PayPal is holding my money sent as a gift and later cancelled

[lyolik2002]

Please help me to figure out why PayPal is holding almost $400 that I sent as a gift to the wrong email address.

Here is the story.

I wanted to send my friend $200 as a gift. I had 7 dollars in my PayPal account, so they took these $7 and $193 from my bank account. But the payment showed as unclaimed. I cancelled it in 5 minutes and tried to send it again as a payment owed. And again it was posted as unclaimed. I did send money as a gift before and never ran into such a problem. In two days PayPal sent me an email that I have an unclaimed payment. I checked with my friend her email address and realized she started using a different account. So I cancelled again and sent $200 to the new email address. The transaction completed right away.

It's been almost a week and PayPal is still holding $193 x2. I NEED this money to buy food! What the heck???

There is no telephone number to call PayPal... It's so frustrating!

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi lyolik2002,

Welcome to the community forums!

That does sound like a mess! From what you describe, there are three separate Instant Transfer payments that are still pulling from your bank account, and you're waiting for the funds to clear so you can access the ones that belong to the cancelled payments.

For each payment you sent, there was a separate request sent to your bank for the funds to complete the transaction. These requests can't be stopped, even if the associated transaction is cancelled or refunded. Once those funds for the cancelled transactions reach your account, they will be available for you to use or withdraw. It takes 3-4 business days for the funds to clear from your bank. Since your post was 2 days ago and you said it had been a few days, I'm guessing those funds are already available now.

Also, if ever you need to call Customer Solutions, the number is available on our website. Go to Contact Us and click Call Us. If you log in, it will give you a direct number for your region and give you a secure web pin that will breeze you through validation when you call. If you opt not to log in, it will still offer you a number.

I hope this helps!

Olivia