Petter's Airbnb Earnings Stuck: A PayPal Dilemma

Petter rents out his villa on Airbnb. The money was supposed to go towards his vacation fund but couldn't be transferred.

– It's not very fun to have 20,000 just sitting there, he says.

During the summer, Petter Gustafsson, 41, usually rents out his villa in Västervik.

This time, he chose to receive payments via PayPal, having heard it was a faster option.

However, when he tried to transfer his over 20,000 SEK to his regular bank account, he was met with an error message. A week later, he still hasn't been able to withdraw the money.

– It was meant for the vacation fund. So I've had to resolve it in other ways, by selling stocks and funds, and so on, he explains and continues:

– There would have been other options for me to get paid if I had known I wouldn't be able to access my money.

PayPal's Response

PayPal is aware of the issue – yet there is no warning to users.

– Several customers are experiencing the exact same problem, says the company's customer service to Expressen.

They cannot explain the cause.

When Petter contacted customer service, they confirmed the issue and advised him to spend the money instead.

– But I said, what the heck, there aren't any businesses that take PayPal at all, he says.

Petter believes they should inform more clearly about the problem and says he has read in forums about people in similar situations.

– For me, it's fine, I can manage. But people can have quite a lot of money there. It's not very fun to have 20,000 just sitting there when you planned to do something else with it, he says.