PayPal Community

I think you may have two different issues mixed up here.   When funds are available to withdraw, doing so should be quick - but since moving over from BACS/CHAPS to Faster Payments earlier this month the Paypal system has been subjecting withdrawn funds to a delay (described as a 'security review') of 21, 24 or 72 hours.  This, I think we've all accepted, is a bug in their systems which they don't seem to have fixed yet.  Paypal customer service is getting so many calls about this that I reckon they assume every call is about it and trot out the same reply.   The 21 day hold is where funds coming into your paypal account from eBay sales are not actually available to withdraw at all until one of these things happens:   (1) you receive positive feedback from the buyer (2) you prove that you have signed proof of delivery to the address shown in the Paypal transaction record (3) 21 days have passed without any comeback from the buyer   (and in most cases you have to phone up Paypal to point out that these things have happened)   This hold system originates from eBay, not Paypal, and has become more or less standard for newer eBay sellers.  I don't remember the details but 90 days membership, a certain minimum feedback score, that sort of thing applies.  It was introduced to combat seller fraud (which is nearly always charactized by sellers with short histories on eBay).   Once one of the three things above has happened, the funds move into your 'available' balance and can be withdrawn - at which point (currently) they will fall into the 21/24/72 hour balls-up trap...   Thus, if you are a fairly new eBay seller you may get an email telling you the funds are 'pending' for up to 21 days then, when you can get at them, another email telling you the funds are being held for a 'security review'.  Same misery, different reasons. ... View more

we have four or five withdrawals pending right now.  Our view has been that, since there is an unspecified delay going on we should withdraw everything that comes in to Paypal as soon as it arrives, even if that mean executing a withdrawal every half an hour. ... View more

Dear David,   I'm really glad that a Paypal moderator has decided to take an interest in this - it's a pity it wasn't possible for you to get on board sooner and maybe reduce the growing number of threads referring to the same problem.  Assuming you've read these threads you'll already be aware that several users have already been advised by Paypal over the telephone that the present problem is a technical fault with your new Faster Payments system and I'm astonished that an employee of Paypal would think such a post sufficient or even helpful after all this time.   We don't need to hear the long-discredited platitude in your post; we need to hear that Paypal has a target date for getting this system working properly - or failing that, a date for re-instating the original quick withdrawal system with £5 fee which so many of us have relied on for years.   We understand that implementing FPS was a significant piece of work for Paypal; we understand it may have teething problems (and we even understand that occasionally 'security reviews' are real and valid).  What we don't understand is why Paypal seems intent on damaging its reputation by failing to communicate the problem promptly and professionally to its customers.  Paypal has the mechanisms in place to send an announcement message directly to every Paypal user's inbox - we've all seen them from time to time.     Paypal has let their customers and themselves down by choosing not to communicate with us about this before now when the means - and the imperative - was there to do so.   I'm sure that eventually - in a week, or a month or whatever - all this will be behind us and withdrawals will work smoothly again.  Nevertheless, for us long-standing professional customers this will leave a bad taste and personally I'm not sure if I will ever feel as confident about my Paypal balances again.   Not your finest hour, Paypal.  Now, rant over so let's have a proper reply from you David, including some credible information about the status of the system and the estimated time to get it working properly. ... View more

Before you can withdraw funds you'll have to attach and verify a bank account to your paypal account.  It's fairly painless but takes a few days.  Go to Profile > My Money.   ... View more

The smallest we've done is about £35 and the largest around £300 - all with the same delay.  Another thought, bearing in mind some people have apparently had no delays, is whether it's different with one bank versus another.  Our business account is with Santander.  I have another Paypal account linked to a personal account at Nationwide and I'm toying with the idea of trying a withdrawal to them to see if it's different.  After all, if there's any financial institution that's more of a shambles than Paypal it's probably Santander Business. ... View more

Are you saying that the balance in your Paypal account is showing as zero?  If your balance is greater than zero, you can withdraw up to that much.  But Paypal isn't responsible for getting back the money for the stuff you returned; that's up to the seller.   Taking one item you bought and returned, did you pay for this item with Paypal?  Did the seller agree to refund you via Paypal (the normal way)?  If you go through your paypal transaction list and find the original transaction where you paid for the goods, does it say 'refunded' next to it?  If not, then the seller has not refunded you.  By the way, if you don't pay using Paypal, sellers are unlikely to refund through Paypal.  For example, if you sent a cheque they will probably send you one.   Generally, the way to return stuff bought on eBay (and paid for with Paypal) is to use the eBay Returns process.  This creates a record in the seller's Resolution Centre and provides a link for them to process the refund when the goods are received back.  But...  the system doesn't do it automatically; the seller has to choose to process the refund.  So, if your Paypal transaction list doesn't show the payment partially or completely refunded you need to get on to the seller and remind them to process your refund.  If they don't respond you'll have to open a Paypal dispute, which is hateful but it will get the seller to deal with it.  (You could open an eBay dispute but you'd have to open it as 'item not received' or something because eBay doesn't have an 'item-received-and-then returned-but-not-refunded-as-agreed' dispute type...   If the money has been refunded, then it might have been a 'partial refund' - e.g. the seller retained the original postage costs.  In this case, you'll have some of the money back and you can withdraw that.   By the way, if the goods are of any value it's a very good idea to send them back using Recorded Delivery so that - if you do have to raise a dispute - you can prove the goods were returned. ... View more

My experience so far has been that every withdrawal we've made has appeared as cleared funds in the bank after almost exactly the number of hours stated in the email - 21 hours or 24 hours, whichever.   ... View more

I'm no fan of Paypal any more than you are but when quoting the legislation remember it applies to BANKS and Paypal isn't a bank.  In fact, a statement from Paypal issued in January and published on the Tamebay blog said:   ..."The way we are implementing Faster Payments in Britain is significant. We are in the process of becoming the first ever “Direct Agency” member of the Faster Payment scheme. This will mean that although PayPal is not a UK Bank it will give its UK customers the same almost instant real time money transfers to bank accounts as offered by UK banks in the Faster Payments scheme. Other organisations use the Faster Payments system in a different way, delaying the transfer of funds by a number of hours. PayPal took the decision to be the first non-UK bank to provide near real-time transfers to give our customers the best possible experience. Unfortunately building and testing this has been significantly more complex and lengthy than expected, which is why we have not met the January deadline. However, we are working very closely with the Faster Payments scheme and our sponsor bank to complete the project, while ensuring the system works well given the large volume of payments handled by PayPal on behalf of its 14m UK customers. It will also mean that PayPal customers enjoy a far faster service than the new rules require...."   I think we all get it now - the system went live, the system isn't working properly, they're trying to fix it.   ... View more

We've done 9 withdrawals on this new system so far and the first 4 have all come through, each one about 24 hours after the request was made.  As I write, the next one is due to appear in about an hour's time. ... View more

From what I remember of being subject to the 21 day hold thing a long time ago, automatic release just about never works. Assuming you're selling on eBay, here's what you have to do:  send everything Recorded Delivery and upload the tracking number to eBay.  Check the Royal Mail website and as soon as it says the item has been delivered ring Paypal with the tracking number and tell them to release the money.  Stay on the phone while they do it.   Or, as soon as you see positive feedback from the person you sold to, ring Paypal.  This means it's worth sending a message to customers explaining (nicely) that you won't be paid until they leave feedback.   When this was happening to us, I was ringing them once a day with a list of transactions to be released and I kept a spreadsheet with sale date, ship date, tracking number and delivered date.   ... View more