Why did my instant transfer become an echeck after successful instant transfers previously?

[jdj7]

I sent money to a friend as I have for months in the past. After an ordeal in which Paypal for some reason opted not to use my balance and instead take the full amount from my bank account (which was not sufficient to cover the amount, and resulted in a fee, a very late rent payment, and much grief on my part), I called customer service and they told me I had sent an echeck. So not only did I supposedly choose to have the full amount pulled from my bank when my balance was my preferred method of payment, but it was also not an instant transfer. They apparently could not change it so the balance would be taken and the correct amount taken from my bank, so I had to transfer my money to the bank, which was an instant transfer with no delays. I have a credit card and a bank account connected to my account, and the expiration date was correct on my credit card.

It has now been 13 days since my original transfer, which was supposed to have been completed on the second. My friend has yet to recieve the money. It took paypal five days to send the request to my bank, instead of the three before they send the request again. It has been five days since then and the money is nowhere to be seen.

I don't understand why it the did not use my balance, and I do not understand why they made me pay with an echeck. Upon checking to see if there were any settings while sending money or in general account settings that would cause an echeck to occur, I could find none. This is not a hold since they are supposed to alert me of such a hold. My friend has not changed any settings to only accept echecks, nor could I find such setting anywhere on Paypal. I don't think I did anything different from previous transfers and nothing has changed. At this point I think Paypal messed up and refuses to acknowledge it, and I want to close my account. What is going on with this echeck?

[PayPal_AshleyM]

Hey jdj7,

There are a few of different factors that could have caused this. Most commonly, eChecks are triggered after we encounter some sort of issue pulling funds from your bank. If you had any transactions fail or have to be represented recently, this may have caused the eCheck, as we want to ensure the funds can be captured, as opposed to sending the money first and waiting for the transfer to complete from your bank.

This could also be related to our internal security noticing risk, and blocking certain payment options due to this. Regrettably, there's no way to stop our internal security from doing this, and the only option would be to choose a different option during the payment process to pay.

Regarding eChecks, these kinds of payments can't be split (such as taking your balance and charging the rest as an eCheck). We have to request the full amount, and this would be why the balance was bypassed for the full amount to the bank. I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. Typically, these take 3-5 business days to clear, but they can take up to 10 based on the bank's processing time.

- Ashley M