As an independent business person who deals with many overseas clients, I've been a long-time user of PayPal's convenient online invoicing and payment services. PayPal traditionally requires some sort of bank collateral in order activate a user's account. In my case, it's been a Visa card I've used for several years.

THE PROBLEM: Unfortunately earlier this month my Visa card info was stolen by an online vendor (NOT RELATED TO PAYPAL), so my bank canceled that Visa card an reissued me a new card with a new number. When I went to update that Visa card information on my PayPal account, PayPal refused to accept the new card and displayed the following message:

"We cannot link and confirm your card at this time. Please link a different card or confirm a card already attached to your PayPal account."

Despite repeated attempts over the next few days, PayPal refused to accept the new card, always displaying the same error message. Meanwhile my account became inactive--I could neither send nor receive payments, because I now had no valid card on file with PayPay. I sent an e-mail explaining the problem, but never heard back.

Today I finally called PayPal customer service, and after being transferred to several different departments (and in one case being disconnected entirely) and being given several explanations as to first: why I shouldn't be getting this error; then second: why I was getting this error, I was told that the PayPal system was set up to accept only one (1) Visa card.

Yes, according to customer service, the reason I cannot not update my Visa card information is because the PayPal system is set up to accept one (1) and only one Visa card. If you cancel that card, your only option is to register a non-Visa card, e.g., Mastercard, Amex, Discover. I kid you not.

Fortunately I have a Discover card, so I registered with that (and now I have to wait 2-3 days to complete a convoluted acceptance process).

What annoys me is the amount of work I had to do in order to uncover that information--several days of fruitlessly filling out the PayPal credit card forms, an ignored e-mail request for help, then an aggravating hour on the phone with PayPal customer service.