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

[jhusky]

The delay on it showing up is actually more on the banks part than paypals unfortuantely. Most banks can take up to 2-14 days sometimes a month to post debit refunds.

[t4cett]

Hi

Can someone please explain why I keep suffering the "pending refund"? I never used to have this problem via ebay or other merchants, however over the last 6 months it happens EVERY time. I paid for an item on 22nd march, the direct debit left my account on the 26th march. Item arrived & was not as described so I opened a case via ebay on 28th March. I waited until after the bank hol to return item (at seller's request). The seller has received the item back and refunded the money back today via paypal. However this refund is now pending until 12th april.....WHY???? There is no danger that my original transaction will be returned as it would have done so before the end of march. Why do I have to wait another 6 days for my money to hit paypal (then another 7 days for it to hit my bank account??) This is almost a month to receive my money back, totally not on - especially when I had to pay to send item back recorded delivery at my own cost..... I'm now £2 out of pocket permanently and £26 out of pocket for a month due to a seller sending shoddy imitation goods!! It's not like I'm in the habit of having my payments to paypal declined, there is no reason for them to hold on to my money so long.

Yet my partner recently sent an item back to an ebay seller, who refunded on receipt of the return - it cleared into his paypal account instantly, no "pending" issues, it just makes no sense???!!

Please can someone enlighten me why this has happened? Is it a seller issue or something?

Thanks

[kernowlass]

 A seller can only issue a refund via funds in their paypal balance or an echeque So if its an echeque it has to clear through to the sellers paypal account and then it is credited to you and the hold lifted.

This is because paypal don't "refund in advance" like they do when you pay for an item.

 

[t4cett]

Hi,

thanks for your response but how can I tell if the seller has refunded via echeque? It doesn't state that on the details. Also I noticed that the seller doesn't appear to have refunded item via the ebay "Not as described" case as the details do not have anything listed and the item is not showing as refunded in my purchase history. Will this have any impact?

How can paypal justify the time scale however? It never takes longer than 3 working days for the money to be taken out of my account so why do they make us wait 7 days?

Would you know why I have had the same issue with big companies though? Surely a shop should be able to refund directly? I had an issue last year with a national chain of shoe shops listing trainers that where not in stock.

[kernowlass]

If its on temp hold then the seller has refunded with an echeque, if  they had had funds in their paypal balance and refunded it would have been instant.

Paypal uses a slower bank account transfer method so it takes 5-7 days to clear from a bank account.

Even big shops probably don't have funds staying in their paypal balance and fund via echeque direct from their bank account.

BUT sometimes a refund has cleared to paypal but as you funded the paypal payment that was refunded with a debit or credit card it automatically goes back there but again takes a while to process through.

All i can say is that nothing is ever "quick" with paypal apart from when you pay a seller.....but temp holds are not your problem ....apart from the fact you have to wait !!!!

[TraceyAnne7]

Same thing is happening to me. I was refunded £97 a week ago now. Still waiting. I have rung paypal twice and told the money would be released Friday 5th April. It hasn't. I'm now overdrawn by £87 on my bank account and being charged £10 a day interest. This is so unfair. Through no fault of my own I'm now in debt for the first time ever. There must be some law against this? My bank told me paypal took the money via direct debit on the 2nd April. It will be the 8th tomorrow. Too long. Wont be using paypal again. Specially since I was told I would have my money by Friday. We all don't have millions in the bank!!!

[t4cett]

Thanks Kernowlass....... from another Kernow lass!!

It really is ridiculously outdated of paypal to use such a slow process - I gotta say to me it sounds like they are making excuses for holding onto funds to get even more interest from peoples cash, but thats the way of the world eh? Us little people have to wait a month to get our money back....... to be fair tho, I wouldn't be so annoyed if it wasn't down to feeling ripped off by seller in first place - or seller's listing not in stock items! That's why its irritating, I want a replacement and have to wait even longer now ....grrr.

Thanks for your help x

[tampiyappa]

The tumbler dryer I paid for never was delivered

[LyntonSA]

My refund was initiated on 21 Feb 2016 and only due for credit to my account on 29 Feb 2016...... Why does it take so long?

Also, can someone from PayPal explain the meta tag accompanying the STATUS line on the classic view Transaction Details: "Your refunding will be pending for working days until it clears"....... Very helpful...... what does it mean... is it FOUR working days or FOR working days, if so, how many.... If it is four, then 21st to 29th is more than four..... COME ON PAYPAL, SORT IT OUT......

[PayPal_Dian]

Hi LyntonSA, 

Thank you for taking the time to post in our Community. 

I can understand that it is frustrating if you need to wait for a refund. Let me explain why it can take up to 7 business days. 

When you make a payment PayPal will pay the seller straight away and after that we will deduct the money from your bank through direct debit. It takes up to 7 business day to complete this direct debit. If you receive a refund within those 7 days the refund will be placed om a hold until the direct debit is completed. As soon as this is done we will add the money to your PayPal balance. 

If you would receive a refund after the 7 business days the money would be added to your PayPal balance straight away. 

 I hope this explains a bit better why it takes several days. 

Dian