Why do all my payments go to Pending or Reject immediately?

[NaokiB4U]

To preface, I've been using PayPal since 2007. Recently I had a snafu with an online retailer that charged me 5 times over by mistake due to their website glitch. They rectified this and refunded me no issue. Since then my PayPal now has some sort of unnecessary security flag that has been disrupting my online purchasing. Every purchase I make goes into the "Pending" state first and I get an email saying "Your payment to XXXXX is pending." Every. Time. Most of the time the purchase goes through after a few minutes, but other times I don't even get there and I just get rejected by big box retailers! So far PayPal has prevented me making basic purchases from Target and Wallmart! What's the deal here? How do I let the security bot powers that be that my account is fine and I should be able to purchase what I want when I want? Is there a solution for this? Or does this issue resolve itself over time? Do I need to create a brand new account? 

[NaokiB4U]

Bump, looking for some help here. 

[PayPal_Bindu]

Hello @NaokiB4U 

Welcome to the PayPal Help Community and thanks for your post!

I am sorry to hear about the issues with your payments. I do understand that you want your payments to go through quickly.  As a part of security measures, PayPal reviews every transaction before its approved and may decline for variety of reasons. While the payment is under review, it will be in pending status. If the system finds the payment free from risk, the funds will be removed from the pending status and made available to the receiver. You can refer this page for the possible reasons and suggestions for the payment declines. 

I hope this information helps you,

Bindu

[NaokiB4U]

Thanks for the reply! So I did some testing and discovered that the issue is apparently with using a specific credit card. I tried making a purchase with the same card, rejected. Switched to direct from my bank, worked with zero issues. Now the weird part is I contacted my credit card provider and they said there are absolutely no security holds on their end, which tells me the issue lies somewhere with PayPal having a false flag. Would you happen to know if I were to remove my CC and re-add that it would fix the issue? Only reason I haven't done it yet is that some recurring payments are coming up (and those never have issues so there's that at least). 

[PayPal_Meghan]

Hi @NaokiB4U, 

Thanks for reaching back out with what you found! 

I understand you've been testing and found your payment declines/reviews usually occur with one specific card. I would not recommend removing and re-adding your card, as this wouldn't change anything. A card can only be removed and re-added a maximum of three times. If you've had any recently declined transactions, either by your bank or PayPal, it could cause heightened security. Over time, you'll see things go back to normal. However, to help establish a good baseline for your account, I always recommend logging in from one consistent device with your location services turned on. 

If you continue to receive declined messages/are unable to use that card, don't hesitate to reach out to Customer Support to see if there's anything they can do. You can review the different options to contact Customer Support on our Help Center here: How do I contact PayPal's Customer Service?

I hope you can use the card soon! 

- Meghan

[NaokiB4U]

Thanks Meghan. So if I understand correctly, I just need to give it time? It's been over a month at this point and its getting frustrating, but from what I understand it was supposed to be temporary. Are there any specific things I can do to speed up the process? Maybe not use the card for a hot minute and use something else? I'll check again and see if I need to contact support directly but I really don't want to have to bug them considering this seems like such a simple issue to resolve.