PayPay woes (why is everything difficult)

23 comments

1. Every time I need a new account or to update a payment method I have to try a list of combinations of my last, first and middle names with and without spaces until something works.

   By the time I get things working I’ve been so annoyed that I just try and move onto something else. So whenever I return I never know what was the actual acceptable combination.

   It’s so annoying. And then don’t even get me started on the requirement of keeping all the stupid fucking paper documentation when we live in a country riddled with natural disasters. Make that make sense.

2. It baffles me that PayPay, Line, Mercari even with their “amazing international work culture” have the most annoying to use products.

   Stuff like Mercari mobile not available to foreigners, to PayPay bank being a pain in the ass to use for people with long names, to Line just being an overall piece of trash, etc etc.

3. You can contact PayPay customer support. However for me I had to put FirstNameMiddleName LastName. If first name and middle name don’t fit then I think you split your middle name. But if you contact customer support I think they can help

4. I recently received a notification from PayPay that I needed to update my account information. I went to the account section of the app and clicked a button that indicated my account information was correct and that was the end of it. I didn’t have to re-enter any information.

   I have the same problem with name verification. I have to enter my name in full-width romaji with spaces for it to clear. When I originally signed up for a PayPay bank account the character limits in the app were too short for me to enter my name correctly.

   I contacted PayPay support and they sent me forms by post mail. I had to complete the application process that way and then I got a PayPay bank account along with a credit card and debit card.

5. Another reason of many that I’m glad I just got rid of my middle name. Didn’t use it in the home country either.

6. I’m sorry to hear that, but from what I’ve seen, PayPay linking verification is actually determined by the bank. For example, Seven Bank linking seems to be normal API based and doesn’t depend on name matching. That’s why they’re the GOAT (if you don’t make too many domestic transfers).

   I have a small katakana letter in my name too and my Yuucho linked correctly. I heard that folks whose names end with ー are in a different kind of name verification hell, though.

7. I’m unable to link my bank account (for other reasons) to PayPay. I just do occasional cash top-ups from conbini ATM. Been doing it for years – takes a couple of minutes while in store, barely an inconvenience.

8. This happened to me as well. Turns out the Katakana in my registered paypay account didn’t match with the bank.

   Fortunately though, MUFG at least seems to have some workaround for the middle name issue.

   It seems that if you concatenate your first and middle name without a space in the first name box, MUFG will accept it.

   Example is on the mufg bank card it shows

   [last name] [first name] [middle name]

   In Katakana. But on any online app that requires your first and last name on the bank account you can just do

   Last name: [last name]
   First name: [first ane middle name with no spaces]

9. Anything to do with name verification in this country is shit. If your name isn’t kanji based, it’s up to the whims of whatever system is involved, as well as whoever did the data entry. My middle name ends in an ES (making a zu sound. Like flames) and unless I’m the one doing the typing it’s totally random on if someone decides to put it in as ス or ズ – likewise when they put in all caps alphabet and its either LASTNAME FIRSTNAME MIDDLENAME, oooor it will be LASTNAME FIRSTNAMEMIDDLENAME (i.e. first and middle name all ran together like one word/name).

   If a human is doing the verification it’s usually fine (I say usually, but it probably depends on their employee manual lmao). But automated systems? You’re fucked.

   And of course EVERY form of government ID I have shows my name in alphabet. MyNumber, Japanese driver’s license, Residence Card, etc. Hell even my Japanese health insurance card.

   Every last one of them, my name is in English/alphabet.

   As a result anything that requires verification with your name in Japanese? That goes right out the window.

   I’ll never forget how I applied for a rakuten credit card, got approved, but they wouldn’t give me my card when they came to my door because my ID “didn’t match the name on the card”. I filled out the application in Japanese, meaning I foolishly put my name in katakana when filling out the name portion of the forms. Because, duh, right?

   But as mentioned above, every form of ID I have been given by this country is not in katakana, but English/alphabet. Not even katakana in parentheses somewhere.

   So no rakuten credit card for me. I could have dealt with that but I said fuck it and tried for Amazon again and got approved finally (this was years ago).

   Anyway, yeah, this country is unfortunately a bit stupid when it comes to names. It’s not hard to write in exceptions for this shit, but here we are.

10. I’m so glad you posted this. My PayPay started acting weirdly and I put it down to Visa and MyNumber renewal timing.

    After the newly abrasive visa renewal and the mind-numbing agony of renewing MyNumber I also suffered PayPay unlinkage of my accounts.

    Even my Shinsei account which doesn’t include my middle name can’t be relinked. I guess because of a mismatch with my middle name in PayPay. At the time I opened Shinsei they couldn’t handle middle names. Now they can’t process my name change because I can’t show a change in Family name. Aaaargh.

    So many Catch-22s in this godsforsaken mess.

    When I could give a fk, I’ll go see a person at Shinsei. But how can we do that at PayPay?

11. Fellow “je” sound-haver here, double check what your bank has written on their half to see if the katakana matches. Make sure it’s not written as ジエ or, in my case, written as ジェ when I always write it as ジェー, and check the spacing in your name; my romaji name is (full-width) Last First Middle, but the katakana name my bank has is Last FirstMiddle.

12. Paypay being crap is the reason I still carry cash. They don’t even support Rakuten bank.

    Ignoring Paypay entirely and exclusively using Quicpay, with fallbacks to credit card and (rarely) cash has never been an issue.

13. I have some weird sounds in my name that Japanese struggle to write down correctly even when I tell them in Japanese the right way to do it.

    I regularly have issues with my ゆうちょ, paypay, rakuten etc names being written differently. Even my rental contract was a hassle because they had to write my name down in katakana and despite me pointing to my name on my ゆうちょ document right in front of them, they elected to write it differently and then a month later complain to me that they couldnt take rent from my bank because the name didnt match!

14. I used PayPal for 20+ years, until mid 2023 when my account was locked. They suddenly required government ID which I provided and they insisted on updating my name to match it. I go by a shorter first name and do not use my middle name. My bank accounts also use this orthography. PayPal would not accept this and I escalated the issue and received several phone calls over the next few days to discuss the issue. Ultimately they said I would have to take the issue up with the government and re-issue government ID with matching orthography. I told them to f*ck off and cancel my account. They locked my account. Strangely after 2+ years the account has become unlocked, though I am not sure of the functionality as I have not tried using it since.

15. Yeah… that’s why I set up a PayPay Bank account so I could include my middle name (which isn’t included on my MUFG account). Now for anything that gives me fuss with linking to MUFG, I just use PayPay Bank.

16. this is why I don’t use Pay-pay. it’s trash if you have a long name.

    in my case name on my bank account/ my number card matches perfectly but for somewhat reason PayPay says names doesn’t match, I’ve tried everything but nothing works.

    said fuck it and switched to rakuten services.
    rakuten gold credit card – rakuten pay – quick pay – rakuten Nisa

    no hassle and tons of points every month.

17. I’m using PayPay with my name as LastName FirstName MiddleName and it works fine. Matches what’s on my bank account, which is with SMBC.

    May be bank dependent?

18. Oh god and the space-based last name first name “heuristics” makes a bloody mess of my very unfortunate surname with a space or hyphen or none depending on the whims of the service I’m using

19. I really wish Japan had a PSAs about middle names before any long term visas are completed.
    It’s so annoying to remove once you’re in the system I feel?

20. If you already put it in the order of [last] [first] [middle] for bank account, then try to make it the same on PayPay.
    AFAIK PayPay mostly check katakana for integrations to bank/card/etc. So if you were concerned about difference between PayPay name and residence card when doing the verification, you can do something like below in PayPay:

    Name: [Last] [First Middle] — with space

    Katakana: [ラスト] [ファーストミドル ] — without space

    For some reason, this setup works for me. Even though I have space between first-middle on my bank account

21. Maybe you will have better luck with next autumn’s Teppay. The new QR code payment system from Suica/Pasmo

    https://preview.redd.it/if08x94g7j3g1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eec0183d0cdad0ca53aaca4e7ec5659bebc8771e

22. I’ve given up trying to link my bank account because of my middle name. It’s infuriating.

    I’ve resorted to just topping up at an ATM.

23. I was never able to get a PayPay account to work (auto rejections for credit) and I think it was due to a name/spelling issue. I gave up.

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