using invoices

[bamann]

I am not really in business, I just have a few things I am putting on FB to sell and all proceeds are going to a charity of mine but when I used an invoice to send for payment paypal did not release the funds.  It allowed for me to make an invoice in my personal account but took the funds upon payment.  It did not say when I used the invoice option that I had to be a business to use it.  

How do I get the funds released without being an official business and why would it not just put them in my paypal balance of which I just use to pay for things I purchase online?

Thanks.

[PayPal_Rich]

Howdy bamann,

I get where you are coming from. You're just selling a bit on the side to help raise funds for charity causes and want quick access to the money from those paid invoices.

First, thank you for doing good things for people. That's awesome! 😄

Secondly, you do not need a business account to use our invoice feature. The reason why those funds might be on hold is because you don't have an established seller history with PayPal. When our customers are new sellers, funds will often be on hold at first to ensure that the buyers receive their items as described and that the money is available in case a refund has to be issued because of a dispute or chargeback. This is a protective measure we take to keep sellers on PayPal honest and the buyers protected.

In your situation though, I can understand that you may need this money as soon as possible and to do that, I have some suggestions.

• If the order requires shipping, send it to the buyer’s shipping address and be sure to mark the item as shipped. When we know that the buyer has received it and is happy with the item, we’ll release the payment within seven days. OR
• Ship directly using USPS, UPS, or FedEx, or pay for shipping and print labels on PayPal. You can upload shipping information to PayPal and we will automatically verify the delivery. Once we know that the item was delivered, we’ll release the payment within three days. OR
• If your product or service does not need to be shipped, mark the order as processed. We’ll calculate the expected delivery date and release the payment within seven days of that date.
  

So you see, you do not need to have a business account to have your funds released immediately. All sellers on PayPal, until they've proven themselves to be upstanding sellers, are subject to payment holds on Goods and Services transactions. If you follow the steps above and keep on doing right by the people who purchase your goods, I'm sure there won't be holds on your funds in the near future.

If you want to read more about our holds, please visit the following link: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/brc/funds-availability

Thanks for sharing your situation, I hope you found this response helpful!

-Rich