Why is Paypal suddenly NOT allowing Instant Bank Transfer payments for Ebay auctions?

[glo1]

So  - why is Paypal suddenly NOT allowing Instant Bank Transfer payment for Ebay auctions?  I have used this method for a long time -- and also sometimes pay with my back-up funding source credit card.  All accounts are in good standing, however, today Paypal will NOT let me use the Instant Bank Transfer option to pay for Ebay auctions.   I am very aggravated  with this -- as I do not want to put payment on a credit card and I do not want to wait several days for an E-check to clear, either.  Has anyone else had this problem or know what's going on?  Thanks.

[PayPal_Andy]

glo1-  I think I've answered this question somewhere on here, but I have a few too many posts to easily find it. 🙂

Here's are the two biggest reasons that the Instant Transfer may be blocked (and you'd need to call our customer service to get a definite answer).

1)  Your credit card is set to expire in the next month or so.  Since that card is your back up funding to your bank, if the bank transfer should fail, by the time we complete the process your card has expired and we can't use it to charge as back up. You wouldn't be able to use Instant Transfer until the expiration date is updated.

2)  You have a lot of pending bank transfers and our system needs some of them to complete before allowing you further transfers.  If all the pending ones should fail (for whatever reason) and we've allowed more to complete, it could potentially be a big issue to be resolved.  So it blocks use of the bank until things clear a bit.

Of course it could just be our normal security model, and with that there's really no workarounds.  But again you'd need to contact our customer service to get an exact answer.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

Andy

[glo1]

Thanks for your suggestions but I don't believe either is correct.  The current expiration date of 2014 for the credit card is on file with Paypal -- and I had no other pending transactions thru Paypal at the time for that to be a reason.  All of my transactions are relatively small amounts and I have money in bank account to cover it -- that is not an issue.  I have been using Paypal for 8 years now and have never had this issue before -- where they won't let me use the Instant Bank Transfer option to pay.  I will call customer service tomorrow and see what type of response I get from them.  Any other possible reasons for this to be happening?  Thanks for your reply.

[glo1 · Accepted solution]

UPDATE:  I called Paypal earlier and spoke with a very nice customer service representative, Lindsey.  I explained what happened - that Paypal was suddenly not allowing me to use the Instant Bank Transfer option for payment.  She said she has had several cases of this happening recently.  She could find nothing wrong with my account or transaction history - and verified the correct info on my account. 

She "ran an update report on my account" that she said has not been done recently - and thought that would fix the problem - but couldn't know for sure until I tried another Ebay purchase.  Surprise  - yay - it worked!  I just made an Ebay purchase and the Instant Bank Transfer option now works again - and is my default payment method.... 

So if this happens to anyone else, you should verify that all of your account info is correct -- and ask customer service to "run an update report on your account"  - and this may solve your problem....   Hope this helps others that may be having this problem.

[PayPal_Andy]

Well glo1, I am very, very happy that you got your payment to go through and contacting our customer service worked :D.

One thing that I would like to make clear to anyone else who's having this problem (and I'm sure there's a few of you).  There are usually a few things that could possibly be blocking your payments (the two that I named were just the most likely from my experience) and our customer service has some basic troubleshooting things that it can do to hopefully get the payment to go through. 

But if you call in and ask for a "update report on your account", you're gonna get some massively confused agents because that's not the official name of any process in PayPal. 🙂  While I'm glad Lindsey helped out and got things done, I'm hoping her spin on our troubleshooting techniques doesn't cause others more issues.  If you're having troubles making payments, just give us a call and let us know that and we'll see what tricks we can (hopefully) pull outta our (theoretical) magic bag.

Again, very glad the job got done though.

Andy

[kimnabq]

I am also having this problem.  I called customer service and they said instant pay was available.  I have logged out and back in and still not able to use it even with two credit card back ups!  Any other ideas? 

[OasisXy]

Same here! Debit account is linked, confirmed, email is confirmed, signed in and out repeatedly...All my information is correct! I need to buy my boyfriend's birthday present and send it to him in college in the States, but I have no other way of doing it than with paypal... I heard about a Paypal debit card...but I have no time... My bank took a month to give me my debit card, then another week to give me my pin, then paypal took 5 days to link the account, now I have three days to send the gifts! HELP!

[monkeyman]

All that's great but where do you find the phone # to get help I have money in the paypal account and it went to an e-check

Jay

[dennisblues2]

what is going on all my credit cards & my banks debit card are no longer on my pay pal account. they where on yesterday. who gave you or any one the authorty to take my cards off. now you can tell the people on ebay why they can't get paid. dennisblues2 aka dennis overend

[sassyone]

Why is paypal refusing to allow instant payments????  I've been doing this for FOREVER...have a verified account, no disputes, no nothing!  What is going on????  I have payments I need to make NOW and cannot do so.  😞