All about payment holds, and what they mean to youPayPal hold policy – what does it mean for you?
PayPal Payment Holds
We're committed to providing you and your customers with a fast and secure payment service while keeping our prices competitive. To keep ourselves on track, we've established a Funds Availability Policy.
We might be throwing some new words at you here, but we promise to explain them in full detail. As part of our Funds Availability Policy, "reserves" may apply to certain accounts. A reserve is a percentage of your payments that’ll be released at a later date. A related term is “payment hold.” A payment hold is a type of reserve in which PayPal holds 100% of the funds received for a specified amount of time.
Payment hold - a longer definition
A payment hold is an amount of money that belongs to you, set aside by PayPal, while we make sure that your customers are satisfied. The funds for payments received are held temporarily as a pending balance in your account, and released at the end of the given hold timeframe. The funds may be released early if PayPal determines that the transaction has been fulfilled and your customers are satisfied.
Why does PayPal hold payments?
PayPal holds payments to ensure that sellers have sufficient funds in their account if, for example, a customer files a dispute. This allows PayPal to provide a fast and secure payment service to you and your customers while keeping our prices competitive.
We know this is a change in the way we do business with you and we hope you understand that, if you incur a payment hold, you haven’t done anything wrong. In deciding whether to apply payment holds, we review many factors including transaction activity, business type, and customer disputes.
Why would PayPal hold my payments?
Payment holds may be applied to all transactions in your account if PayPal perceives a risk associated with your account. Holds may be placed on your account if:
* You’ve been a PayPal member for less than 90 days or a new seller and you have limited selling activity
* You have a high rate of customer disputes
* You’re selling in a high risk category or industry such as, but not limited to, tickets, travel, gift certificates, computers, consumer electronics, or cell phones
* You have a spike in selling activities or begin selling in a category without an established history
If your account is subject to payment holds, PayPal will provide you with notice specifying the terms. The terms may require that the amounts received into your account are held for a certain period of time.
If PayPal places payment holds on your account, the funds will be shown as “pending” in your PayPal balance.
When does PayPal release payment holds?
Payments will be held in a pending balance for a certain time period. For example, if you receive a $100 payment (after fees), the $100 will be held in a pending balance for that amount of time. After then, the money will be available for withdrawal.
The money may be released sooner if:
1. We can confirm that the item was delivered
2. Your buyer leaves positive feedback. (Applies only to eBay items.)
To get access to this money more quickly, please process this order right away and communicate with your customers early and often.
What can I do to avoid payment holds?
* Process your orders right away
* Communicate early and often with your buyers
* Resolve all customer disputes quickly
I’m a new seller. Will payments I receive be held?
If you’re a new seller with PayPal, we may hold your payments until you establish payments history and a record of good performance.
I’m a tenured PayPal seller. Will payments I receive be held?
If you don’t have a record of good performance or have limited selling activity or other indication of potential performance problems, your payments may be held.
Also hers another tid bit of info if your using Paypal to print out shipping lables. Paypal will hold the amount of the shipping you pay for 3-4 days so your account will look like you have more money in than you actually do. I found this out when I looked at my account and saw I had $1,150 then the very next day I only had $980.00 when I went and looked to see I saw where they had processed the payment for shipping on items I had shipped three days earlier, glad I didn't pull the trigger on a guitar I was looking at the previous night... I called Paypal and told them that they needed to add a (pending transactions balance) to the account tab... don't know if they will actually do it though.
