Cleared payment vs. completed payment

mjl0002
New Community Member

I paid for an eBay item on July 9th and the payment status is "cleared." What, precisely, is the difference between "cleared" and "completed?" PayPal's glossary made them sound like the same thing, which I'm sure is not the case. Does it mean that the seller has not received the payment yet? It is now July 22nd, almost 2 full weeks later. Shouldn't this transaction be ancient history by now? The item has not been shipped yet, either. 2 weeks for processing the payment seems absurd. Any suggestions?

Login to Me Too
1 REPLY 1

surplusdealdude
Advisor
Advisor

"completed" means that Paypal has processed it but may not have actually received the funds for it yet.

 

"Cleared" means that Paypal has received the funds, so the seller has received the funds.

 

The seller is not supposed to ship until the funds are "cleared", unless the seller is subject to the 21-day hold, but that is not supposed to affect the shipping time.

Login to Me Too

Haven't Found your Answer?

It happens. Hit the "Login to Ask the community" button to create a question for the PayPal community.