Why does it take so long to add funds?

[lacarids]

Why does it take a week to transfer funds from a bank account to a checking account?

The wait period is unacceptable. I can clearly see that the funds leave my checking account on the same day that I request the transfer. PayPal waits 7 days before they add the funds to my PayPal account. Seven days. They have the money for a week, and are collecting interest on it before it is available to me in my PayPal account.

PayPal **bleep**, but unfortunately there isn't a better alternative. When will a better alternative come along?

[_Zazu]

Welcome lacarids,

Bank transfers whether to or from a PayPal account take approximately 3 to 4 business days. Due to the volume of transfers processed through PayPal on a daily basis PayPal utilizes the ACH or Automated Clearing House network due to it's ability to handle this bulk volume.

There are other methods of transfers between banks, however those systems, such as wire transfer, are not able to manage the amount of transactions being processed as well being rather costly. On average a wire transfer can cost anywhere from $12 to $45 depending on the sending and receiving banks.

I hope this helps

[kennykeys]

The Paypal representative's answer to this topic leaves a lot to be desired. And it doesn't really address the question.

We understand that Paypal would use a clearinghouse service to process the many transactions. But, as everyone knows, Electronic Funds Transfer (or EFT) is instantaneous. The clearinghouse does not require several days to process a transaction any more than does Paypal. One or both of them are deliberately sitting on our funds for an extended period for no other reason than profit. 

Thus, legitimate account holders are penalized twice. First, monetarily in lost interest, and second, by the gross inconvenience of extended loss of access to our funds. 

We lose another way too when we must keep a larger balance sitting unprofitably idle in our Paypal account in anticipation of our needs.

Banks also use a clearinghouse for EFT and they also require a waiting period for transfers or when depositing a check. But their hold period is much less, generally one or two days - three at the max. I've never seen Paypal process my fund transfer in only three business days.

Paypal has a justifiable source of profit in the service charges levied on sellers for each of millions of  transactions processed. Their second source of profit is the interest earned on the millions of dollars that sit in our accounts till we're ready to use them. In light of this, any delay in making funds available as soon as possible represents an excessive and onerous penalty. I wish all Paypal users would rise up and complain about the unfairness of this policy.