Refund pending - how long should this take?

[thedss123]

I sent a payment to a friend, accidentally under the payment type: "goods and services". He returned me the funds, so I could pay again under Family and Friends. The return is "pending". How long should this take?

[kernowlass]

@thedss123 

Pending refunds can only happen for two reasons.

1. The seller has issued a refund from their bank account which takes time to process.

2. You funded the payment to the seller using bank transfer. What PayPal do here is credit the recipient on your behalf (so there is no delay in despatching your item). Then if you receive a refund in the meantime they are unable to issue this until the original bank transfer completes.

https://www.paypal.com/cshelp/article/where-is-my-refund-help130

[thedss123]

Thanks for your answer! Actually the payment was not made via bank transfer - I made the payment via my bank card but not via transfer , or is that what you meant ?

[kernowlass]

@thedss123 

Which means it was option 1 then doesn't it?

If you sent a goods/services payment then your friend would have been charged a fee.

That fee is NOT returned as part of any refund made, so if your payment was all the monies that they had in their balance then they would not have had enough to 'fund' the refund. So it would have been taken from their bank as an echeque and you would both need to await echeque clearance.