Friends and Family payment pending - never happened before

RLMarket
Contributor
Contributor

Hey and thank you for the attention,

 

One of my friends recently sent me an F&F (Friends and Family) payment of 2.16$ and for some reason it's pending till 31st of January. It never happened to me before. I've received much bigger payments in both F&F and G&S and none of them were pending, but for some reason this one with such ridiculous amount is. Any chance somebody reading this knows why? Help would be really appreciated.

 

I have a strong suggestion that it has something to do with payment being made in an eCheck form, but I'm still not sure why this payment type in particular is marked as pending (if eCheck is the problem).

 

Thank you for your time,

- RLM

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PayPal_AshleyM
Moderator
Moderator

Hi RLMarket,

 

Good question! Payments sent using an eCheck take 7-10 business days to complete, as it is dependent on the bank's processing time frame. In this case, the pending payment doesn't have anything to do with your account - eCheck payments are not released until the transaction clears. Apologies for any inconvenience, but hopefully the transaction completes for you soon. 🙂

 

- Ashley M


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PayPal_AshleyM
Moderator
Moderator

Hi RLMarket,

 

Good question! Payments sent using an eCheck take 7-10 business days to complete, as it is dependent on the bank's processing time frame. In this case, the pending payment doesn't have anything to do with your account - eCheck payments are not released until the transaction clears. Apologies for any inconvenience, but hopefully the transaction completes for you soon. 🙂

 

- Ashley M


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NCblueskies
Member
Member
But WHY is there a different answer in every instance that an eCheck transfer time is questioned? It is quite maddening! Example: a friend sent me an eCheck March 6th and on the mobile PayPal site, the estimated arrival of these funds was March 9th. Sure, I get that. But when I switched over to the classical/desktop view to access further details on the transaction, the ETA has been pushed back to March 12th, after a brief note on ACH transfers taking 3-5 days to complete, on average. But now you have answered herein that eCheck payments take an INSANE 7-10 business days, so like 20 days in real-time. This is absolutely unbelievable to me; one - that a bank transfer would ever take several weeks to clear, but two - how dramatically PayPal’s declared estimations vary. On a side note, my friend who had sent the funds on the 6th told me today (March 8th) that the funds have been debited from his account already. It was my understanding that withdrawing the funds from the sender’s bank account was the rate-limiting step in this all. But now, should I expect to wait for these funds to reach me in April?! And where exactly is this money right now? He doesn’t have the money, I do not have the money, so did his bank technically just take the amount of his intended transfer to me from his account and can legally hold this money as their own for the next 6-9 business days (approx up to TWO WEEKS?!) while they verify the transaction? What could this all possibly entail? We are both “verified” PayPal members if this helps in any way (I’m kind of thinking it doesn’t..). If the bank is not holding the funds (indefinitely) for review, is PayPal processing the transfer in some other terribly time-consuming way? (No offense!) Really I guess above all else, I so dearly wish to know where the considerable variation amongst the transfer time estimates propagates. Sorry for the rant, thank you for all of your hard work and time answering questions from the community. All the best, NCblue
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PayPal_AshleyM
Moderator
Moderator

Hey NCblueskies,

 

Those are excellent questions, and your frustration regarding the time frames being different is fair. I'm happy to clear up any confusion I can. 

 

The 7-10 business days mentioned above is the maximum estimate, meaning the transfer should not exceed 7-10 business days, but typically clears before then. This would be why my time frame differs from online. Regarding the difference between the app and the website, we do have a few issues with the app not having full capability like the website, and I'm happy to forward that issue through for review (thanks for letting us know!). For clarification, in my experience you will usually see the funds clear within 3-5 business days.

 

The reason these transfers can take so long is due to PayPal not being able to send any money until everything clears and we have access to the full amount of money. This full process entails our request to the bank, the bank's comply, the process through the Automated Clearing House (this is what takes the most time, as neither the bank nor PayPal has a hold on these funds while they clear), and the final deposit through to a PayPal account. It sounds like you may be in the ACH phase, so hopefully the funds should clear through soon and be deposited.

 

I know eChecks can be a pain, and we understand the time frames related to them are quite extended, however we rely on the bank's processing time and the ACH to deliver the funds in order to complete these payments. Thanks for your patience while it clears!

 

- Ashley M


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