Why is money received from friends and family on hold for 21 days??

[hfabdallah]

I have a personal PayPal account and NOT a business account yet when my friend sent me only $20 the money was put on hold and is still on hold for 21 days! When I checked it said that because I haven't had many sales or because I must add tracking info even though this is a personal account which I only opened to easily send and receive money to and from friends and family why is this happening?? So will money sent to me from friends and family always be on hold for 21 days?? How can I fix this issue when I clearly have a personal account and I do not use my Paypal account for any business?? Plz help!

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@hfabdallah 

Firstly you can receive goods/services payments regardless of account type. So if someone sends a goods/services payment to you then regardless of whether you have a personal account or not it would still be seen as a selling transaction and you would be charged a fee and subject to the new seller hold.

Secondly the friends/family option is not available in your country so all payments you receive are viewed and dealt with as payments for goods or services.

More info in links.

https://www.paypal.com/us/cshelp/article/why-is-my-payment-on-hold-or-unavailable-help126
https://www.paypal.com/us/cshelp/article/how-can-i-release-my-payments-on-hold-help129

[hfabdallah]

When I downloaded the regular PayPal app not the business app and even during installation I was asked whether I wanted the app for business or personal use and I clicked on personal use and installed accordingly, nowhere did it mention that in my country every transfer will be dealt like business transaction this is really strange from PayPal to allow this to be tye case. So if you're correct, which it seems like you are, so that means every single time a friend or family sends me money I will never receive it instantly? The money will always be on hold for 21 days before it enters my balance? Cause the last two times friends sent me $50 the first time and $70 the second time and each time I had to wait 21 whole days before it entered my balance, when I checked the help center it mentioned that money like this can be on hold for several reasons but the reasons I thought applied to me were that if I'm a new PayPal member or that they might have sent it as a business transfer by mistake but now after a friend sent me $30 last night and once again the money is on hold for 21 days it's become really pathetic but now after reading your comment this is extremely disappointing so does this mean every single time a friend or family transfers me money I have to wait for 21 days until it's in my balance and I can use it??

[kernowlass]

@hfabdallah 

You can sell on a personal OR a business account.

I use a personal account to sell the odd item and am charged of course when the buyer sends the payment.

You only need a business account if you are a high volume seller / registered business but lots of folks sell on a personal account.

If you could sell on a personal account without a fee then what would be the point of upgrading to a business account? Everyone would sell on a personal account and paypal would go out of business.

If you don't have the friends/family ie gift option in your country then yes all payments you receive into your paypal account will be charged as if they were payments for goods or services.