IS PAYPAL INCAPABLE OF INSTANTLY TRANSFERING MONEY AS ADVERTISED??

[KeyDecision]

I have been using PayPal for years. It used to be when you clicked the instant transfer to my bank account, it INSTANTLY TRANSFERRED the money! Imagine that! And it was free! Now, there's a 25 cent fee and the money just disappears into cyberspace for two days! When you call PayPal, and reach the Philippines after being on hold for an hour or so, they tell you the transaction is complete and to call your bank. You hang up, call the bank, the bank says the hold up is on PayPal's end. PayPal happily charges you the 25 cents and the percentage but cannot seem to INSTANTLY TRANSFER anything any more! They should not be advertising INSTANT TRANSFER if it takes two days to transfer money to a bank account or debit card!!!

[angelleye]

Transfers to your bank account are still free, but they have never been instant. That's like depositing a check, which would typically take 2 - 3 days to clear.

The new feature you're referring to is the ability to transfer to a debit card, and this is supposed to be done within an hour for a small fee. I haven't tried that myself, but I have seen quite a few reports of it not working so well in these forums. As such, I would probably recommend that you just stick with regular bank transfers and plan for the small delay. If you really need to do it through the debit card then you need to make sure the debit card is a compatible card with their system. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find much info about which cards are indeed compatible, or what could make one incompatible.

[KeyDecision]

PLEASE READ

IT USED TO BE INSTANT

I used to be able to click "transfer to bank account" and it went to my bank account within minutes! Same bank account, same debit card!

Incompatible, check the debit card, blah blah blah.... same thing the people on the phone said. You don't listen:

NOTHING CHANGED ON MY END!!!

PayPay cannot do instant transfers any more. They used to but now are incapable! And should stop advertising that they can!

[angelleye]

I did read, but in my 18+ year experience with PayPal I have never seen bank transfers that are instant. They did have an invite only feature at one point where you could get expedited transfers, but even then it was next day. Not instant.

Myself and apparently people on the phone are giving you valid, accurate information. You're the one acting as though we're just giving you a bunch of "blah blah blah"...so who isn't listening..??

Maybe you're confusing Instant Transfers FROM your bank to PayPal..?? In this case that only works when you have a backup funding source included in the account. This way you could choose to pay for something with your bank, and it would do an "instant transfer" to cover the payment, but behind the scenes it would still take 2 - 3 days to actually clear. If those funds couldn't clear for some reason, then it would hit your backup funding source to cover the transaction.

They just introduced the ability to do instant transfer to your bank via the debit card (for the small fee) last year with the partnership with Visa. That option wasn't available before that, and it's always been 25¢ since it's been available.

PayPal to bank has never been instant, but they do now show "Estimated Arrival" is 1 day in their documentation: https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/How-do-I-withdraw-money-to-my-local-bank-account-FAQ1189. So that's apparently more widely available now than it even used to be.

So you can refuse to accept answers that people give you want to, but that's not going to help your situation. Instead, you can understand that PayPal to bank is and has always been free, but has never been instant, and as of last year the option to use a debit card for instant (around 30 min) transfers.

As I said, I have seen lots of complaints lately about the debit card transfer having issues, so if you want to avoid any potential problem you can just stick to the bank transfer...which should arrive within 1 business day.

[KeyDecision]

And the snarkiness is so professional!

[angelleye]

I wasn't being snarky at all. I gave you plenty of good info there. You're just choosing to be mad at nothing, and that's unfortunate.

[ruthgibb]

I think you are a bit snarky....telling the person how she should and should not act.  That's not your job.

[angelleye]

Pretty sure I never did that. I explained the facts about what is available now, what has been available in the past, and options for how to proceed going forward.