why send an echeque when my bank account has enough funds?

[edghog77]

Like many others it seems I have also fallen foul of the echeque 'feature'. 

I won an ebay item yesterday and went through the same process as always, only to find that despite my bank account or debit card having plenty of funds an echeque was sent delaying the sending of my eagerly anticipated ipod by up to a week .

Apart from being exceedingly annoyed, once I had calmed down I couldn't find any way of finding out how or why this has happened and there doesn't seem to be any way of altering the payment to an instant one which should have been the case.

Please, please someone explain what is going on and furthermore stop it from happening again!

[PayPal_Wayne]

Hi there edghog77,

When payments are being sent our system decided if it will be an 'instant payment' or an eCheque payment.

An 'instant payment' is when we pay on your behalf to speed things up. The clearing timeframes from your bank is the exactly the same as the timeframe for an eCheque. The difference between the two is we wait to be paid on an instant payment and your seller waits to be paid on an eCheque.

There are times that you can change the funding source and select a credit/debit card.

Here’s how to change your payment method during checkout:

 - Click ‘More funding options’ under ‘Payment Method’ on the ‘Review Your Payment’ page.
 - Select the payment method you want and click ‘Continue.’

I hope this helps

Wayne

[Bryanjones63]

Hi, I'm new here and have found it helpful already but can you answer this please. Having read your reply it seems that I can only change the payment method at checkout. I assume that all Paypal payments are instant, that's why I use it. How can I tell in advance whether the payment is going to be instant or e-cheque? At the moment I'm in a situation where I would have been better off ringing the seller and completing the transaction by Switch card. And if this is going to happen regularly I may as well stop using Paypal altogether.

[PayPal_paula]

Hi Bryanjones63,

In the confirm your payment screen you will see the funding source of your payment and you will also see if the payment is going to be an instant payment. I do apologise for the long response but taught it best to give you all the information I have.

You may send payments to anyone with an email address using the following payment methods:

• PayPal Balance (Instant)
• Instant Bank Transfer (Instant)
• Debit or Credit card (Instant)
• eCheque (takes 5 - 7 working days)

1. Balance:

• Transfer to recipient occurs immediately
• If you have more than one positive currency balance, the entire amount will be funded from the selected currency.
• If the balance used to send the payment is insufficient, it may default to another currency balance depending on the amount of
funds available.

2. Instant Bank Transfer:

To perform an instant transfer from your bank account, you must have a debit card or credit card added to your PayPal account.

• Transfer to recipient occurs immediately
• If the amount in your PayPal balance is sufficient to fund the entire payment your bank account will not be used.
• To use Instant Bank Transfer, you must have added (and possibly confirmed) your bank account to your PayPal account.

3. Debit/Credit Card:

• The transfer occurs immediately
• If the amount in your PayPal balance and/or bank account is sufficient to fund the entire payment your credit card will not be used.

4. eCheque:

A transfer from your bank account. A credit or debit card or secondary bank account is not required for backup.
• This method of transferring money is NOT immediate.
• eCheque payments takes 5 - 7 working days to complete. This time frame refers to the completion of the entire transfer, not simply the time it takes for funds to be debited from the bank.
• When you send money by eCheque, PayPal will debit your bank account for the full payment amount, regardless of your PayPal account balance.

I hope this helps

Paula

[Bryanjones63]

All the advertising pushes the fact that Paypal is the instant payment option. I don't expect to have to choose each time, I don't expect the e-cheque to be the default option. Think I'll just stop using Paypal, seems much easier.

[AkiwiTail]

I'm having a similar problem as well and it is very annoying indeed.

In my case, I was under an active subscription to a web service that recurs everymonth

For the initial payment, I made it with my account balance. Which I am happy with. 

Unfortunately, after the first month ended Paypal decided to use eCheque to pay for my next month's subsciption.

Of course that is gonna take 4-6 days to clear and of course my subscription is automatically terminated by the other end for not paying.

Please bear in mind that I do have plenty of balance in my paypal account and I am very annoyed by the fact that PayPal automatically change my recurring payment method to eCheque without my consent.