Many people use this service to pay for goods securely on the internet, and it’s possible to hold a fair amount of funds in these accounts. This makes it important to know how to close these accounts when the user dies, as it serves no purpose remaining open.

Due to the fact this is a transaction based website dealing with finances of its users, there are stringent protocols in places to ensure that a user’s account cannot be easily closed, so this will be harder than closing social media accounts when someone dies. This is for obvious fraudulent reasons, as any money that remains in the account will be sent to the executor of the deceased’s estate, who is the only person with the power to close a Pay Pal account.

Should you gain the details of the deceased’s account, including username and password, you can easily retrieved any funds, and immediately close the account. Simply log in on the website and empty the funds of the account. You can either add bank details to allow the transaction, or request a cheque (although this comes with a $1.50 processing fee).

After this, you will want to go to the ‘My Settings’ section of the account. Next to ‘account type’ select the ‘close account’ option, clicking on the continue button to go to the next page. You will be prompted for a reason, which is rather obvious, after which you continue on to successfully close the account.

This method requires email and passwords of the deceased, which unfortunately is never guaranteed. For these situations you will need to be the estate executor, with no exceptions being made. The executor will need to fax certain documents to (402) 537-5732m containing the following details.

A cover sheet that states that the account holder in question is in fat deceased, and that as the executor of their estate, you wish to close their PayPal account. A death certificate for the person in question will also have to be faxed along with the appropriate legal documentation to provide information proving that the executor is who they should be – this can be a the account holders will or a similar legal document. Finally a copy of photographed identification of the executor must also be faxed along with the rest of the documents.

Once this has been done, you must simply wait to hear a decision regarding the closure of the account. If all documentation is above board there is little reason to be denied this request. Any funds that were remaining in this account will issued in the form of a cheque, which will be in the account holders name