are seller payment holds secure and unable to be withdrawn bu the buyer

[buzzgrim]

I signed up for PayPal this morning and had planned on selling and receiving money from another PayPal user for an item.  I found out that there is an up to 21 day hold on payments to new users.  Does this mean I have to wait 21 days for the payment to post to my account before I ship the item?  Or,  is the payment securely on hold and unable to be withdrawn by the seller, until the advertised item is received by the buyer, at which time the payment is then posted to my account.  Can someone help me with these questions?

[kernowlass]

@buzzgrim 

https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/my-payment-is-on-hold.-why-is-this-happening-faq3297

[PayPal_RebeccaN]

Hello @buzzgrim, 

Thank you for your post and welcome to PayPal & the PayPal Community Forum! 

I understand you would like some clarity on PayPal seller holds.

Thank you so much @kernowlass for the link to our Help Center explaining this 🙂 

You should receive an email from PayPal explaining that this was placed on hold and be able to see the pending balance on your PayPal Wallet. Once you can see your pending balance and information on the hold, you can go ahead and ship the item to your buyer. 

To abide by PayPal Seller Protection, it is important to ensure you ship this to the shipping address supplied by PayPal. 

If there aren’t any issues with your transaction or account, the payment will typically be available to you within 21 days after receipt. 

To get your payments released sooner, use trackable delivery with any of our approved delivery companies and enter the tracking details on your Activities page. We’ll usually release your payment 1 day after delivery is confirmed. If the held payment is for a service or intangible item (e.g. piano lessons, e-book), update the order status on your Activity page and you'll get your money 7 days after verification. 

If your buyer confirms they've received the item, your payment will be released immediately. Steps on how your buyer can confirm receipt can be found here: How do I confirm receipt of an item? Please ask your buyer to try this using the PayPal Website rather than the App. However, this option is not guaranteed to always be available. 

I hope this helps, have a nice day! 

Rebecca 

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