Error message: 'We're sorry, but we can't send your payment right now.'

[sojmed]

I'm trying to send money to a friend with a paypal account from my paypal account. I get the message:

'We're sorry, but we can't send your payment right now.'

What does this mean? Do I keep trying? Why can't paypal send my payment? Can I contact someone to find out what's going on?

[zogmorph1]

I got this message the other day when trying to send funds. And the next morning, and 20-30 more times as I went through 4 hours of troubleshooting with PayPal and Apple tech support, with no solution.

So then I tried sending to an alternate email address and it went throgh without a hitch.

Turns out "Sorry, please try again later" is PayPal's generic error message for everything, and has NOTHING to do with when you try. In my case, the recipient had changed his account info so the email address I was using was no longer linked to an account. 

PayPal, in their total absence of wisdom, apparently decided there was no need for a message telling you to check if spelling and account info was correct, instead just telling you to wait. And wait. And wait... You can wait til the cows come home and it wouldn't make a difference.

And in their further absence of wisdom, nobody at PayPal seems to know this. Their incompetence is only exceeded by their disregard for wasting customers' time.

So, in my case, "Sorry, please try again later" actually means "invalid email address / invalid account info". But since it's a GENERIC response, it really could mean pretty much ANYTHING, and thus actually means NOTHING.

[DropDown]

It's really disappointing to see that this problem affects so many people and yet a genuine solution has not been provided.

Naturally I am writing because I am currently experiencing the same problem and quite frankly I find it ridiculous. There is no reason why my transaction should not be going through. I know that the e-mail I am sending the money to is correct and even if it wasn't, I can type in the first character of the recepient's e-mail and then Paypal automatically displays the full e-mail for me. So if this doesn't mean that the e-mall is correct, that's even worse on Paypal's part.

I should also mention that when going through the classic site (which appears to have been a solution to some people) I get a more detailed message telling me my credit card could not be verified. That's useful. What isn't useful and quite aggrevating is this is the same card I have used without problems to send money previously. You can check my records for proof of this.

In closing, this is unacceptable.

Get your act together and please provide a proper solution to this unnecessary problem. I also am disappointed that Paypal does not offer a live chat support. It's 2015, this should be a service you offerred from the get go.

[PayPal_Conor]

Hi DropDown,

Welcome to our Community!

I suspect this might be the problem you're running into here: http://ow.ly/OqNPE

Our internal security is most likely stopping those payments, you see. This is more common if your account is unverified without any active financials. Why don't you try the hints and tips in the article above to see if they help at all?

If you're still having difficulty, feel free to contact us through one of our other social media channels though. That way we can pull up your account details and investigate this further.

We are available 24/7 to answer private messages sent through our Facebook page (http://goo.gl/4BO8de) and respond swiftly to any tweets directed towards @AskPayPal!

I hope this advice helps DropDown and please reach out to us if you need any further help,

Conor

[hughmcampbell]

SOLVED:

Remove capital letters from the email address

[terresamonroe]

Why do I keep getting the message 'can't send right now, try again later?'

[AdamG86]

I am having the same problem I can't send £80 to a friend... What's going on?

[PayPal_Jessica]

Hi AdamG86,

Thanks for posting in the forum!

It is possible that the secuirty system was preventing your payment, but usually you should be able to complete it ,if you try again at a later stage or using a different funding source. You can find more information here

Jessica

[PhillyDood215]

Hi Jessica,

My cards are confirmed but I'm having the same issue. Any ideas?

[PayPal_Sophie]

Hi PhillyDood215,

Thanks for posting on the Community Forum and sorry to hear about this.

As advised by my colleague Jessica, it may be that your payment is being stopped by our security system, however your card issuer could also be declining the use of your card through our system. I would suggest contacting the bank who issued your card to ensure that there are no issues on their end.

If you continue to run into issues, please contact Customer Support directly, as we do not have access to view your account details from here. You can find our contact details by clicking the 'Contact' link at the bottom of any page when logged in 🙂

Thanks!

Sophie

[Deckay]

This might provide some closure for some of you:

I've got that error message and I called PayPal a few times and they explained the situation to me: My account was too new to make such a "large" purchase and they couldn't do anything to help. They tried their best though. 

So chances are, some of you might be getting this error message for the same reasons but it'll be best to call them to clarify. The staff was responsive and helpful.

However, I do wish PayPal would give this notice to new account holders that they have a purchase limit that no amount of verification can help you bypass!