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Paypal is a popular online platform you can use to receive and send money anywhere in the world excluding countries where their services are banned. In PayPal’s efforts to maintain credibility and stop dubious activities on their platform, they can sometimes place your hard-earned funds on hold or move your money to Pending Balance. The question is what do you do in situations like this to get your PayPal’s funds released?
This frustrating situation happens a lot of times on Paypal, and most of the time, it happens for the following reasons.
1. Your PayPal account has not been properly verified.
2. Your PayPal account has been inactive for a while.
3. Your account receives a huge sum of money which is higher than usual.
4. Paypal detected or sensed high-risk involvement in your transaction. High-risk are red flags to Paypal and hence your funds are placed on hold.
From the experiences of PayPal users, the most recurring of these frustrating account limitations is a situation where their Paypal funds are moved into their Paypal accounts pending balance, and held for 21 days before the funds can be released for withdrawal. When this unfortunate situation occurs, many Paypal users are left with no other option than to wait for three weeks before they can access their funds.
Well, whatever your concerns or PayPal issues may be, in this article we will address all of them. You have to follow the solutions contained in this write-up closely to reclaim your PayPal funds without issues. But before we proceed, I will give you a brief note on how Paypal payment works. This will explain the reasons behind your PayPal restrictions, and subsequently, you will learn to avoid these restrictions.
How Paypal payment Works
There are two payment methods on Paypal. However, if your own Paypal account allows both payment methods, you are required to choose one of the options before completing any transaction on your account. On the other hand, if your account has only one of these two methods, you don’t need to make any choice because only one payment method/option is available by default.
The two Payment Methods are:
1. Goods and services (GNS) payment option.
2. Family and friends (FNF) Payment option.
The good news is that all personal payment accounts have these two payment methods. Notwithstanding, depending on the country or location you used while creating your PayPal account, it may not have both payment options on it. In other words, not all Paypal business accounts have these two methods.
How Paypal Family and Friends Option Work
Your PayPal Family and Friends payment option should be used only when you are sending funds to your friend, or family member using PayPal. You can also use it if you have established a level of trust between you and maybe any of your clients. Although, it is not always advisable to use it on random strangers.
The terms and conditions on PayPal clearly explained that any payment made utilizing the family and friends method cannot be reversed or retrieved. This is because the family and friends payment option doesn’t have PayPal’s “purchase protection” except in special cases where you used your bank to make the payment.
Features of PayPal’s Family and Friends Payment Method
• Automatically, on family and friends payment method, the sender pays the charge involved in sending the funds. For instance, if you want to send $300, you are charged $10 for it. So, you total sum, you will have to send $310.
• Money sent through family and friends cannot be transferred to PayPal’s pending balance. Instead, they are placed on hold for about 24 hours before the users can access it.
• Most of the time, the sender cannot recover or reclaim funds sent through the family and friends payment option.
How PayPal Goods and Services Payment Method Works
This is the second method on PayPal’s payment option for personal accounts. This option is usually used by PayPal users buying something online from total strangers. Although this option is intricate and comes with a lot of issues, it has PayPal’s ‘Purchase Protection’.
Most of the Pending Funds complaints we get are usually from people using this Payment option on PayPal. Let’s discuss further two of the issues caused by using PayPal’s goods and services payment method, and how they can be managed.
a. Payment on Pending Balance: This is very frustrating and sadly, a lot of PayPal users suffer from this malady. It is usually kept pending for 21-days. If you don’t know what to do, it means you have to wait until three weeks elapse. Then the funds will become accessible.
b. Payment on hold. If Paypal funds are placed on hold, it is usually for a specific time. PayPal doesn’t always specify how long your funds will be kept on hold.
Features of PayPal’s Goods and Services Payment Method
1. As a PayPal user, you can reclaim, retrieve, or recover payments Made through this method if you are not overly satisfied with the goods and the services you received. The sad reality is that some fraudsters do this funds retrieval utilizing PayPal’s ‘Payment Protection’ even when the goods or services purchased were done well and delivered successfully.
2. Funds sent using the PayPal Goods and Services Payment option are usually placed on hold or Pending Balance. This largely depends on some of the reasons we talked about in the preceding paragraphs. Although, the funds are not kept on Pending Balance forever. Immediately the sender confirms that the goods or services he/she purchased have been delivered, the funds are released to them in some hours.
3. Unlike the family and friends payment option, the Goods and Services Payment option compels the receiver to pay for the cost of the transaction. So, the sender is charged nothing for the money sent using the Goods and Services Payment Method on Paypal. For example, if you send $300 to someone using this payment option, you are charged $300 and the receiver gets $290.
I believe that you can now tell the difference between these two payment options on PayPal. From all indications, the family and friends payment option saves you from stress on PayPal. Even though it is risky, you wouldn’t have to battle with restrictions and pending balance issues.
Now, for those who have issues withheld or pending funds on their PayPal accounts, let’s take a look at how you can get PayPal to release your funds. Just follow the instructions below and ask questions using the comment box if you have any.
How to Release Locked, Withheld, or Pending PayPal Balance in 24 hours
Just like we have already explained, when you receive payment from PayPal’s Goods and Services Payment Method, your funds could be placed on Pending Balance. In such cases, follow the tricks below to get your funds back in a matter of 30-59 hours.
1. Make use of the Family and friends payment Method
This payment option is not usually encouraged on PayPal. This is because the buyer or whoever is sending the funds can get into trouble using this payment method. The family and friends payment option doesn’t have PayPal’s ‘payment protection’ on it. So, you must establish a level of trust with your clients before you can use this payment option. If you are duped, you cannot retrieve or reclaim your funds.
As a user of PayPal, try to build trust between you and your clients. If you can get them to trust you, they can use the family and friends payment option when sending money to you. And this will clear the issues of withheld or Pending Balance on your PayPal account. Most of the time, any payment made with the Family and Friends payment option goes straight to your PayPal Balance without any restriction of any kind.
2. Buyer/Sender Should Mark Item as Received on Sent Payment
The truth remains that not all PayPal accounts have the Family and Friends Payment option. So, for those who don’t have the option, this is what you should do if you encounter issues of Pending Balance and withheld funds. If you are the receiver and you know you’ve delivered your goods and services appropriately, tell the sender to mark “item as received” and your funds will be available to you in less than 50hours.
Below are steps the sender should take to achieve this.
• Sender should log in to his/her account (Using PayPal’s web version, not the app) and click on PayPal transaction.
• Then go down the page and you will see a blue icon/link which reads “Mark Shipment as received”.
• You will be redirected to another page that reads “confirm order received”. Click on confirm and the problem is resolved.
Your PayPal funds will be available in a matter of minutes. Paypal will send an email to users indicating that all issues have been confirmed and resolved.
3. Make Complaints to PayPal
This is most suitable when you have PayPal funds on hold for 21-days. It is not always advisable to create disputes on PayPal transactions. There are possibilities that when you do, your account will be placed on hold or on temporary limit.
So, you are advised to use this method with caution. You must be in a good relationship with your buyer or whoever sent those PayPal funds before you can use this method. You must use this method within a day (24 hours). Don’t allow it to exceed 24 hours, to avoid account limits. The steps you should take to compose and make this dispute on PayPal have been enumerated below and remember, this complaint can only be made by the sender. (Whoever sent the funds before it was withheld).
1. Let the sender sign into his PayPal account (this log-in must be done with the PayPal web version, not the app).
2. Then select the PayPal transaction.
3. Go down the PayPal page, and you will find a blue icon/link that reads “Resolution Centre”.
4. Choose the type of PayPal issue you intend to resolve and fill in the needed details.
5. After step 4, be patient and wait for some hours.
6. After some hours of waiting, I went to the resolution center again.
7. Select case ID and scroll down the page.
8. Tap on the close case button and you are good to go.
The money will be moved to your PayPal account’s available balance and you should wait for a minimum of 5hours, or a maximum of 6 hours before doing any transaction with the money. This is because your immediate move to use the funds may give Red Flags to PayPal’s security system, and they may withhold your funds yet again.
How to Prevent PayPal for Pending or Withholding Your Funds Next Time
Apparently, PayPal users are bound to have issues with their funds. We have to understand that PayPal does this a lot of times to ensure a safe platform for your money. So, the million-dollar question is what to do in the future to stop PayPal from seizing your funds anytime in the future.
Below are enumerated some of the measures you can take to prevent or minimize some of these sad occurrences.
1. Don’t use address (remove address) for payments that don’t need shipping.
2. Be very mindful of the kind of goods and services you proffer. Remind whoever is sending funds to you to avoid using unrelated and unnecessary descriptions.
3. Make efforts to resolve transaction issues early enough. Make refunds and tender your proof of service when necessary and you must do it on time.
4. Retain good records on PayPal. You can do this by ensuring you have a lot of successful payments on your account.
5. If your location, account, or country of your fund sender supports the Family and Friends payment option, tell the sender you use it in sending funds to you.
7. Build trust with your clients and the people you transact with. This would clear all doubts and make it easy for you to do business with them.