Why does it take so long to transfer money from my bank account to PayPal?

travelbyday
Contributor
Contributor

It shouldn't take 3-5 business days. Who are you to keep my money and not let me use it when I need to?

 

I transferred money from a bank account to my PayPal account. The money is out of the bank, and PayPal is still "processing" it. I know you have it, PayPal, I'm not stupid. Technology is advanced enough that it would be able to process instantly.

 

Now I have no access to my money. And it takes BUSINESS days, so this weekend won't count.

 

This is dumb.

Login to Me Too
62 REPLIES 62

Serio
New Community Member

I know its been a couple month since you posted this but I still wanted to reply.

You have a storng point and I too think they should do it alot faster but the truth is, if they keep your money for those 3-5 day on their bank they get a percentage from it, and seeing how much money daily is tranfered through paypal,

they make alot of profit by just keeping the money on their bank a couple of days and sit back and recieve a certain percentage from the money on there.

 

Login to Me Too

OldGrayWolf
New Community Member

Oh yeah; I 'bought' an item on November 9, using an ACH from savings via PayPal; my item is in limbo until the ACH is completed, obviously. eBay/PayPal does suggest that the seller not send the item until the ACH is cleared.  NOW...as another posting very clearly stated, PayPal has my money; they got it nearly instantly. By being permitted by the regulatory bodies to hold onto our money, they reap significant benefits in profit while we as individuals simply have to wait for them to accumulate it. And as another posting clearly states, this is the age of advanced technology. It should, logically, take less time than it did a few years ago instead of a week longer.  I absolutely hate being manipulated for corporate advantage. I will not now or ever use PayPal as a business tool; after three years, I'm still enduring a locked account because someone hacked my card and I became a fraud victim.  Many emails and bank affidavits later, the account is still locked. I think it's time I stopped using manipulative financial instruments.  Can nothing be done about this openly predatory practice??

Login to Me Too

Equinox07
New Community Member
Actually it's a against the law too hold electronic funds. I used to work for a bank and electronic fund transfers can not have a hold on them. I would call them too stop this practice!
Login to Me Too

dazy222
New Community Member

I too think this is way too long a time period for them to take in transferring money.  I have a tenant who pays her rent via paypal each month.  It takes 3-5 days for the money to appear in my paypal account and then another 3-5 days for it to transfer out and hit my bank account.  This means it could be up to 10 days.  Say she send her money on the 31st - I don't get it until the 9th of the month.  That is considered late, my mortgage payment has already come out and I end up having to pay an overdraft fee because of the overlapse.  Convenient and better than snail mail, yes, but, I agree it could be much faster.

Login to Me Too

PayPal_Helmute
PayPal Employee
PayPal Employee

Hi everyone,

I can elaborate more on why it takes so long for a bank to clear a transaction. 

The reason being is that we use the Automated Clearing House (ACH) process.  This is done through the federal reserve and PayPal has no control over this process. :smileysad:  What this means is that when you transfer money TO your bank you will see the transaction complete usually within a business day in your PayPal account.  At which point we have sent the money through the federal reserve to be processed, and then they send it to your bank.  All in all about a 3-5 business day process.  The same thing happens in reverse when you transfer FROM your bank account, the bank will clear it within a business day and your PayPal account will reflect that transfer in a few business days. 

Hope this helps!

**Helmute**

Login to Me Too

CARVAL
New Community Member

I am sorry, I just cannot believe this explanation. My business pays many of its bills using ACH payments, withdrawn from my account and credited to the payee within 24 hours if mad on a business day. Same for incoming funds. If nothing else, I would like to be given advance notice of such a significant change in policy that would affect clearing funds in a transaction and when a seller will receive funds.

I purchased something on ebay 10/21, go to Paypal, noted that I had to now switch the payment method from my credit card to a verified checking account, it is now called echeck, but I just accept the name change, but which is 180' from the way it used to be, where you had to pull teeth to get to your credit card for use, and I get an announcement just moments ago, 10/27, 5:00PM, that my echeck "cleared". Six days! This is sorely beyond ridiculous. Now the seller will have his 1-4 days to ship the sorely needed item. Wrong.

I will find other solutions to this problem which will not involve paypal. Sorry. You had a good thing, but you are now trying to squeeze out just a bit more profit on your clientels dime! So typical of the financial industry.

Login to Me Too

Mare-Sings
Member
Member

And the other thing is that if you give them a credit card to use "just in case" they can magically waive that 3-5 day transaction wait, and it becomes instantaneous, so I am not convinced of the employee's reply that they are required to hold your funds for such a long time. Now I am stuck with orders that I placed for Christmas delivery which will not arrive because my funds are being held in limbo by PayPal.

Login to Me Too

mlynn1231
Contributor
Contributor

Yeah right. The reason the old clearinghouse excuse doesn't fly anymore is that banks revised the paper check system s there's no longer the 2-3 day clearance, which was also attributable to this very clearinghouse. They now clear pretty much the same day they're deposited.

 

Now if paper checks aren't subject this anymore, there is certainly no valid reason digital transfers should be subject to it.

 

It's unmitigated hogwash.

 

The  fact that eBay owns PayPal and hence, one (1) single corporation collects double fees is outrageous enough to convince me of what we all know. Pure corporate greed is behind anything that defies logic while depriving you of money. The do whatever they can get away with. Corporate monoliths withhold our hard earned money while maintaining an unbroken, steady stream of billions flowing for themselves while we wait for scraps. Then we get charged overdraft fees when they manipulate posts and debit sequences. What a wonderful deal between these criminals and the banking criminals. How long will Americans continue happily bending over?

Login to Me Too

alaskacardz
New Community Member

Well this is a nifty little forum for Paypal. If they have a good answer they can put it right out there and show us how cool they are, and if they dont they just ignore the thread. How convenient! I seriously doubt that anybody at the customer service level has any clue how to really answer this question in a way that would truly satisfy any of you. They really just don't know, and it's not hurting their paychecks right?

Login to Me Too

Haven't Found your Answer?

It happens. Hit the "Login to Ask the community" button to create a question for the PayPal community.