Pending balance

[Jaq36]

Hello, today I sold an online game account to someone I have known for a while now. Currently the money is being held in my pending balance. I have been searching around for what exactly this is (new to paypal) and it seems to receieve my money faster, hopefully 3 days, I need to provide proof of delivery. I wwas wonder how I would be able to provide evidence that I have handed the account over, the buy has agreed to prove this anyway he can (papypal email maybe?), I really dont know. Help would be greatly appreciated. 

Jack

[PayPal_Anna]

Hi Jaq36,

Thank you for posting and welcome to the Community Forum!

I’m very sorry to hear this. It looks like you are a new seller.

We understand that having a payment on hold may be inconvenient.

We would like to explain that Safe Payments Initiative has been implemented to help new sellers build positive transaction history.

This process is temporary and helps with making more sales due to enhanced buyer's trust. You can find more information in our Help Centre here: http://ow.ly/Zlm6D.

The best solution here would be for you to mark the item as shipped if you have already sent the item. This will allow the buyer to confirm delivery which will speed up payment release.

Once you will meet all criteria for established sellers your payments should be available immediately.

Hope it helps.

Anna

[Eddie59]

I find it absolutely disgusting that you are holding my money for something I sold 4 days ago and it still shows as pending ,I have been using PayPal and eBay for over 10 yrs and have never faltered on buying or selling granted that I only sell a few times a year but am a regular buyer and user of PayPal ... I actually need my money that you are holding from me I could understand if I was a new seller ... Suppose this is a way of you earning maximum interest of other people's money

[kernowlass]

@Eddie59

If you only sell occasionally then that would be why.

>>

Reasons why you may have returned to the hold as per link above possibly are >>>

1. New seller.

2. Not sold for a while and returned to selling.

3. Dipped star ratings on ebay.

4. Recent buyer disputes.

5. Selling on a different email address or ebay i.d.

6. Suddenly selling a high cost item against normal selling history?

[comicscotty477]

Make a formal complaint to Paypal.

It worked for me.

[berty100]

4 days? you're lucky; paypal held onto my money for 2 weeks for a service that I'd already rendered (nothing to do with ebay; I was just using paypal as a form of payment)

Even after that 2 weeks was up and paypal approved the transaction (ie after it became "available for withdrawal"), paypal then held onto my money for ANOTHER 3 days (maybe more; not sure, they still haven't sent the withdrwal to my bank account) while they put my withdrawal to my bank account on a "withdrawal" hold as well (even though my bank account had already gone through the confirmation process by paypal).

Paypal will, of course, cite security and fraud checks and potential chargeback protection as the reasons, but that's not true, because even when you provide all evidence that the product/service has been completed, that there's zero chance of a chargeback, and the transactions were all genuine, they'll still hold onto the money.

It's like going to your local bank, asking the teller if you can withdraw £100 of your own money from your own account, you provide the teller with your driving license and signature/pin etc, they say:

"Yes, you do have those funds available, it is your money, and I confirm that you are the account owner."

The teller then takes £100 out of the bank's cash drawer, logs into the system and flags the £100 as being taken out of your account, and says:

"I've now taken this £100 out of your account, so it's no longer in your account."

The teller then waves your £100 in your face, laughs at you, and says:

"I'm going to put your £100 in our bank's reserves to earn interest for a few weeks. Come back next month and if you're lucky then maybe I'll give it to you."

If you're in the UK, contact these people and make a complaint against paypal:

http://www.fca.org.uk/

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

[kernowlass]

@berty100

Complaining would normally be a waste of time as you have agreed to the hold in their user agreement.

If you don't like it why not use another payment processor, paypal is not compulsory.

And yes if you provide a service you often have to wait up to 21 days as you can't prove delivery with a tracking number.

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/fundsavailability

But hey i have to wait up to 31 days for my pay every month, I provide a service for my employer every single day but he still doesn't let me have the money till the end of the month   

[berty100]

@kernowlass

I haven't agreed to a blanket hold in the user agreement.

I've agreed that holds can occur in some instances when it's appropriate.

Paypal is putting unreasonable holds on new accounts purely in order to earn interest and not for security reasons.

"And yes if you provide a service you often have to wait up to 21 days as you can't prove delivery with a tracking number."

I provide a service that's billed in arrears; I've flagged it as "shipped" on my account, if the service hadn't already been rendered, then the customer wouldn't have been invoiced.

Paypal KNOW that the service has been completed, they KNOW that the clients have been with me for years on another account, they KNOW there's zero chance of a chargeback, but they still hold the cash back.

It's got nothing to do with security or chargebacks; it's 100% designed purely for paypal to get as much interest as possible.

And, yes paypal are not the only processors out there, and I DO use other processors now where appropriate because I've now learned what a bunch of crooks paypal are, but "well, you can use other services" is not a valid defence for a company stealing all your money for a month.

[kernowlass]

@berty100

I've agreed that holds can occur in some instances when it's appropriate.

Whether its appropriate or not is up to paypal to decide whether we like it or not. >>>> 

 We may hold your funds to the extent and for so long as reasonably needed to protect against the risk of liability. 

It may be a pain (and i have been through it twice as i restarted selling after a break) but it does not last for long and there is nothing we can really do about it. As it gives buyer protection and i want buyers its a neccessary evil.

Is it really worth all the fuss just to wait a couple of weeks or so to get paid, we have to in our real life jobs so whats the difference.

[berty100]

@kernowlass

"We may hold your funds to the extent and for so long as reasonably needed to protect against the risk of liability. "

That's my point; their holds are for the most part completely unreasonable, and they're not being done to protect against risk, they're being done to earn paypal interest.

Is it worth the fuss of moaning about it, ie should I just carry on using paypal and deal with it?

It's definitely worth the fuss; paypal are fleecing millions of people over this, and putting people into financial hardship by it.

Startups are going bust because of it.

Should I carry on with paypal and live with the holdbacks; no, because I can't afford to finance paypal out of my personal cash reserves; I earned my money fair and square from my customers, my customers paid me for my services, and I want my money.

Also, this is my "real life job", I don't sell on ebay, I was just using paypal as a way of billing my customers. I bill my customers in arrears; the service has already been completed. So I'm already in arrears before paypal even start their 2-week-to-a-month holdback routine.