to its PayPal account blocked was able to get the funds out of its account yesterday afternoon.
The Christmas Lights Appeal had about £1,400 in the online account, but was blocked from accessing it last May.
However, following a Guernsey Press enquiry to PayPal, access to the account was restored, with the company saying that a problem obtaining certain information from the charity had been partly responsible for the lock-out.
Christmas Lights Appeal chairman Jax Robin said the problem started after responsibility for fundraising for the lights was transferred to it from the St Peter Port douzaine last March.
A PayPal account had been set up by the douzaine to receive donations, and efforts started to transfer ownership of the account to the charity.
But, said Mrs Robin, despite long and frequent phone calls to PayPal, the account was locked in May and the charity has been unable to access it since.
Mrs Robin contacted the Guernsey Press after seeing the story about the Guernsey Cheshire Home, which also had its account restricted by PayPal.
This was restored on Thursday after the newspaper contacted the online payments company, and a complaint was lodged with PayPal by the charity.
But while the Cheshire Home account was also blocked from receiving funds, people were always able to send money into the Christmas lights fund.
A PayPal spokesperson said yesterday afternoon that access to the lights’ account had been fully restored and a goodwill donation had been made to the charity.
‘As part of a routine account review, we had asked the charity to provide us with certain information, which we have a regulatory obligation to collect,’ said the spokesperson.
‘This information was not returned to us, which led to delays in concluding the account review. However, we should have done more to help the charity through this process, and apologise for the inconvenience caused.’
