Paypals 21 day rule

jaksden · 9 May 2010 at 4:03PM

Please can anyone help advise me. I am a small seller on ebay. Paypal have introduced this 21 day rule. I understand that as long as you send your item by a trackable method such as Recorded post and your buyer leaves feedback then your funds will be released. Unfortunately despite sending 3 feedback reminders my buyers have not responded. All my items are trackable and sent within a few days, but my funds are still being with held. It seems to me that paypal are benefiting from this gaining interest on the money. As I have also fees to pay through paypal next week for my monthly invoice there is not enough funds released in order to pay it , which means they will be taking the difference from my bank account whilst still holding the rest of my money. Please does anyone have any advice?:eek::A

soolin · 9 May 2010 at 4:10PM

jaksden wrote: »

Please can anyone help advise me. I am a small seller on ebay. Paypal have introduced this 21 day rule. I understand that as long as you send your item by a trackable method such as Recorded post and your buyer leaves feedback then your funds will be released. Unfortunately despite sending 3 feedback reminders my buyers have not responded. All my items are trackable and sent within a few days, but my funds are still being with held. It seems to me that paypal are benefiting from this gaining interest on the money. As I have also fees to pay through paypal next week for my monthly invoice there is not enough funds released in order to pay it , which means they will be taking the difference from my bank account whilst still holding the rest of my money. Please does anyone have any advice?:eek::A

Yes firstly and most urgently, stop emailing your buyers. Harrassing for feedback is a sure fire way of not getting any.

The payment will be released after 21 days anyway and if you can track to delivery (and it shows as signed for online) then you could try phoning paypal and see if they won't release funds earlier for you.

cyberbob · 9 May 2010 at 4:11PM

Its not a new rule its been in place for 2 years. Paypal are not getting interest off the money thats just a myth. If your buyers are not leaving feedback all you can do is wait for the 21 days and your money will be released.

I must admit if I had had 3 feedback reminders off you the chances are I wouldn't be leaving feedback. Feedback is voluntary if you hassle people for it the liklihood is one person might take exception and neg you. You don't need to send an item tracked to gt your money released by paypal only if you want paypal seller protection.

Did you leave feedback for them first that might have meade them happier to leave you FB on arrival

macfly · 9 May 2010 at 4:31PM

I agree with the two of you, but the bit about interest puzzles me. I've read a few times that paypal make no gain from the money in their accounts, but if they don't they are foolish. I'm not suggesting this is the reason behind their rules for one minute. However all cash rich businesses I know of do make interest on their deposits. Cash flow control is very highly paid.

soolin · 9 May 2010 at 4:41PM

macfly wrote: »

I agree with the two of you, but the bit about interest puzzles me. I've read a few times that paypal make no gain from the money in their accounts, but if they don't they are foolish. I'm not suggesting this is the reason behind their rules for one minute. However all cash rich businesses I know of do make interest on their deposits. Cash flow control is very highly paid.

I'm sure they would if they could. I always understood that it was one of those regulations that meant if they placed it on deposit it put them into a different category of third party providers, so it was better for them not to obtain interest.

Something like that anyway, but basically to protect themselves against other more stringent regulations rather than out of any 'goodness' on their part.

cyberbob · 9 May 2010 at 4:46PM

macfly wrote: »

I agree with the two of you, but the bit about interest puzzles me. I've read a few times that paypal make no gain from the money in their accounts, but if they don't they are foolish. I'm not suggesting this is the reason behind their rules for one minute. However all cash rich businesses I know of do make interest on their deposits. Cash flow control is very highly paid.

I cant find the link at the moment there is an article somewhere (i'll see if i can find it) but under British financial regulations paypal are not allowed to earn interest on the hold. The US is different as they do but they hold the money in a separate fund. I'll try and find it

i must sdmit if they did earn interest it wouldn't worry me as by bringing the hold in they increased buyer protection which makes buyers happy which gives me more sales

jaksden · 9 May 2010 at 4:49PM

Firstly I should have mentioned that I dont Harass buyers ..... Ive emailed for feedback over a long period of time, not in a matter of days or a week. But thanks for your comments... Paypal phonecalls to release a payment for an item cost me money. And they must be accruing interest on with held payments. Surely if Paypal and ebay are going to use the method of feedback as part of the criteria for releasing your money then they should make sure that they police this situation and perhaps a good idea would be to temporarily flag up on a customers account "unable to use your account until feedback Left for items received".

jaksden · 9 May 2010 at 4:52PM

Yes I always leave feedback for the buyer.

soolin · 9 May 2010 at 4:58PM

jaksden wrote: »

Firstly I should have mentioned that I dont Harass buyers ..... Ive emailed for feedback over a long period of time, not in a matter of days or a week. But thanks for your comments... Paypal phonecalls to release a payment for an item cost me money. And they must be accruing interest on with held payments. Surely if Paypal and ebay are going to use the method of feedback as part of the criteria for releasing your money then they should make sure that they police this situation and perhaps a good idea would be to temporarily flag up on a customers account "unable to use your account until feedback Left for items received".

It doesn't matter whether the feedback requests were over days or weeks, don't do it, EVER. If they haven't left feedback maybe there is a good reason. Also, do the items track to delivery when you check online?

As for paypal charging interest on retained amounts, please see other posts where we have gone off on a bit of a tangent about it.

jaksden · 9 May 2010 at 5:02PM

Well I think its probably going to kill it dead for me. Many thanks for all your comments.

RFW · 9 May 2010 at 5:09PM

cyberbob wrote: »

I cant find the link at the moment there is an article somewhere (i'll see if i can find it) but under British financial regulations paypal are not allowed to earn interest on the hold. The US is different as they do but they hold the money in a separate fund. I'll try and find it

i must sdmit if they did earn interest it wouldn't worry me as by bringing the hold in they increased buyer protection which makes buyers happy which gives me more sales

There are strange guidelines about interest. In the US afaik they hold the interest in a separate fund and this is repayable to anyone who has had monies held.
In the UK if you hold third party funds you aren't allowed to earn interest on it, Paypal is regulated by the FSA even though they are based in Luxembourg.

Having used Paypal in the US and had monies held, using postage via Paypal there speeded up the release as when an item was signed for it registered on their system and they released it. Then Ebay/Paypal and the USPS work better together than with RM here.
You do have the option to add tracking details within Paypal that may help in an earlier release of funds.

Paypals 21 day rule

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