Payment to friends and family still pending

[tats09]

Every month I send some money to a family member overseas. The last 2 months, paypal has held the paypment on my side as "pending" for 10 days. My December payment was made on 20th December and it's showing as Pending until 30th December. I definitely selected Send to Friend or Family so why is PayPal doing this? I have been unable to find anything helpful in the FAQ.

[Justusinc]

I contacted them on the 16th and have gotten no reply. My friend's payment is still pending. On top of that, my friend has since sent me an additional $35, and this latest one went through just fine while the first one is -still- pending. I'll contact support again, but it would be nice if they would respond to my first ticket. I've used PayPal for over a decade and love the service, this is the first time I've ever had any problems.

[temp20200226]

Surprise surprise I’m not the only one whose experienced this [Bleep] from PayPal. What a poor service. Let me just start by saying I’ve used PayPal since 2007. So I sent a friend £50 because they needed food to survive at university. I ask them if they got it ok, they say no the money is on hold.. WHY PAYPAL WHY??? What reason could this possibly be for? Not the first pile of [Bleep] I’ve received from PayPal this month either. 2 weeks ago I sold an item on eBay (like I have been doing for the past 13 years). Guess what? Money placed on hold and will take 48-72 hours to review. After asking me for passport photos and receipt of the item I sold they give me access to my money 3 days later.. OH WAIT NO THEY they just take the payment off hold. Next I try to withdraw my money. Get an error msg saying there is a limitation on account which needs removing before I can withdraw. I then message customer service which is a shocking procedure itself as it took someone a day to get back to me on the in app chat. You may aswell just have a customer service email address if you’re going to take the [Bleep] with wait times. Eventually get through to someone and they tell me limitation will be removed within 48 hours. This news made me ecstatic, only another 2 days till I can have my money! Yay!! I then sell an item 9/10 days after this debacle and guess what, the exact same [Bleep] happened again. In fact I still can’t withdraw my money. Message customer service again, get a reply a few hours later but least they are improving with their waiting times LOL. Women asks me for transaction ID, time and date of transaction etc. What a load of [Bleep] this is. I saw this message and didn’t bother replying as I would have ruined that poor women’s day and she has it hard enough working for a disgrace of a company like this. Can I ask what the [Bleep] does the transaction I.d, date and time have to do with why I cannot withdraw my available money?? I for one cannot wait for the rise of crypto currency and the like so we can get rid of this poor excuse of a platform once and for all.

[PayPal_Rich]

Hello @temp20200226,

Thanks for posting in the PayPal Community forums for help with this issue. I'm sorry to hear that you have had a negative experience with this transaction. That is understandably frustrating. There are a variety of reasons why PayPal may hold funds or delay a transaction. Usually, it would be to mitigate any risk perceived by PayPal's security system.

This can be caused by the risk associated with recent payments received, inconsistent logins to your PayPal account from unsecured internet connections, the use of VPNs, limitations, or a variety of other factors.

In these instances where a transaction fails, I would recommend waiting 24 hours before trying again or contacting PayPal customer service for further assistance. 

[Thedonleonardo]

It happens to me all the time for NO reason. I realize this post is old but I’m trying to figure this out myself and was lead here. Nobody has an answer. I transfer money back and forth with the same people a lot. Sometimes it’s immediately in their account and sometimes it’s stuck in limbo. The frustrating part is no matter how deep you look for answers you cannot find any. EBay only provides “maybe’s and If’s” and a whole lot of double speak. Ever try to walk into a bank and close your account? As in “I’d like all the money in my account,in cash, right now.” They won’t do it. If you ask why?you’ll get the same smoke and mirror show as you do with PayPal. Shady business practices.

[Kazzy2069]

I am having the same problem now my payment was normally instant when coming from my bank account and for some weird reason this is still pending even though the money has been taken from my bank account, why?

This has never happened before? I have completed transactions this way many times I also have a payment I did today still saying authorising, even though money is available in my bank account, what is going on PayPal???

[djshy]

i know it's an old thread, but has anyone been able to get their payments past the pending status via friends & family?  If so, what was your wait time for the funds to actually transfer?  I'm in the same boat as many of who posted and it's the first time I'm experiencing this "pending" status via F&F.

Thanks!

[ashtoe123]

I had a similar issue and messaged PayPal. The payment was sent to me on August 17, 2020 and as of today, I still hadn't received it. This is the message they sent me, "Upon checking here, yes the funds have taken out form the sender's account and its now in the clearing house for 6 business days clearing process.Dont worry once the funds get clear it will be available by August 25,2020."

So apparently, it takes over a week to get funds... which is ridiculous. I am not a seller, and this payment was sent to me through Friends and Family. Never had this issue in the past.

[kernowlass]

@ashtoe123 

Normally payments from bank accounts are never instant as Paypal use the cheapest transfer option of electronic transfer ie echeque.
So to prevent any delay in the dispatch of items Paypal credits the seller upfront and Paypal takes the wait for the bank transfer to clear.

Funds may have left your bank account but they have to go via ACH in batches before Paypal receives them.
There are other reasons for echeques being used instead of paypal crediting the recipient upfront and they are if the senders ...

1. Card needs updating.
2. Has had a recent negative balance.
3. A recent failed bank transfer.
4. For some high cost riskier payments / transactions.
5. Friends / family payments....funded from a bank account.

[demexicoahousto]

I'm in the same boat since August 6th , over 30 days and still waiting, so it has been 33 days. We probably need to make a complain to the General attorney, and make a class lawsuit. They holding instant transfer funds friend to friend.

[Kazzy2069]

The only way I found around it is selecting the card payment method rather than from your bank account, even if they are linked to the same place. Good Luck!