Payment went through as eCheck, not instant transfer. Why?

[Kcep2018]

Hi. For a long time I have been making instant transfer payments via paypal with only my bank account linked. Last week, I was under a lot of stress due to my upcoming marriage (on halloween this year...as in this coming wednesday) to find a dress to go with the costume I was going to wear to the reception. Finally found the perfect one on ebay, so I bought and paid as typical. But it somehow was sent as an eCheck and not the NORMAL instant transfer that normally happens. My bank account shows that the money was cleared two days ago, yet paypal and ebay both show that it is still pending, even though the estimated date was today, 26 Oct. Now I am stressed out again because there is no way this dress will be shipped and delivered on time. My question is why in the name of God is this going on? Did paypal change something?!

[sharpiemarker]

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@Kcep2018 wrote:
Hi. For a long time I have been making instant transfer payments via paypal with only my bank account linked. Last week, I was under a lot of stress due to my upcoming marriage (on halloween this year...as in this coming wednesday) to find a dress to go with the costume I was going to wear to the reception. Finally found the perfect one on ebay, so I bought and paid as typical. But it somehow was sent as an eCheck and not the NORMAL instant transfer that normally happens. My bank account shows that the money was cleared two days ago, yet paypal and ebay both show that it is still pending, even though the estimated date was today, 26 Oct. Now I am stressed out again because there is no way this dress will be shipped and delivered on time. My question is why in the name of God is this going on? Did paypal change something?!

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The Instant Transfer option was not available because you do not have a card linked (PayPal ended up not fronting the money on your purchase*) and it went eCheck instead so have to wait for funds to transfer. Who knows why exactly it suddenly did not front your payment while it did before but generally it is not a new PayPal change in theory; maybe you surpassed the number of times the system allowed it to work without a card. It usually takes up to 3-6 business days for an eCheck to clear and the money to post in the recipient’s PayPal account.

*PayPal waits the 3-6 business days for the transfer to complete while they front the money for your purchase to the seller. That’s how Instant Transfers work.

[Kcep2018]

Hi and thanks, but I don't buy it. I have been making purchases via paypal for well over a year with only my bank account linked to it. It is now the 27th, past the "estimated" day, and well past the day the money was cleared from my account and it still stuck in pending. I qm qbout to send more money to this seller because Ibam desperate for this item at this point. It took a long time to find this thing and now this prrpetual pending twilight zone nightmare is happening to pile on even more stress. Thanks for your help.

[nevadasmith]

This credit card link has been in place for some time now,I don't know how you manage to get around it.

could it be the size of the payment?

[sharpiemarker]

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@Kcep2018 wrote:
Hi and thanks, but I don't buy it. I have been making purchases via paypal for well over a year with only my bank account linked to it. It is now the 27th, past the "estimated" day, and well past the day the money was cleared from my account and it still stuck in pending. I qm qbout to send more money to this seller because Ibam desperate for this item at this point. It took a long time to find this thing and now this prrpetual pending twilight zone nightmare is happening to pile on even more stress. Thanks for your help.

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You can have the seller cancel the eCheck, add a card to your PayPal acct and then make the purchase again. Quicker than waiting.

[umouklo]

This just happened to me under slightly different circumstances.  The bottom line is that Paypal needs to make it really clear that the payment is not going to be instant.  They need to do this with a giant flashing warning.  Having 100 transactions process one way and then the 101st go a different route for any reason makes no sense.  As the user above described (and as in my case) it could be absolutely urgent that the funds move instantly.  But if Paypal must use mysterious algorithms to change from an instant payment to an echeck that takes days to process then at least adequately warn the user and let them choose a different payment method or even service.  

[Svails]

Ya $43 fee to use the card!  NO

[Lawrencerich]

I have exactly the same problem! For the last 5 years my payments have been instantly received, but since July 7th they have suddenly been changed to e-checks and are taking more than a week to transfer. I called Paypal and they cannot explain why this is happening. I have never been overdrawn, and I have never wanted to use a debit or credit card because I don't want to pay extra. Why has my instant transfer method suddenly been replaced with e-checks that take up to 10 days to credit? It just doesn't make any sense. I hate this.

[cama07]

The same issue just happened to me on July the 30th as well. I've had this account since 2011 and only have my bank account linked to it this entire time and I've never had this happen before. Now the bills that I was trying to pay on time are going to be late. I guess I'll just add this to the list of messed up things that happened in the year 2020. SMH