How long will my refund take to clear?

[PayPal_lucy]

Hey there,

Here’s how to view the status of your refund:

1. Go to www.paypal.com/uk and log in to your account.
2. Click Activity and locate the refund.
3. Select the refund to open the 'Transactions Details' page.

• If you paid with a card, your payment will be refunded to your card. (It may take up to 30 days depending on your bank)
• If you paid with your bank account or PayPal balance, your payment will be refunded to your PayPal balance

Here are definitions for your refund’s status:

• ‘Completed’: Your refund has been credited to your account
• ‘Pending’: Your seller has initiated the refund but the money has not yet cleared. The refund will appear as ‘completed’ as soon as the money posts to your account. This process can take up to 7 working days to complete
• ‘Canceled’: The refund could not be completed. Contact the seller for more information
• 'Placed' and 'Removed': These statuses refer to the temporary hold on a payment rather than the payment itself. A hold is placed on a payment (eg when a refund is pending) and is later removed when the payment either completes or is cancelled. When checking the status of your refund you should refer to the original payment, not the hold

The original payment’s status will show whether the payment has been refunded:

• ‘Refunded’: The entire original payment was credited to your account
• ‘Partially Refunded’: Part of the original payment was credited to your account

Thanks,

Lucy

[tonymallyon]

just want to put my point accross as to whats happened to me twice about 4 months ago on a bank holiday and again this week ,so i will tel you what they done to me this week .

i paid for goods the sum of £380 through paypal straight away it shows unclaimed so i contacted the seller after about 4 hrs , he said there was nothing showing in his account ummmm. so i canccelled the transaction and sent another one through , same thing happened so i checked again with seller and his details was ok so i cancelled again and tried a third time after this i paid him with another ebay account i hold that goes to the same bank as my other paypay and could not understand why i managed to pay with the secound account . anyway was not to bothered by this becouse i now got my items coming . anyway i get a text from my bank telling me im over £700 over drawn so this means im going to get bank charges as well so i contacted paypal to be told its ok this is how we work and if you dont like it then go else were , my point being is what the **bleep** did i do wrong to get done over like this .

[kernowlass]

@tonymallyon

If you were able to cancel a payment it means the seller made a mistake with the email address on their auction and could not accept your payment.

When you pay a seller it is never instant > paypal credit the seller for you and then start the process of uploading your funds to paypal from your funding source.

This is done so you get your item more quickly.

So when you cancel that payment (as the seller can't accept it), those funds can't do a u-turn > they have to process through to paypal who will then either return them to your funding source (if you paid with a debit or credit card), or credit your paypal balance (if it was funded from your balance or instant bank transfer), but that takes a few days and sometimes up to a week.

[Ib11]

My seller said my Paypal payment was pending for 21 days until the payment cleared.  He has now cancelled the order after 4 days and I have a refund which is pending.  He was not paid straight away as you suggest, but still I have to wait to get my money back. PayPal do no to pay the seller immediately and this could be why he cancelled the order.  Very disappointing as this was for my sons Christmas present.

[temp201808261c]

Been reading these posts and I fully sympathise with everything that you are saying. I used to be a full-time seller on ebay and really enjoyed it. I never received any negative feedback and only ever had to deal with one returned item because the buyer decided it wasn't what he needed. However, now I REFUSE to use eBay simply because PayPal made my life **bleep**! For the first year or so I never had any problems. After the initial few transactions, all my payments went straight into my PayPal account and then straight into my bank account without any delay. Then one day that all changed for no reason. PayPal began withholding money that my customers had paid. With ever increasing frequency, payments became pending and I would often have to wait 21 days before receiving my money. Then there suddenly became an issue with money being transferred to my bank account. What used to be transferred instantly, was suddenly taking 24 or 48 hours! These delays in payments really affected my business as I would rely heavily on this cash being available. I spent countless hours on the phone to paypal trying to find out WHY they had suddenly decided to hang onto my money for longer than necessary, but all I ever got from them was the usual stone-walling **bleep**. They were never any help at all. The only reason I can think of as to why a company such as PayPal would suddenly resort to using a system that is slower than the 19th century postal service is that they want to keep people's money in their bank for longer to earn interest. I don't sell anymore and the reason falls squarely at the feet of PayPal. They made my life a misery and the stress of dealing with them caused me to change my vocation. They're an unnecessary middle-man creaming profits from unsuspecting sellers and playing God with people's livelihoods.

[leecoates666]

Agreed, i am in that exact situation. I just payed £910 for a camera and the sender didnt send it, so i am in the middle of waiting for a refund- am still waiting about a week later. I need the money refunded quickly so i can buy another one.

Its my money so I should be able to use it straight away, who is paypal to tell me when I can spend my own money?

[Tr2]

They probably take longer to give you your money back because they can get interest on your money that's what I read somewhere which is absolutely disgusting the money is quick to come out of your bank but not put back as quick they want reporting

[Hossele]

dam ! thank you i just bought an accesorie for my camera and  the person that i bought it from i had to pay something about the oversized  package and the guy from ebay refunded me the amount that i paid whic is well not much 5 bucks but  that happend a saturday so  i am worry  because in my paypal  says Completed but  i cheked my bank via online and it doesnt apear.

after reading everycomment i feel much better, i actually send them an email i tought  he didnt  refund me what i paid at the USPS.

[yellowmonster]

Seller refunded my payment for the item i bought. It says completed and got an email stating about the refund but yet there is no money that showed up in both my paypal and bank account? Help!

[kernowlass]

If you funded the original paypal payment to the seller with a debit or credit card then it won't go back to your paypal balance.

Once marked as completed it will automatically go back to your bank account or credit card but takes up to a week to process through to the bank and a bit longer for a c.c.

[joannadetiddles]

I am having the same problem. Refund via paypal from vendor to my debit card. But not showing up in my bank account.  paypal say refund issued and it can take up to 30 days to show up due to 'billing cycles' but my bank has confirmed that this is nonsense.  I am now hoarse from talking to a Paypal customer services rep in Manilla who told me my understanding of banking systems was pathetic!!!!!  

I use paypal because it's quick and convenient to make payments.  But i cannot afford to be giving them free loans, so am not going to use them for any more online transactions - my account cannot afford for money to be 'in limbo' like this.

It's daylight robbery as far as I"m concerned.