I'm in the same boat as you are, as are several million other people (as you'll be able to see from the humungous amount of posts from other very angry people on the relevant forum subjects about holds and related matters; those posts are obviously the tip of the iceberg; most people wouldn't post on the forum, they'd just get annoyed and then refuse to use paypal).
There's really no solution other than using another provider and letting as many people as possible know what paypal do so that their business either collapses or they change their processes.
With paypal's current processes, it's only a matter of time before one of those 2 things happens, because they can't survive long-term by doing what they're doing as competition in their market will end up destroying them if they don't fix things.
I've personally made a complaint to the relevant UK authorities about paypal's processes, as they basically steal people's money (ie they hold onto it for as long as possible, even when there's no security/fraud or potential chargeback risk, so that they can earn interest from other people's money).
Make no mistake; the holds are absolutely nothing to do with fraud or security checks, or chargeback risk; those are just excuses and even when those excuses are confirmed as irrelevant in a given situation, they STILL keep your money, they ARE thieves.
So, my advice is:
1) Stop using paypal for any future payments.
2) As soon as the current money in your paypal account is fully available, withdraw it from paypal into your bank account.
3) Delete any links you have in your paypal account to your bank account or cards if possible.
4) Make an official complaint to as many authorities as possible in your jurisdiction (but keep your paypal account open while doing so, so that the authorities and you can see the history of the account).
5) Tell every person/business that you deal with who ever ask you about payment systems, including family and friends, to never use paypal, and tell them why.
You were lucky if you had the money held for 7 days; mine was repeatedly held for several weeks, and even after that (when it became "available for withdrawal"), they then held it for another few days while the withdrawal itself was put on a " withdrawal hold", and all that happened despite there being no physical goods involved at all (just virtual products/software, and service (time) paid in arrears), and despite there being zero chance of a chargeback risk as the clients and types of payments are identical to what I had on another paypal account which never has any holds on it because it's been running for so long without a single dispute ever.
Don't bother to phone their customer-services or message them; they'll just give you the standard "it's in our terms" reply and keep your money for as long as humanly possible, regardless of the situation.
My sympathy is with you; I know what it's like and how frustrating it is, but at the end of the day the only real solution is to simply never use paypal ever again, complain to as many authorities as you can, and tell everyone you know what a scam it all is.
